My life starts again today

Best advice i ever got was here and its helped me stick it out

"Just for today"

Dont think you will not gamble for a week, month, year, rest of your life...just for today i wont gamble

Im currently at day 1035 of "just for today i wont gamble"

Longest ive ever gone and still going strong

You got this

You should be proud of yourself for what you have said on this post.

Does your partner know? My Mum has my bank card and she got a credit card out in her name and added me onto it and I use that daily and send her the money each time I spend! It’s hard as it’s been since October and I’m 35 and feel mehh about it, but it’s saved me. 

Hi Sarah

Please do go onto the chatroom tonight if you can. The room is full of people who can offer some great advice and I go every time I can. Unfortunately I'm at GA tonight but I have no doubt Adam, Fran, Johnny, Taz and Ann will be there to name a few. It's text only so no cameras. No judgement as we've all been there and plenty of support. You can do this.

I would like to send you another reply when I have time. Just a few pointers as it's incredibly important to get recovery foundation in place and build from there. 

You already have a good plan but a couple of other things to think of. You don't have to go into bookies to self exclude. You just ring Moses and it takes half an hour max. They will exclude you nationally with certain ones and in the areas you ask for on others. It's worth getting Gamban. This will block everything on your devices gambling related. Finally Sense blocks casinos nationally, just for good measure.

You said you have gambling blocks on your bank but a other idea would be to reduce your cash withdrawal limit down to the minimum. You could also switch to an online bank without branches like Monzo. That said accountability to your partner is ideal. 

Hello Sarah, all helpful advice from Stuart, I’m back on day 1 today, each time I fall off I learn something and put a further restriction in place wherever I can. Catch up on the chat at 8 to see how you’re getting on.

Louise x

Hi Sarah

Hope everyone made you welcome and were helpful on the chatroom. Just a bit about me, I gambled for 44 years and am 149 days gamble free. Ive spent 5 months working every day on recovery, listening and learning. I'm at GA again tomorrow night but might be on the lunchtime chat if not will be on the 8pm on Saturday if you would like to talk more. A lot of people on here get advice by posting their diary on the forum each day. It helps get your thoughts out and people can reply. It's a good way as well to write to your life story which helps all of us understand where you have come from.

What worked for me was, as described before, I built some solid foundations to my recovery. This included a support network which I regularly change and add to. I realised that I couldn't want someone in that network if they weren't going to be there for me, however much I needed it. This network also included things I could turn to when needed. If you get a chance to look back to a topic I wrote last week on dopamine (might have been changed to topic title Rush Hour as I've doing a daily post with film titles to try and help) this is some ideas that have worked for me on where to get natural dopamine hits to replace gambling and help with urges. Number one for me is walking. 

Once the foundation was sorted and I was happy, then I started working on connection. I severely isolated behind lies when I gambled. I was disconnected with my feelings, people, nature and life. I saw life as being too hard to tackle and it was easier to go back to my safe space, gambling, where I could hide from stress and the problems of life. Just by talking to people, honestly and showing vulnerability, helped me turn a corner and began to working on the best version of myself, one day at a time. 

Let me know if you want, how the above sounds to you 

Hi Sarah

How is today going for you ? How are you feeling and holding up ?

Stuart

Are you getting on ok Sarah ?