Gamblers Anonymous

Personality Clashes
Author : GA

Believe us, we need all the friends we can get. So far in this booklet we have touched on some of the dangers to recovery. This one, personality clashes, we believe, is one of the most dangerous.

So many members over the years have left the fellowship and trundled back down that road that leads to misery using the excuse, whether real or not, of a personality clash with another member. That is something we do not need. As has been said before, we compulsive gamblers are complex characters. We can be very immature. We sometimes suffer from self-pity and we become resentful at the drop of a hat. Mix all these character defects and add a few more, and what have you got?

Someone looking for a personality to clash with.

What steps can you take to ensure that you don’t fall victim to this dangerous situation? First, you must try to keep an open mind. If you disagree with another member either at a GA meeting or outside, don’t go away and stew on it for a few days thinking only from your point of view. If you do this, you may get even angrier and before you know it you are smack in the middle of a personality clash. This can lead to all sorts of problems.

You may decide to avoid the meetings the other member attends and if the member attends many meetings in your area you have an even bigger problem. You may decide to seek them out at a meeting for another verbal attack and succeed only in disrupting the meeting. The meeting will no doubt let you know! You may then clash with the whole group. And on and on it goes until it is you against the world once more.

The best way to deal with this is to approach the member in person or on the telephone, keeping an open mind and seeing the issue from both sides.

Make a friend of this member. Remember, they may be right.

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