Let's start with the simple choice: Do you consider yourself to have a gambling problem affecting your happiness, security, relationships, finances, etc? (Yes or No)
Now, here is something a bit different: Do you have a "gambling problem" which you can sometimes control for years? Either you make enough income to call it "adult play", so you do not have real problems, and/or you simply stop for a long time. Then - months or years later - it gets worse again and you are in trouble.
Every gambler must have felt the bad impact of gambling on their daily lives, whether regarding family or finances or even mental problems and of course every gambler has their own way of solving it.
I personally have experienced bad things that really made life messy and the economy more complicated but slowly there was good solution in which to put things back in order and put pressure on myself.
As time went by everything returned to normal, no problems occurred and whatever I did in gambling no longer had bad impact on anything.
But what happened previously was very difficult to resolve and of course all of this is now valuable lesson and reminder that I must always be in control when I start to gamble.
(First question was above)
(Second question) Either way, when it's time to stop, how exactly do you do it? (For example) Change other habits, go new places, exercise more, stop drinking, simply "swear off" gambling... How exactly do you stop? Thank you.
The most effective way to reduce the intensity of gambling is to divert it to other activities that really drain your energy or activities that are really very important, such as doing business or trying to make money from trading.
From here feeling will emerge where gambling is no longer priority that is difficult to give up.
Although this does not guarantee to completely stop, it can be effective in reducing the intensity of excessive gambling.