Hi Ryan,
Congrats on two major accomplishments: excluding yourself from sites (huge) and also letting your family know (also huge). Gambling addiction is a devastating disease with potentially huge consequences. You have taken a great first step into helping yourself change your habits. Beating an addiction of any kind requires you to form new good habits to replace them with. Urges will be there, but as long as you set up blockers and are aware of your thoughts, you should be okay.
I have been working a lot with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and find it to be extremely effective. Basically what has happened here on a molecular level is that neurons in our brains have formed connections based on continuous behavior. These connections release dopamine, and fire whenever we think about or see something that reminds us of the behavior (triggers).
Habits form (good and bad) through positive reinforcement. If we do any activity, and the outcome is better than the expectation, dopamine is released. This explains why gambling is so insanely addictive. Even though we can be delusional in thinking about a big win, we know in the logic part of our brains that we will most likely lose. Anytime you win, it just reinforces this thought process and more dopamine is released. This is our brain saying, “Hey! Remember this because this is important!”. However, our brains have a pretty big flaw with the reward system and perception. We continue to gamble because of the anticipation of a big win. Our brain just thinks about the win and awesome feeling, but totally disregards the losses and despair which is ironically hurting our chances of survival (the exact opposite of what the reward system is designed to aid with).
Long story short, these connections will fade away the longer you do not give in to the urges. There is always hope. Have your blockers in place, and the next time you get a craving, just talk to yourself a bit. Decide firmly that you are not going to act on impulse, but instead weigh your options and then make a decision. Best of luck Ryan
–Nick