Message Font: Serif | Sans-Serif Subject: Re: Gambling
addiction. Date: 7/30/2008 12:16 AM Recommendations: 2 I agree
with those who say it's the addiction that's the problem, and
not the money.  Addiction is a deadly disease.  Addiction is not
about actions. It's about a persistent distorted reality. A
horribly distorted reality, at that -- one that is so painful
that the only solution the addict has been able to find is
[insert substance or action here].  The persistent distorted
reality starts with the perception of the self and works its way
outward to encompass literally everything else. Spouse, family,
neighbors, house, home, children, friends, animals.  Sometimes
it's called the "hole in the soul," and that is quite true. In
her, there is something eating away at the place where you keep
your sense of your truest self. It's like looking in the mirror
and always seeing something ugly. Except you carry the image
with you all the time and it never goes away except when you
lose yourself in the addictive a