Created pathways in our brains

We have not ben served gambling addictions on a plate. It did not come to us one night and when we woke up we said "yes gambling addiction. I think I will have a go at that". No, we trained for it. Like everyone we most likely had a win + we loved the feeling of that win wich created a yes ty we will have some more.  (= an emotional reaction that anchored the behaviour). It gets more complicated. Dopamine (s*x drugs and rock & roll chemical in your brain) release, spikes in your brain when you get to that emotional high that you want and the more we search for that high the more the dopamine starts to imbalance its release. When it is rebalancing you feel like you are having a headache+angst for the money you may have lost or the lies you told your family about where your money has gone etc.  In short, you feel like s**t till the next time you get high on the gambling.

You are scratching an itch. And the more you scratch it the more it infects. Why? You need more of the same to get on with the high or in short, the longer you scratch the longer it will take you to satisfy your feeling of scratching what itches.

What you need to do first is to realise and come to terms with is DOES IT MAKE YOU HAPPY TO GAMBLE? If you can answer NO to that question you have gone some way to recovery. I am not saying it is easy. As we speak you are being conditioned by society to love gambling to see it as normal to feel that everyone else is gambling constantly and why not you it is only a flutter? Gambling advertising is FAKE NEWS and it is never going to make you happy. It may only keep you feeling normal for a short while but you could be doing it all differently 

If you make the decision to do so.

Good luck in your recovery!