First Step today

Hi everyone, First a positive note to start with. Today i am taking the first step to recovery and to cease all gambling!! I have been a compulsive gambler for many, many years, i just didn't realise that what started out as just fun bets in the bookies in the '70's would turn out to ruin several chapters of life. To cut a long and boring story short, 6 years ago I owned up to the problem, started going to GA meetings regularly and I managed 5 years of gambling freedom. Until last year when I retired and relapsed big time! Luckily most of my pension was secured or all that would be gone now! However every small spare amount went back into on-line gambling sites. And now I am just fed up of not having any money, hiding this from my partner who stood by me 6 years ago, bailed me out big time and provided such support. Today, I have to try and find the courage to tell her what an idiot I am, where the money has gone, why II can't pay the bills this month and so on....but stopped here first to start the recovery process and get support from like minded folk. The main message from me is, BEWARE!! It is so easy to become complacent and fall back on gambling, thinking after 5 years, you have it covered. I was wrong, and the first small bet 'for fun' just took me back to square one, and to the point I was at before i stopped last time. Thank you for the opportunity to post. I will now go to the 2014 forum and join in! Wolf57