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Gambling discussion / Re: Can an addicted gambler help his gambling addictions all by himself?
« Last post by luckyledger on Today at 02:02:31 AM »Im with you. Such people are often sensitive and unsolicited criticism is rarely constructive and brings no results. People without addictions must learn to cultivate empathy and treat addicts with understanding. And probably this is also easier said than done because usually the first reaction to the action of a person's addiction is negative. But still since those facing addiction may not fully grasp their situation, expecting them to respond positively to criticism is unrealistic.I wouldn't completely agree with you that the reactions to the actions of an addicted fellow is ALWAYS negative. If you say it's mostly negative then I'll agree but not always.
Let's assume you were once addicted to gambling and then you finally got help and quit the addiction, are you saying that you'll get a negative reflex or reaction when you confront someone who is still fighting addiction.
In such a case, I bet the first thing you'd do is put yourself in his shoes because you'd understand what it means and how it feels to be addicted and how helpless the person is.
Its true, my perspective might have come off as a bit too general. Reactions can indeed vary widely. But what I was trying to say is that most of the time, people's first reaction is negative, and that's because not many folks have been through this themselves or seen someone close go through it. They can really relate and understand. But the truth is, most people haven't had that kind of close up experience with addiction. So my point is as a society we really need to learn how to be more understanding and supportive. We're not really taught how to handle these situations, how to treat people who are struggling, which is something we need to work on. We need to bring a bit more empathy.