When you have a gambling addiction, there is nothing worse than that trip back from the casino. When you are addicted to gambling, there is probably no feeling of despair worse than that. Driving home broke, depressed, guilty, and disgusted with oneself is something that you may understand if you are an addicted casino gambler.
On more occasions than not, you have most likely lost all your money in either the slot machines or any other table game. You more than likely spent more money that you budgeted for, and you may have made several trips to the ATM and emptied your bank account.
If you are a serious compulsive gambler, you may have used your credit cards in the ATM or taken out expensive cash advances at the casino cashier. This is when things really start getting from bad to worse.
You are not the only gambler who has done this. More than likely, a majority of those people on the ATM line were also spending more money than they planned on. These are people that may have experienced that same horrible drive home from the casino like you.
Most addicted gamblers do not want to leave the casino. The belief is that if you spend just a little bit more money, than you will at least win your money back.
The truth is, however, that most addicted gamblers are addicted to the action and the escape while gambling.
Those chemicals in the brain that are triggered while gambling, especially on addictive slot machines, vlt, fruit machines, or pokies are very powerful. When you leave the casino, these powerful chemicals stop, and you can crash emotionally and physically.
Combine this emotional and chemical crash, and the fact that you lost hundreds or thousands of dollars at the casino and you have a recipe for disaster.
It is no wonder that gambling addiction has the highest suicide rate of all addictions. It really makes sense when you think about it.
The drive home from the casino is probably the strongest, most powerful, and vivid emotion that you can remember if you are a casino gambler with a gambling addiction.
Remember this feeling when you are ready to get in your car for a "few hours of fun".
Michelle Tee M.A is a counselor, personal coach, and author of 111 Tips To Help Beat Your Gambling Addiction and reclaim your life.