Two types of Gamblers

They say that there are two types of compulsive gamblers...Action Gamblers...and Escape Gamblers.

There are some aspects of both of these 'types' that apply to me....but primarily, I gambled to escape.

Oh...it wasn't a conscious thing...I didn't say "I need to get away....I think I'll go to the casino".....

the thing was...sometimes i gambled...and I enjoyed it when I did.

but when I did....something happened to me.

Gambling was never much of a social thing for me....I didn't want to sit next to my husband, or a friend, and play a machine....I would wander off...alone...get my own spot...and start pressing the button pressing the button pressing the button.
and get into a zone.

even when I played 'action' games like Roulette or craps....it was just me and the game....I didn't see the other players...nothing....I was in a bubble.
time went away
everything else went away.

for a long time it was just something that I did from time to time
for fun

For me...gambling allowed me to escape, albeit temporarily, from grief, from responsibility, from the stress of daily life......any and all emotional pain.

I've heard of many people who used gambling to escape from physical pain as well.

but...it wasn't REALLY an escape.....it was a prison....

funny...I used gambling TO escape...yet...the most difficult thing I've ever done was escaping the hold that gambling had on me.