2014 Challenge

Morning all- I hope everyone has a good week and we can bounce off each other if we get close to a blip.

Stay strong friends

Glads dad checking in

Checking in Day 81 gamble-free.

Enjoying life without gambling.

Day 77

Looking forward to an exciting couple of weeks with a house move hopefully in the works 🙂

Checking in on day 153 I think.

Sorry for not checking in last week was just all to much for me with the funeral of lou's mum and trouble with a couple of my clients.

Next Sunday lou, lucy, dan and me are flying for a 10 day trip to Berlin to celebrate my sisters and lou's birthday and to hopefully regenerate some desperate needed energy.

But I will try not again to fail on the check in.

Hope you are all well and keep collecting days on the bright side of life.

Wolfgang

Checking in on day 153 I think.

Sorry for not checking in last week was just all to much for me with the funeral of lou's mum and trouble with a couple of my clients.

Next Sunday lou, lucy, dan and me are flying for a 10 day trip to Berlin to celebrate my sisters and lou's birthday and to hopefully regenerate some desperate needed energy.

But I will try not again to fail on the check in.

Hope you are all well and keep collecting days on the bright side of life.

Wolfgang

Checking in on day 153 I think.

Sorry for not checking in last week was just all to much for me with the funeral of lou's mum and trouble with a couple of my clients.

Next Sunday lou, lucy, dan and me are flying for a 10 day trip to Berlin to celebrate my sisters and lou's birthday and to hopefully regenerate some desperate needed energy.

But I will try not again to fail on the check in.

Hope you are all well and keep collecting days on the bright side of life.

Wolfgang

Day 95 checking in, thank you for all tour kind comments Mr b it has really helped me along the way, I could not of done this without your help, thank you so much for setting up this forum it has been helpful to me and so many others

Wolfgang great to see your post and to know you are going to be able to spend quality time with Lou and your family and recharge your batteries. Well done for not allowing the recent circumstances to affect your recovery. You are gifting yourself life. I'm sure if you are unable to check in whilst you are away in Berlin that Mr B will do it on your behalf. Happy Birthday to Lou and have a healing time.

Pinky333 it's good to catch your excitement! I hope it all happens with the house move.

gary84 Welcome! It's good to know something of your story so far. You have had a difficult time but it's good to hear you want to turn your life around and gift yourself a better future. You've come to the right place to find support, advice and somewhere to open up with people who understand.

Please read the first page of this challenge and if you feel able to commit to your recovery and supporting others then post again this week with how many days you are gamble free and Mr B will add you to the troops at the weekend.

You have shown great resolve with stopping smoking, well done. You are seeking help for your gambling problem yourself this time which is the only way to succeed. It can never be for anyone else although you stopping will have a positive affect on all your family too. Hopefully this is the start of your new life 🙂

I've been considering the brain reprogramming comments of Elfie17 and follow up comments by Half-Life. Maybe it's like the gambling part of the brain is bypassed when you are in recovery and life music is at full volume. However, you wouldn't want to undo a heart bypass to see if you were still ok! I think the majority of you would agree that the first days were all consuming and hell. As time went by the feelings tended to lessen in intensity. They may never completely go away but with resolve can be overcome.

Perhaps a good thing might be to read your first posts from here or your recovery diaries and recall how you felt, the damage done to loved ones, the financial circumstances etc. Write down your personal feelings then put your writing away and should you be tempted at any time then get it out and use it to help strengthen your resolve.

I see lots of learning experiences happening on this challenge. Life is about learning from our mistakes and trying to ensure we don't make them again. I also see the determination in so many of you to put good practices in place to ensure that new life. One day at a time is what it takes.

Mr B has landed in Dublin this morning! He's coping with so much (he should be a juggler!) but he's amazing and is coping 🙂 I liked his update and I'm sure the thought processes he mentioned would have been familiar to many of you. He also said 'I guess my other learning about myself is that I'm so competitive that I cannot accept that I cannot win...which makes me keep going until I reach oblivion'. This made me realise that no matter how capable anyone is they have no control over the outcome of gambling and the only certainty is the mantra 'I cannot win because I cannot stop!'

Such amazing milestones are being achieved and celebrated! I am so blessed walking along and supporting you all on your recovery journeys.

God bless. Love Mama B xx

thankou mama b for your support to us all

it is appreciated by this soldier

i would love to be able to gamble again and in the past i have tested myself after stopping for periods. The truth is every time i have tested myself i've got caught up again in the truth that 'i cannot win because i cannot stop'

Its easy to tell someone not to do something but like i've heard others on here say i thought i was above you lot. i thought i could control it. i had to find out the truth myself the hard way

tri

Hi Mr B,

I wonder if I could rejoin the challenge - due to a minor blip in July I decided to take a sideway step to prove I was back on the right path as I didn't want to keep letting everyone on the challenge down. I have been reading everyone's posts over the last month and was counting down the days to the end of August so I could hold my head up high on asking to rejoin as I have been gamble free for over 1 month.

I am 37 days gamble free and know this time I will keep going and still be here in December.

Small steps, one day at a time (previously 15/20 years gamble free until online slots entered my life) I did it before and I will do it again.

Mo

Welcome back Mo! Your resolve is strong & you have learned painful lessons! Use the lessons to reinforce your resolve. I've every confidence in this being your time 🙂 Mama B x

Mr B: Thank you for your update at this most trying of times for you, but glad to read that things are slowly looking better.

Mama B: Articulate and wise, as ever - thank you for your thoughts - spot on!

Checking in on my Day 184 - in recovery mode after having our small grandson to stay. Feel as if I've just come through a particularly gruelling episode of 'Wipeout'....hopefully the nervous twitch will disappear eventually....

Best wishes to all and congratulations to all milestoners.

Joanna

Thank you Half-Life and others on comments about re-programming our brains. I am thinking about gambling less as time goes by. The usual triggers are the constant adverts telling us how great gambling is, how sociable and how we can win so much. What a joke, don't they have any idea of the misery we have all been through and are still going through in some cases. These adverts should be banned like the smoking ones were. I thought the steady stream of emails would get to me but they are annoying me more than anything and I find I can delete or unsubscribe them now after my near miss a couple of weeks ago. I think the biggest thing if you have a mountain of debt is the thought that they you could perhaps play just once more and win some money. In reality we know this won't happen.

This is where this site is so great because, although it does keep the word 'gambling' in your head somewhat, looking back at the pain we were in at the beginning and the new members present pain reminds us how terrible this addiction is.

Works for me anyway.

Elfie

Thanks Mama B

My resolve to continue on this path is strong as we enter September. Small steps all the way - will soon be December and victory

Mo

hey everyone checking in on 30 days now..slowly getting there..had some temptations but managed to avoid giving into them so im happy as it means more money in our pockets 😀 also wanna congratulate everyone fighting this right along with me because i know we are much stronger 🙂