2014 Challenge

Hi All,

Checking in .... day 23 clean.

Evening team!

Very quick post with less than 2 hours before the deadline! Still a few soldiers to come.....hopefully they'll turn up!

Believer - I've left a message for you on the front page of the challenge thread (page 1) - not sure if you'd like to join us or not?

SuzyLemon - you're in Mrs!! Name will be in lights in the update tomorrow!

Hope the second half of the footy is better than the first!

Mr Brightside

Hello folks

Very late check in from sunny Spain ( suppose I'm still an hour ahead 😉 ) a week away from everything including the gambling urges however the bright lights of the local casino were a draw but not for me anymore ! Hope all is we'll and wish everyone a strong week ! Back on Wednesday 🙂

Much love

Batman

(I can't remember how many days I am on lol)

120ish 😉

Checking in on day 108!

It should be against the law to work a Sunday!

Have a good one all.

Steve

Morning everyone!

With a late night last night watching the footy, a bit of a long lie and then on family breakfast duty, the update will be a bit later than normal - still estimating before midday though!

As regular as clockwork, delboygolf is checked in for the new week already! Thanks Steve - I wish everyone did the same!!

Mr Brightside

lol an eager bevear! beating this addiction on a daily basis! Great job Mr B

Steve

My answers Mr b - 3, 8, 1, 1

Afternoon everyone!

That’s us officially now past the half-way point in the challenge - I can’t believe how quickly the last 6 months have passed. It’ll probably take you the next 6 months to read this week’s update……there’s so much to cover!! So this week we have the regular sections of headlines, new and returning members, milestones and the roll of honour. We also have a half year review, the month end update and the outputs from the analysis from the questions posed in the update last week that looked to answer the question, “When does it get easier?”. Better get on with it then eh?

Headlines for this week……….

The group has grown by 1 member from week to week to a total of 43. This is made up by a starting team of 42, less the 5 soldiers who haven’t checked in, plus the 4 returning team members and the 2 new soldiers joining the team. This gave us a retention rate from one week to the next of 88%, a real improvement on the past month! The participating 43 have been stopped collectively for almost 10 years now, while the challenge has delivered gamble free days that total over 18 and a half years! Our average gamble free days per person has reached 80 days which again is a year high for the team. The money we are collectively saving has grown by nearly 3% and if our financial growth rate improves next week by only 0.3% points then we will break through the 0.35 million GBP saved…….but we will almost definitely move past a third of a million pounds saved.

New and Returning Members

This week we extend a warm welcome to GamAddict and SuzyLemon! It’s great to have you with us girls……….and it’s superb to see you both posting fairly regularly. We’ve had a first class retention rate for newer members recently and based on your initial contributions I’m thinking that the group will benefit from having you here as well as the benefit you both get from being part of this amazing army!

There are a few more potential soldiers requesting to join us - I will leave the asks on the front page for you guys - please read them and take action as appropriate.

In addition to our new members, this week we celebrate the safe return of babybluesky (hope the hangover cleared up quickly birthday girl 😉 ), Kickitnow (from American adventures), jess2910 (this is your time jess!) and richy244 (hope things are getting better richy?). It’s great to have you all marching into a new week by our sides!

The Half Year Review………..

If we were a business then this would be our interim statement! Our competition is suffering and we are growing our market share - ha ha!!

Statistics tell us that 3% of compulsive gamblers will make a full recovery to lead a ‘normal’ life. Our group defies those numbers:-

- The key statistic - Of everyone who has joined and assuming that all who are no longer with us have sadly lapsed (less the 2 ex members who I know are still clean), we have a total success rate within our army of 32% - these are people who have joined the team, never lapsed and never left. We are kicking the backside of the norm!

- We have had a total of 105 soldiers in our army in the first half of 2014 of which 41% (43) remain loyal and committed to their own recovery and that of the group

- Within that 43 strong group, 74% have managed to refrain from gambling and had no lapse

- While on the challenge, team members have abstained for over 18 years, debt has reduced and as will be shown in the answers to the volume questions, it has got easier!

Review of June’s Results

June has been the most successful month we’ve had on the challenge. Based only on the current members of the team:-

- Two thirds of soldiers got through the month with no gambling!

- 7 of the team are ‘clean for 2014’, congratulations to babybluesky, bornagain, Happy Days, Delboy, Scambling, Mr Brightside and richy.

- 42% of the team are now gamble free for a quarter of a year or more!

- 2 members of the team managed their first gamble free calendar month with us - well done to Sonic Boom and madeofstone (assuming that’s you garthcrooks?)

- The challenge has now delivered a total of 95 gamble free calendar months from our individual and collective efforts!

Volume Questions - The Results!

Many thanks to everyone who posted answers to the questions in last weeks update. While nothing was ever going to be truly scientific, the intention was to attempt to determine a point in time during recovery that the difficulties of stopping gambling actually gets easier.

The reason for asking 2 questions that had a positive slant (Family and Life) and 2 that have negative implications (gambling thoughts and financial worry) was to be able to create a “promoter” score and a “detractor” score - in other words, the things that promote recovery and the things that detract from recovery a pose a risk of a relapse. By simply taking the average of the promoter scores and the detractor scores, it can point out where the “volume” of the good and bad will drown each other out. Here are the results:-

- As an overall group, family music plays the loudest, with an average volume of 6.4. Life music (6.0) plays more loudly than gambling (3.9) and financial worry (4.9). This gives us a net positive score of 1.8 - meaning that as a team, the positive is outweighing the negative……but not by a great deal!

- It’s when you begin to dissect the team by length of recovery that the really interesting information comes through………..

- For those in recovery for 7 or more weeks, the net positive score is 3.9 meaning that volume of life (7.0) and family (7.5) is significantly drowning out the thoughts of gambling (3.1) and financial worry (3.5). It’s interesting to see that the music of financial worry plays more loudly than the gambling music, although not by much.

- For respondents who have been stopped for less than 7 weeks, it’s a very different story - the worry of finances is the loudest of all music by quite a long way, at an average of 6.8. Family music is in second place at 5.0, with gambling at 4.8 and life at 4.5.

- There is a notable difference in self appraisal scoring around that 6-7 week period of time.

- Financial difficulty is consistently the loudest negative score among those who responded.

Summary of findings:-

This exercise has been an important supplement to the last “survey” we did on the things that are helping us continue to stop gambling. That research told us that telling family, handing over finances and using the forum etc. were all key to sustained abstinence. This research tells us that things have the potential to get easier at some point between 6 and 7 weeks of having stopped. It also tells us that the worry of finances is significant - maybe the most important finding is that in order to create the best conditions to recover more quickly is to still tell family and especially hand over financial control to someone……..but just as importantly, to face financial worries head on and put plans in place to recover those. We have enough to worry about as CG’s and the removal of financial worry seems to be significant…………….is it that the financial worry is actually dragging those attempting to stop back into gambling to try and recoup losses and remove the money stresses? It’s a vicious circle and a detractor of the good things in life unless that cycle is broken………maybe there is a point in time that gambling is seen as the only potential way out of a financial hole? So in fact, it’s financial worry that is the biggest risk to stopping gambling, and not the gambling itself?

Again, thanks to everyone for taking part - turn up the music on family and life, drown out the gambling music………and take action to turn down the dial on finances………..get to 7 weeks and hopefully it will become easier……..although, it doesn’t look like many of us have no thoughts of gambling regardless of the length of our journey!!!

Milestones Celebrated in the Week Just Passed……………….

Lots of milestones were celebrated in the week that’s just finished:-

Scambling and Mr Brightside both broke through the 30 week gamble free mark! I’m always right behind you Scambling - well done mate!

Happy Days and Bornagain both reached the double century - that’s 7 now in the group of 200 days or more! Brilliant going guys - next major milestone is the year I’d say!

Hitthefan reached 150 days on the journey…….and talking about journeys, have a great holiday HTF!!

Batman strolled through the 20 week mark and onto a flight to Spain! Have a great time in the sunshine soldier!

Shorty8 joined the Century Club!! Congratulations on the 100 days Shorty….for some reason that was still my favourite milestone so far!!

Gladsdad and Wolfgang have both gone beyond the 13 week point and successfully navigated a quarter of a year being free from gambling!! Superb guys!

No Crisis and Sonic Boom have both hit the half century now and into the territory referred to in this week’s feature of when things may start to get a bit easier - you can let us know folks! Sonic - it’s your milestone today! Congratulations! No Crisis, you’ve been here before soldier, this time is for keeps!

Milestones to be Celebrated in the Coming Week……….

Monday 7th - Daz71 hits the half century and onto 50 days!

Tuesday 8th - babybluesky reaches 30 weeks, while Drew2002 joins the century club!!

Thursday 10th - Wolfgang becomes the 19th member of the Century Club within the current group!!

Sunday 13th July - Batman moves onto 150 days and D70 hits 50 days - great going guys!

This Weeks Roll of Honour……………….

Here is the list of soldiers who will be marching into week commencing 7th July:-

Name Clean Days

babybluesky 208

bornagain 201

Happy Days 206

lostafortune 121

Mr Brightside 210

Delboy79 328

rst187togo 15

Hitthefan 155

luckygirl 80

Baggins 126

triangle 115

Scambling 211

Kickitnow 123

NoCrisis 53

ringerbell 115

delboygolf 108

Drew2002 98

Gladsdad 92

Batman 143

Pinky333 20

Strange 58

Wolfgang 96

Mo 18

jess2910 3

help2604 61

Shorty8 106

julio 123

Daz71 49

John64 37

D70 43

Mileend 8

Sonic Boom 50

LIFESWINNER 34

Wolf57 31

charlie1720 29

richy 244 238

onlineplayer 24

Unaitsert 15

madeofstone 37

Elfie17 13

Matty21 15

GamAddict 7

SuzyLemon 24

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

6780 Days = 0.339 million GBP in our pockets………………..0 GBP in the bookies!!!

So that’s the update for this week everyone!! Let’s move into the second half of the year with more knowledge, more determination, heightened commitment and a lot more confidence that this is the year in which we take back our lives……one day at a time…….shoulder to shoulder with one another as one strong team!! I believe that we will win!!

Check in for the new week is now open! Have a great week everyone, be strong, sort out those finances, talk to family and post lots!!

Mr Brightside

Hi to all who's doing the 2014 challenge hope everyone is doin well , 5 days clean now onwards and upwards fighting the urges .............my closing line on my recovery diary is ...

I CAN DO THIS ..... I am going to change it for this thread to

WE CAN DO THIS

Phenomenal update sir, the time you put into the statistics is incredible. You clearly care so very much about this challenge and the fellow CG's here. You are an asset to the gamcare website.

Your findings that pre the seven week mark, the troops music of finance worries is higher than actual gambling makes exact sense to me as the only reason I gambled in the past was to improve money worries and troubles (obviously you lose and it doesn't work out that way and you have even more financial problems/worries), but the point is, I never gambled because I enjoyed gambling really, I seen it as my only way to get more money I needed for finance troubles (even though it does the absolute opposite). So yeah finance worries was much more important/played a bigger role in my life than actual gambling.

Brilliant update mate

Checking in on day 98, so close to the century and so far away from gambling.

All the best gang, keep guarded and strong,

Drew

Hi everyone

Have decided today to say goodbye to the FOBTs and online gambling. Have lost too much money, feeling very stressed and heart is beating like a tiger. Time to stop and will check in before next Sunday to update with my progress.

J

Afternooon all.

Just checking in now, still clean, seems ages since I had a bet and not even tempted anymore, with the odd occasion (ie a major event).

Things are difficult at home, illness, hospitals and other life things, hence my inability to log in. Last weekend was spent in hospital, not me personally admitted but family related.

Hard times, but don't have any time to gamble which is useful.

Think life is changing for me and I just need to get back into a routine of checking in.

Sorry Mr B....

Will try harder.

thank you for the invite and the support mr Brightside.

I am female 39 years old from Lincolnshire.

today is day 39 for me. I had to check how many days had gone by on my phone as I have put in the calendar there when I last gambled. I am amazed how quick the time has gone past really but I have also kept my days and nights full.

I am one of the lucky ones with a large support group of family and friends. I even told people at work and my bosses, as I didn't want them to hear from elsewhere, and the support from them all is fantastic.

I've given my husband complete access to my bank account and any extra money that I get from working extra shifts he is looking after for me.

I have got a ring binder file with plastic wallets in and I'm keeping bank statements in there along with the payslips (to see how much I have been paid) receipts etc (to see what's going out).

I also have a diary with all credits and debits going in and out including direct debits and standing orders which is helping me keep a check on my balance.

here's to keeping strong!!

Great post as always Mr B.

Definitely see the link between urges/gambling and the high financial worry and i fit in with that as still in first seven weeks of recovery.

It's a source of frustration and worry as they were caused from gambling and i know its going to take patience and hard work to pay them off. On the brighter side they won't increase.

Got another busy week at work coming up and my parents are going away so I will have access to money for a week which in the past has led to gambling.

I know some may suggest other ways around this but I will split the money up over 7 days and I am enjoying the responsiblity and challenges of overcoming this and the journey. I am thinking what I can do and need the money for rather than what can I win or gamble on which is pleasing!

Anyway hope everyone has had a good weekend.

"Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing from something."

"The safest way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket."

Top update Mr B, thanks for mentioning the financial volume in relation to the time of abstinence. This is so true and it was great reassurance to hear what your survey results fed back.

Great weekend, 15 days clean and not looking back at the damage instead looking forward to a future without throwing my money away.

Rst