2016 Challenge

Checking in on day 654.
Have a good one.
Steve.

Hi all checking in on day 64....or day 3 of 2016!!

Last year I got 2 new loans, maxed out a credit card and felt financially miserable! My partner still doesn't trust me....

I'm getting there, this month I hope not to have the dreaded "you are overdrawn" txt from the bank. Hope to power through January earning money on the side and handing my profits to my partner.

Let's give it a go eh!!

Checking in on day 265.

Best wishes

Morning All

Checking in on day 234 and wishing you all well. I'm thinking of planning a holiday and sorting out how much I can afford to save each month. Doing this helps me understand how much money I have to spend each month. I still use an app on my phone to track all my spending ... entering every single card transaction I make makes my finances transparent to me. This helps me in budgeting and knowing I cannot afford to waste any money on gambling. Best wishes to everyone on the challenge in your efforts this week.

good luck

Checking in day 3.

Had a dream last night of having my teeth pulled. I checked it out this morning and low and behold it interprets change in my life and the fear of losing something! How mad is that. I was a very heavy smoker for 20 odd years and I haven't picked one up for over 8 years now so I believe I can and will beat this.

Good luck to all and stay strong.

Hi all

Glads dad in for the new year safe n sound, I had a great 2015 down to not gambling and i'm looking to 2016 to be the same

Wishing you all a gamble free 2016 !!

Hi all,

i want to be in this challenge for 2016, as I have a terrible problem with online slots, which has seen me lose thousands over the last two years. I have run up huge debts and lied to family about why I needed to borrow money etc. and I feel thoroughly ashamed of myself.

I have now set up a debt management plan and agreed a payment plan to pay off my mortgage arrears, and spent yesterday doing an excel spreadsheet for my income and outgoings for the next year. If I stick to it I will be fine, but I only wish it were that easy. I have a good income but have squandered so much money over the last two years. I have self excluded all of the online sites I am registered on (that took ages as there are so many!), but that is only some help as there are so many new ones popping up all the time. I have read through this thread and will try to post as much as I can. I cannot talk to my family about this - I'm just not able to deal with the humiliation and their scorn - they are all very judgemental and would not be at all understanding I know. It is certainly very heartening to see so many of you having gone a long time without gambling so as of now I am 24 hours without gambling.

Checking in day 29.

I would like to join this challenge too.

checking in day 39 gamble free.

I have gambled for all my adult life, a mix of semi in control gambling for large periods and then littered with lots of definitely out of control binge periods. I had created a major financial situation and managed to lose my relationship when things got out of hand approx ten years ago, having sorted myself and my finances out back then at least temporarily, ive been on and off gambling ever since, still in denial really as to how destructive and how central to all things gambling had become. Having reccently stolen money from a relative and dipped into money belonging to my employer too to feed my addiction, and having nearly lost all that money on top of being in debt to various other friends and aquaintances... I had something of an emotional breakdown and decided to face up to my issues and try to STOP entirely and enter recovery because i had reached the low i needed to reach. Bit sad i had to start committing criminal acts to trigger any serious attempt to beat this, but there it is.

Its early days 39 gamble free, and lots to put right and will take a long time to do it, but doing day at a time and with a few shortish term goals for now im positive i can do this. Checking in weekly will be one goal in itself.

I would like to become part of the challenge please. I joined this site in 2013 but it was only last year that I really admitted to myself that I had a problem and became an active member on here. I've received lots of great advice and support which I've been truely grateful for. I've had long periods of not gambling but I've also had a few relapses in the last months. I am now 19 days gamble free and plan to stay that way for the rest of my days!

My addiction is to online slots and the problem started 10 years ago after my sister died. I found it really hard to get over her death as we were really close, but I found that I could completely switch off the feelings and numb myself to reality for hours at a time by going online. I used the slots to block out the pain and sadness that I felt after losing her. This continued for about five years until I eventually went for counselling which was really helpful in dealing with my feelings about her loss. However, by then the slots had got a stranglehold on me and although I'm now over the bereavement and grief I'm left with an online slot addiction. It's become something that I turn to whenever I'm feeling bored, fed up , lonely or stressed.

I've spent at least twenty thousand on it over the years, but if I include my "winnings" that's probably closer to forty as I've always given them back anything I've ever won. It's not about the money though. I realised long ago that I'd never get the money back. At the end I wasn't even trying to....I didn't even play games that paid out that much. It's about the loss of time, the lies and deceit that goes with it, the guilt, the sheer pointlessness of it all. I don't want that anymore. I have a good life with a good family and lots to be thankful for. I really don't want to ruin it all for the sake of a quick thrill on some stupid bonus round.

So, that's me. Here for the first of many checks in....19 days GF and up for the fight 🙂

LifeBegins x

Checking in on day 259, keeping busy and keeping the triangle broken x

Checking in Day 19 without a gamble for me

Checking in Day 2 now..day by day..I will make a habbit to cheking in 52 more times ths year

Good evening,

Thank you Gary for setting up the 2016 challenge and I would also like to join. I have successfully completed both the 2014 & 2015 gamble free challenges and being part of it has really got my life back on track.

Before I stopped on the 13th Dec, 2013, I had gambled constantly from the age of 18. Twenty Five years later I finally gave up, the damage gambling caused to me, my family and friends is devastating, and I will always have to live with that.

I had accumulated significant amounts of debt, had numerous CCJ's, taken more loans and cash advances to feed my addiction, just dreaming of that big win. It never came, and I just continued to throw away hard earned money. When things got bad, I stole money of my parents, arrested by the police for theft of property from my work, pawned my wife's engagement ring and even emptied my children's money boxes. This was all down to me spiralling out of control, just to feed this nasty addiction.

But I am happier than I have ever been in my life since stopping gambling 25 months ago. A big part of that comes from the determination to not let my past rule my future - there is nothing I can do to change it, there is no way I can turn back the clock so all I can do it push on and live my life to the fullest.

The thing that I have realised about long-term gambling over the past two years is that you begin to lose track of everyday life; worry, stress, debt, sleepless nights, thoughts of winning and losing becomes the norm - you have become accustomed to that "sick release" because you are not in touch with how you acted before you ever came across gambling.

Compulsive gamblers are generally emotionally sensitive people - this is why we experience such euphoria when we win, and soul-wrenching desperation to regain what we have lost when others can walk away. Gamblers don’t crave the money itself; they crave the sensation of attaining it, despite what they tell themselves. If they have the biggest win, enough to pay every single debt, it wouldn't be enough. In fact, their biggest win would be their biggest nightmare because the comedown would be huge, which would lead to them wanting to experience the same thing very quickly indeed, which invariably leads to losing, and then them doing absolutely everything in their power to get those "winnings" back which leads to spending money they haven’t got, and then upping their stakes to ridiculous amounts.

For all of the new people who are at the beginning of your recover you have to give it 110% of your effort. By simply checking into this forum once a week won't stop you gambling. Put up all of the barriers people talk about on this forum and just take it a day at a time.

I am not recovered by a long way, but I have turned my life,wife's and children's life around 180 degrees for the better, by sheer determination to beat this nasty addiction.

To the returning challengers from 2014/15, keep up your good work.

Mike checking in on 751 gamble free days.

Hi all,

Welcome to the first check in totaliser for the year. Great to see many new names and welcome back to people who were on the 2015 challenge. Can you please check your numbers and I will edit if I've made a mistake!

Glad to see 35 people checked in. I've had a good read of all the stories and it's been a great reminder to me of the pain and suffering I was in when deep in my additction.

Every day bet-free is a success to a compulsive gambler...hope you all have a fabulous gamble-free week ahead and I shall provide an update next Monday. The challenge will, of course, remain open to anyone that wishes to join.