2014 Challenge

Im in on this Mr B, still clean 223 days

Checking in for this week.

42 female from The north east of Scotland. What's helped me to stop my online gambling was realising the money I've lost will never be won back. I've always got round the blocks placed so it's been sheer determination by recognising the triggers. The most significant aspect has to be this thread, I am in no doubt I would have fell off the wagon if I did not have a challenge!!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and good luck folks

Hi Mr B.. already checkek in, still gamble free 🙂

Not suggesting or tellin you how to do your 'job' but was thinkin with this extra info you've requested on each of us the future front pages can show the soldiers details, ie;

Sonic Boom - 35/M/England - checked in!

Hi

Julio / male/40 / Cambridge

Running is one of the tool that stopped me from gambling

Today I will run my first 10k race and raising some money for a local school

We are strong united , stay gamble free challengers

Apologises for the late check in. I think this is day 46. To be honest i am losing count, which is a good thing. I am spending my time doing so many other things i haven't got time to gamble. It has been great!

I spent all day yesterday with my daughters, shopping and gardening, with no interest in horse racing or any of the other distractions i used to have on such days.

I also took my partner out for dinner last night. I wouldn't have had the money to go to such a restaurant 8 weeks ago. And when we went out previously i would have spent every opportunity looking up racing results, or football scores, on my phone to track my bets. Last night was so different and so enjoyable.

It is just another case to prove that the triangle really does exist and if you remove one of the sides, in my case it is time, it goes away.

Enjoy the sunshine people, and more importantly get back to enjoying your life.

Sorry forgot to answer the questions.

I am 38, Male, from Belfast.

The biggest thing i have done is be totally honest with my partner. She knows about every i have gambled. She has now got total access to my bank accounts and checks where i spend my money. I also know that i have her unconditional support. The last thing is that she encouraged me to see a counsellor. All these things, coupled with me having a plan of what i am going to do on the days when i have lots of 'free' time, means i do not have the opportunity to gamble.

I am enjoying life more than before, and i find that i am a lot happier than i used to be.

I will NOT go back to my old life.

Great posts help - thanks - I'll forgive you for the late check in on this occasion 😉 Lol!

I'm just finishing the various bits of analysis and updating trackers etc. - a bit later than usual, but shouldn't be too much longer with the update!

Mr B

Good morning everyone!!

Is it not an amazing feeling to wake up on a Sunday morning with the sun shining………without the feeling of a gambling hangover from a Saturday of spin after spin, race after race, punt after punt? It’s a feeling of optimism, of hope, of the future being a possibility, financial potential and liberation from that previous life!! Most importantly, it’s a feeling of being able to look at yourself in the mirror and feel pride that you are not a total loser who is destroying everything that you’ve worked hard for……….and to be able to look in the eyes of your partner, kids, parents, friends, colleagues and know that you are not perpetually letting them down.

So the update this week incorporates the analysis from all the answers that soldiers have been providing on check in this week - makes for interesting reading and gives a fantastic steer for new members to think about and especially to act on in order to create the best possible conditions for their recovery. Also included are the usual features of milestones, roll of honour, new members welcome, headlines and the money count!

Here are the headlines for this week…………

45 soldiers marched into the week that has just past and 37 marched back to base camp safely giving us a rather low week on week retention of 82%. There’s a few surprises on missing soldiers and I suspect that holidays and work will have played a part in not being able to check in. Holidays will certainly become a feature in the coming weeks so please make sure you give me the heads up before you head off and I’ll check in on your behalf - don’t just go missing - we worry you know?!?! We’ve had 2 returning soldiers and 2 new members joining the group, so 41 members of the team head into the new week armed and ready to do battle! Each one of us has an average of 86 days gamble free which is the highest average we’ve ever had! The 41 members have collectively been stopped for over 9 years which is up 4% on last week and the challenge has delivered over 17 years of gambling abstinence!

New and returning members……..

It’s great to see 4evahopeful and Time4Reform coming back into the ranks!! Welcome home soldiers! Joining us this week we have Onlineplayer (Steve) and Richy244! The guys are the 100th and 101st members of the team……….so I guess you could say that we have an overall retention of 40% (I didn’t need the spreadsheets for that one!!) which totally defies the statistics that tell us only 3% of CG’s will find a path to recovery. Richy has brought a huge amount of clean days to the group, in fact, he’s got the second highest gamble free days of any of us now - the deputy daddy!! It’s great to have both of you with us and I look forward to hearing more about you both - Richy - can you tell us the most significant thing(s) you’ve done to support your recovery?

Our team demographics………

It’s been a really interesting week seeing all the information on our demographics coming in. There were 27 soldiers who provided the requested information and this forms our sample size and represents around 60% of the total group.

Two thirds of our group are from England, with the rest being made up of Scotland (27%) and the island of Ireland (12%). Just over 80% of the group are male - this surprised me and I think the majority here has grown from a few months ago when I had it in my head that it was closer to two thirds and a third or 60/40. The average age of a member is 38 years old, although our female membership is more “mature” than our male (I’m not going to say any more in fear of a backlash!!).

What creates the conditions for us to succeed in our recovery?

Many many thanks to everyone who responded to this - the overall feedback may not be ground breaking by way of research findings, however, it really does give tangible things for people to act on and consider to maximise their recovery potential……..most of which will be familiar to us all.

The top 5 for stopping are this……….

1. Telling Someone Close - 2 in every 5 respondents said that the breakthrough for them was the moment they told a partner, a parent, a sibling or a close friend. No secrets is important.

2. Handing Over Financial Control - 31% of answers cited that not having access to cash and financial control were significant. This often comes hand in hand with telling the person close to you why…….but they are surprisingly not intrinsically linked all the time!

3. Install Blocking Software - 20% of everyone answering said that blocking software such as K9 and betfilter had made the biggest difference.

4. The Gamcare Site and the 2014 Challenge - 20% of respondents said that the commitment to a group and being part of the team here has prevented them slipping, as well as regularly visiting and contributing to the site.

5. Downright Determination - the real desire to stop was mentioned by 15% of individuals - various reasons from family to financial.

While these are the Top 5 responses, it’s the combinations of these that are the most significant - the more of the above that someone has done, statistically, the longer they have been in recovery! As far as I am aware, there hasn’t been anyone on this thread who has lapsed from the moment they told their partner about everything (warts and all) and relinquished all responsibility for bank cards and access to cash.

So, if you see anyone joining the site and asking what they should do to support their recovery - we have the answers now!! They need to tell everything to someone close, hand over their finances, join the challenge, install a gambling blocking software and have the real want to stop - 4 practical actions and 1 behavioural……..although I sense the last one may be the biggest challenge. I think it’s worth all of us considering whether we have gaps in our recovery armour when considering the feedback!

Thanks again to everyone - it would be great to add to this, so if any missing soldiers or team members who have not answered the questions then please feel free to do so and I’ll update again soon!

Is there a place for………..

A Buddy Scheme? When I started to stop I had a “buddy” on this site who sadly disappeared, but for the first few weeks of recovery we stayed really close and helped each other through - it was invaluable to me. I guess I now have all of you guys to lean on for support and vice versa, but what about brand new members to the challenge, or even to the site? Would it be worth some of the more experienced recoverers volunteering to have a closer, more 1-2-1 relationship with new team members (if they want it), especially those starting out? Just a thought - let me know what you think.

Milestones celebrated in the week……….

Lots of big milestones celebrated by our comrades in the week that has just past - many congratulations go to:-

Bornagain - who celebrated being gamble free for 6 months!

AdamPrice - who broke through the 150 day free mark!

Hitthefan - who is now over 20 weeks clean!

Triangle and ringerbell - who are both members of the Century Club now having gone through 100 days!

Shorty8, delboygolf and Spaingone - have now gone more than 3 months without losing anything gambling!

Jess - has moved past the half century and more than 50 days without gambling!

Daz71, 4evahopeful and Sonic Boom - for their first time on the challenge, have all gone without gambling now for over a month!

Superb work everyone - be proud……………very proud!!

Milestones coming up this week………

Scambling, Mr B and babybluesky - will all move past the 200 days clean milestone!

Delboygolf and Spaingone - will join the Century Club in being more than 100 days free!

Drew2002 - this time next week, Drew will be exactly 3 months gamble free!

Luckygirl - will move past the 10 week mark and into double digits!

Help2604 and Strange - will celebrate the half Century!! Next stop 10 weeks folks!

The Roll of Honour……………..

So here is the Roll of Honour this week everyone:-

Names Clean Days

babybluesky 194

bornagain 187

Happy Days 192

lostafortune 107

Mr Brightside 196

Delboy79 314

Hitthefan 141

luckygirl 66

Baggins 112

triangle 101

Scambling 197

NoCrisis 39

ringerbell 101

delboygolf 94

AdamPrice 151

Spaingone 97

Drew2002 84

Gladsdad 78

Pinky333 6

Strange 44

Wolfgang 82

Mo 4

jess2910 56

Help2604 47

Time4Reform 57

Shorty8 92

julio 109

Mike18 22

Daz71 35

4evahopeful 35

John64 23

D70 29

Mileend 29

Sonic Boom 36

Stephen2105 27

CasinoLoser 20

Wolf57 17

skippyblue 14

charlie1720 15

richy 244 224

onlineplayer 10

Drum roll………total days free of gambling since the Challenge began……….

6303 Days = 315,150 GBP in our pockets………………..0 GBP in the bookies!!!

We’ve broken through the 300k GBP milestone!! A big woop woop for us!

Just a reminder that Del is marching ever closer to his First Birthday Party - August 12th is the big day with a night in Glasgow planned on the Friday after that to celebrate with him and his wife. We’ve got quite a few members of the team in Scotland and bornagain is coming up to join us too - if you’d like to come along (partners optional) then please let me know and I’ll get planning!

So that’s the update for this week everyone - thanks for the suggestion Sonic Boom - that’s a good idea for the front page and I’ll make the mods when I update it next! If anyone has any other builds or ideas that could enhance your Challenge experience then don’t be slow in coming forward with them!

Check in is open for this week! Can everyone learn from Julio please and get an early check in - you’ll never know how much easier this makes my job!

Have a great gamble free week everyone!

Mr Brightside

Checking in on day 94 enjoy the sunshine

Steve

Hello everyone I'm matt and I thought I'd give this challenge a go as I've tried everything else to stop gambling. Hope everybody is doing well and here's to the future 😄

Ok, so i'm thinking that I do need the support of this group after all. Being a part of this community has significantly reduced my losses in 2014 and its only a shame I didn't join this place earlier. Back to day 1 so I apologise bringing the average down but its 1 day when the bookies will be getting nothing from me. Rst - 26/m/england.

Checking on on day 82,

Lovely sunny day in the Netherlands today and I'm feeling toasted lol.

Good to have a day off and just doing nothing but chilling.

Now watching the World Cup again and getting tortured by to many flys (the negative side on a hot day in the country side lol)

No thoughts of gambling at all and looking foreword to visit my sister and my brother in law next Sunday in Bckeburg Germany 🙂

Wish you all a good rest weekend and a gamble free week.

A life without gambling is so much better and offers so many opportunities you never can have through gambling

Life is good let's live every day at the time and beat the demon gambling

Looking back in regrets is not the solution but looking positive in the future and taking small steps in recovery is 😉

Stay strong soldiers together we are a force

Love and respect

Wolfgang

P.S. Nearly forgot to mention good job as usual Mr. B 😉

Check post from a very sunburned me lol had a great day away today to see my county reach a 4th ulster gaa football final in a row 🙂

Just after packing as I'm off in the morning to enjoy a weeks stay in a fancy hotel (all expenses paid :D) for the 1st part of my exchange. Really looking forward to meeting the group from Finland and improving my knowledge on youth work as it's an area I'd like to get work in 🙂

Wishing everyone the best of luck for the week ahead knows yous will all do great and stay gamble free 🙂

still not playing online. Nearly succumbed on Thursday but managed to deny the urge.

Now back in UK - so hot

Another great update Mr B! Some sort of buddy scheme would be a good idea. In my local GA group they have a members telephone list they hand out which may come in handy for someone if they have an urge and need to talk to someone who understands. Maybe some of the fellow soldiers would find a telephone list useful?