Hi Susan..

I believe you can substitute any other addiction to replace gambling..  ie: alcohol, eating, shopping, sex.. and you will have the same answers.

You are correct that you and your daughter should be his number one priority and I would believe that he wishes he could place you both as number one.  However, as with any addiction the loved ones are often placed second.. third.. or lower on the priority list.

I would recommend for you and your daughter to attend an Alanon class in your area.  Tho the addiction is gambling.. I believe you "may" be able to get some very useful information and support from it.

You do deserve to be happy in this life as it's the only one that you'll receive here on this earth.  You have alot of decisions to make and ones that will be very heartfelt and challenging.  Please remember that you have no control over anyone or anyone's actions but yourself.  And... you are never alone.. there are many just like you. 

I myself am an alcoholic who has been sober now for over 3 years.  Tho on the other side of your situation, I can relate to it as I had to tell someone I cared about greatly that they had to leave my home when they themself could not hold onto sobriety.   

Possible helpful links..

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/gambling_addiction.htm

http://www.al-anon.alateen.org/

Best wishes..

I think this may be mental but not sure. I thought that I should post here and see if anyone else has experienced this.

Since my surgery, I no longer feel the need to put up with my husband's foolishness. Of course, since my surgery I have more self confidence, I feel that my daughter and I should be the highest priority and way before his addiction to gambling. However, I think he does not, as he continues to gamble and both she and I continue to go without things because of it. I no longer feel in love with him and I am very bitter about his addiction. I do not want to and I hope that I never have to be intimate with him ever again.

We had these problems prior to surgery but I now feel like I just don't have to put up with it. I feel that I deserve better than that. Has anyone else been through something like that? 



 

01/20 REFLECTION FOR THE DAY
The first psychiatrist to recognize the work of Alcoholics Anonymous, Dr. Harry Tiebout, used many concepts of The Program in his own practice.  Over many years, the doctor's study of the
"conversion experience" led him to see, first, that it is the act of surrender which initiates the switch from negative to positive; second, that the positive phase is really a state of surrender which follows the act of surrender; and third, that the state of surrender, if maintained, supplies an emotional tone to all thinking and feeling that insures healthy adjustment.  AM I LIVING IN A CONSTANT STATE OF SURRENDER?

TODAY I PRAY
May I understand that I do not have to "unlearn" my respect for "self-reliance," that trait of character which I heard praised so often from the time I was a tiny child.  Only my understanding of the word must change.  For as I come to know that "self" is part of God, that I am nothing except in His Being, there is no quarrel between self-reliance and God-reliance.  May I rely upon that self which is God's.

TODAY I WILL REMEMBER
Not part-god, but part of God.