demented where is the lightbulb moment?

You’ve had the light bulb moments littlehobbit...What you’re looking for an invisible cure! Before you said GA wasn’t for you because of the religion/politics, now it’s because it is male dominated?

I am very sorry to hear about your loss but you need to find a different way to cope with your grief now. A few weeks/months of therapy doesn’t give you a lifetime of support that you would get from a 12 Step program & I’ve been where you are, engulfed in grief, down on my knees @ the side of my bed, praying to a God I don’t understand to help me...When I stopped making excuses & hoping for a miracle cure, I started working @ it & haven’t had a gamble coming up on a year now!

If you won’t give GA a go, look for another support group, sign up for GamCare counselling if you are legible, get help from your GP...Stop looking for a cure & work on finding out what you need, you can’t beat this with wishes no matter how hard you make them.

Hi Littlehobbit

Firstly, well done for coming back for help rather than giving up. I can hear how desperate you are to find a way out of this and we are with you every step of the way. Odaat has offered some brilliant advice, but it is natural to want to find a quick solution to this when things are so tough that you can't see a way out.

It certainly doesn't sound like you were comfortable at GA, and that's fine. What's important is that you find the right support for you. You mentioned having counselling years ago. I would imagine that specialist counselling is likely to be a really good starting point so give us a call and we can talk to you about your options. We offer both face to face and online services so even if there's not a service locally, you could be referred for online counselling. Counselling is likely to enable you to explore the reasons underlying your gambling, as well as equip you with coping skills which you can use every day to give yourself the best chance of stopping gambling.

In terms of some practical steps, you mentioned online gambling, so I'm wondering if you have tried installing some blocking software: http://www.gamcare.org.uk/get-advice/what-can-you-do/blocking-software Or you could also ask someone you trust to be in charge of your finances for a while, to further reduce your ability to gamble.

I wish you all the best and do stay in touch.

Laura

Hi Littlehobbit,

It sounds like you are compulsive gambler alright and the fact that your here shows you know this to be the case. What you need is to get to your local GA meeting and really commit to the 12 step program of recovery. You say you are willing to do anything, yet you also say you didnt like GA as you felt 'uncomfortable'. If you are taking recovery seriously you will have to confront a lot of things that are uncomfortable, but if you put the effort in you will slowly start to turn your life around.

As you say we all go through s**t in our lives, we can either hide from it by the escapisim gambling or other addictions provide or we can be honest with ourselves and start tackling these issues. Again none of this is a switch you flick for a quick solution, its a journey which takes considerable time and effort. I wish you well.