2015 Challenge

Checking in Day 57

Been busy so not had that much time to think about gambling, good thing I suppose.

The urges are becoming less frequent ,which makes life a little easier.

Staying strong Dino x

Checking in 102 days gamble free.

Very happy to have made it this far and will continue to rack up the days.

Mba

30 days completed.. Back in UK.. Working hard and keeping occupied.. Good luck to all

sonic boom wrote: Checking in on day 36... Payday tomorrow but will be fine. Im working all day, weekend might be different but will deal with that when the time comes...

Good luck tomorrow mate, you're doing brilliantly. Thanks for the comment on my diary, you don't appear to have an up to date one so have had to hijack the challenge thread to thank you. Looking forward to seeing you on day 40 on Monday 🙂

Brilliant to come home from work to so many check ins. I know it could be hard for some of us at the weekend, but keep fighting, we all deserve so much more than life addicted to gambling without a penny to our name. Email me if you need support or to talk [email protected] or shout out for help on here. Don't impulsively give in to the urges, once they pass you will feel so good to have defeated them! Sorry to hear nobody made the chat, but keep it up triangle and I'm sure there will come a time someone finds it useful and maybe it could be the thing that stops a soldier slipping up.

Once again I need to ask please show Stephen2105 some support on his recovery diary, I don't want to give up on him, he needs to get back on track and I believe he has it in him to do so.

If you see anyone thats not checked in please do remind them on their diaries troops!

Hi all,

43 days of saving money, 43 days of GF, 43 days of happy life. Thank you. We can do it!

Morning all.

It is with great sadness that I'm telling you that my gamble free counter needs to be reset at 1.

Yesterday I gambled. Not sure why just know I wish I hadn't. I managed to gamble away £200 and this isn't all that I've lost. I've lost my self respect that I had shakily managed to get back, myhubby can't look at me. I still need to tell others but when I confessed to hubby before I promised no more lies and secrets so I told him what I had done.

On the plus side I now know not to get complacent about my gambling problem, I have money in my savings to cover what I gambled.

Hopefully hubby and I will be able to sort between us out and my daily tally will continue to go up.

Stay strong everyone and remember together we can do it.

Mjc, it happens because this isn't easy. Your right that it can be easy to become complacent and let the urge to gamble win but well done for being honest about it. The important things are now to rebuild your confidence and get back that trust. You'll need to think about what triggered the urge to gamble and put barriers in the way so it is not so easy to slip in the future. Dust yourself down and use this slip to learn and make you stronger and more determined than ever. You can do this.

Checking in today gamble free for 86 days. Off to Chamonix tomorrow for a 4 night stag and i am in no doubt whatsoever i wouldnt have went had i still been gambling 🙂

Morning troops, brilliant to see what refraining from gambling can give us, enjoy your trip egfr. But sad to hear of your slip mjc1974, for as bad as you must feel at least you have been honest and can now work on what made you slip and ensure it doesnt happen again. The fact you have posted shows you want to beat this and if that 200 takes away the complacency and makes helps you to become stronger in the long term then maybe its not a bad thing.

Keep the check ins coming in troops, use all the outlets possible to help if you are finding it a struggle.

Checking in 13 days of Freedom. Today was payday. After bills a few bob left over. It's still in the bank. Had a few very minor pangs but the blocks on helps me greatly. Walk and drive past betting shops and they seem "alien" places to me. As I keep saying on my various posts, there is still no room for complacency.

Stay strong everyone.

Hi Bornagain and all of you taking positive action and fighting against this irrational behaviour.

I missed my check in last week, I am checking in today and can confirm I am 27 days without gambling.

I was visiting this forum each day last week but I couldn't post my check in. I was struggling so badly that every time I wanted to check in I couldn't because my mind was trying to convince me to gamble and I had to fight it really hard. Was trying to understand why why why? Was this 'thing' telling me to go down a route that I know from years of experience leads to despair.

I was doing very stupid things! I was watching clips on YouTube of my favourite games and the big wins and all that rubbish! Fortunately I had adhered to the triangle advice and although I had time and location I had removed access to money from myself and that hurdle self imposed I'm sure prevented my slip and got me to 27 days 🙂 (3 more days and I hit 30 - longest time without gambling for me).

The reprinted piece from Kyle and the 'life music v gambling music' helped a lot. I have my adjusted interpretation of it that makes sense to me but that theory was sound and a powerful tool! Thank you for sharing that.

We are soldiers as this is a battle! But in that vein I'd like to share something myself which may if taken as an analogy be of some help to someone as I've found the doctrine useful especially today (payday) if we use it in bespoke metaphor.

Here it is troops: the 5 biggest killers of soldiers on operations are: complacency, over confidence, undisciplined, unsupervised, untrained.

My gambling overlay: complacency - keep the triangle in place, do not think we can have all 3 and trust our conviction - maybe ever!

Over confidence - speaks for itself put barriers in place and keep them in place no matter what!

Undisciplined - in nearly all aspects of my life I am disciplined bar gambling demon. Once it's hooks are in I lose my way. I must discipline the 'gambling music' and keep it monitored and regarded.

Unsupervised - in a detached way I must supervise my urges and quash them also put control measures and barriers in place. I must not ignore them! That is dangerous to me (helped in moments of weakness by the triangle) so I have to acknowledge its presence and supervise it until it's power over me fades but... Complacency, check.

Untrained - train my mind with the undeniable truths of gambling and its destructive nature and train my resilience using the tools I have committed to and the tools I've adopted from you fantastic group of people!

I hope someone got something from that and although I am currently experiencing an urge or pull as it's payday I'm not giving in! It's a learned behaviour I'm thinking of it as well, plus, it's payday but I do not really have any money.... I have debt that needs clearing the aftermath of destructive gambling.

There not outrageous debts but they shouldn't exist, they do and I'm not bitter 🙂 I have found this place and I'm committed to paying them the longer slower and rational way.

I'm staying observant because right now I have a part of me threatening to take me where I do not want to go, and I won't go!

Keeping the triangle firmly in place and these feelings will subside.

It's been hard work the last 10 days and is still hard right now but I'm not waving any white flag 'these colours don't run from cold bloody war'.

I wish you all strength and those that have had a little slip do not punish yourself, put the barriers in place, 'test and adjust' your position and soldier on with lessons learnt and more professional and capable to defeat the enemy if it shows its Natzi form again!

Stay strong, best wishes for now and the future you without gambling, and me too.

Have a good weekend,

TFT.

day 6 !!!!!!! really tempted

lara123 use anything you can to help you stay strong, you can call the gamcare hotline, or you can email me for the telephone list to call another soldier and talk about how you are feeling. It may be useful to give any cards or cash to someone you trust until the urges pass! Don't give in, keep fighting!!

Welcome back TickFollowsTock, well done for dealing with your urges, one month is nearly gone, just imagine how good life will be after another 11 are out the way gamble free!!!