2017 Challenge

I'd like to continue in the 2017 challenge. I hope those who sign up commit to signing in weekly. It doesn't take that long to do and it does help to support each other.

All the best SIR. TRI

Checking in. On Day 29, looking forward to joining you and supporting each other in 2017! Thanks Martin, Dean0, for taking this on.

Hi guys,

As my first venture off the Recovery Diaries board, I'd like to join in on this challenge if I may. New Year's Day will be 150 days gamble free for me, and I'll have a lot of changes coming in 2017 too. I've been trying to fight this from my rock bottom point about five or six years ago, and around 18 months gamble free is the most I've been during that period.

The routine of a slip for me is generally the same, I get tempted in by a £2 bet on the football, and end up spinning hours away on video poker. This will not happen again. Thank you all for the thread, and I look forward to a good 2017.

Hi all,
This is my 3rd challenge and I am checking in on day 1015.
Nearly 3 years ago I decided enough is enough. So if I can do it anybody can!
As a former golf professional it all started on the golf course, then casino's and then the dredded FOBT machines. I dread to think how much money I have wasted over the years but the last 3 years I have managed to get a bit of Money behind me and all from abstaining!
Good luck and best wishes for the 2017 challenge.
Steve.

I'm in, currently at 292 days.

Online slots are my downfall and I used them for nearly 9yrs, looking forward to completing the whole of the 2017 challenge.

hi everyone, i would like to sign up to the challenge!

i am currently only 3 days gamble free.

ive been here before but never really wanted to quit as much as i do now. im 25 and have been gambling since 18 with the last couple of years being the worst. i usually use fobt but now have moved onto online blackjack. after having a few wins of around 1000 each i thought i could carry on winning, how wrong was i! i have now hit rock bottom again after being bailed out around 4 years ago. i have totalled every single penny i owe (not all gambing debt) to around 11500 i can afford to pay it off within a year as long as i stay gamble free.

yesterday i came clean to my gf of one year about what i had been doing after telling her i stopped when we met, she was very understanding and wants to help any way she can, she offered me money but i refused as i believe that wil not help me. i think i need to feel like i have suffered in order to realise how stupid and destroying this addiction is. as understanding as she was, she said she will not tolerate it again and if i was to gamble again i would lose her.

i am going to keep checking in and hope to have a gamble free 2017 and every year from now onwards!

Good for you OJM!

My first day of recovery was 19 April 2015, the day after I finally admitted that my life had become hell on earth due to playing the slots constantly for years. I gambled to escape, to try and block out all the bad stuff which was happening to the people I love. All I did was create a huge debt, which will take a decade to clear. Compulsive gambling is a progressive illness which turned me into a liar and a cheat and guess what, none of my problems went away, it's called life. With the help of this forum and weekly GA meetings I've managed 620 days clean. We will never be cured, but we can give ourselves the gift of recovery and start to live again, one day at a time. Let's make 2017 a good year which we can look back on with pride. Martin and Deano thank you so very much for volunteering to run the challenge, let's fight this together fellow soldiers xx

I'd like to join the challenge and hope to get through a whole calendar year gamble free...

Could I join please. Been GF for 25 days, was a binge gambler addicted to online slots, Ive tried stopping several times before and not sure what's different this time, I just know it feels different and that I never want to go back to gambling in my life ever again!

Hi, I'd like to join the challenge. I've only just joined this forum today and I'm back at the start with 1 day gamble free, so a lot of you may think this challenge is very ambitious but I really feel like I can give it a good shot and succeed as things have got pretty bad financially due to gambling and I've been feeling pretty disgusted with myself recently so I'm determined to get it sorted. Hope that's alright!

As a bit of background, online slots are my massive downfall (I don't gamble in person, always online). It all started in my final year of uni where I was spending some of my student loan on online slots, ending up with no money before my next installment and using a couple of payday loans to see me through. I stopped for quite a while (about a year) but it all started up again about 1.5-2 years ago as I found I had a lot of spare cash (I started full-time employment and was still living rent-free with parents at the time). Things have sort of snowballed from there and now I'm in a lot of debt with credit cards, payday loans, some family and friends and one big overdraft, some of which needs to be paid of ASAP (i.e. overdraft and payday loans). Total debt is around £16000 at the moment. I'm only 23 so having this amount of debt makes me feel really bad, but looking at it positively, I'm still quite young so looking at clearing it whilst I'm still young before saving for a house, etc.

This past month has been a nightmare which is why I really think I have the willpower to get this addiction under control because I simply can't afford it - my bank basically wanted all my overdraft back immediately (£4000+) which I don't have and don't have access to, so I'm in a pretty stressful situation now! I need to contact them soon to discuss a repayment arrangement which hopefully they'll accept.

I look forward to checking in at least once a week, hopefully seeing my GF debt day number rising and rising and my debt reducing and reducing. I guess I'm hoping I can use this forum so I feel accountable to something/a group of people. I've read some pretty inspirational stories on here so I'm feeling optimistic at the moment - bring it on!

All are more than welcome to join
First update will be Monday the 2nd Jan
Best wishes

Everyone starts on a Day1....one day at a time; life will improve.

Just try not get impatient and rush.

Great to see so many people joining up

Hi I would like to join. Ive been on here a year now with mixed results. Ive dramatically improved with blocking online and bookies but recently been to casinos, gambled in pubs and regretted it at the end of each month . I gambled last night so today is day one. I have really spent a lot of money on real life poker over the past year and do I get socially. I have friends who do it socially and It is going to be difficult at first to find new hobbies. But a dramatic change is needed and I believe I can do it in 2017. Heres to a successful life changing year.

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Thanks to the the guys taking this forward for 2017, and thanks to Gary for doing the 2016 challange. I don't spend as much time on the forum as i would like to, but i always try and make sure i check in here every week, and can see how all the others are doing, so im glad this will be rolling over into the new year.

I'm checking in at day 101. Brief background: Been a sports gambler online for nearly 10 years now. Last year it got to the stage where i was in debt as a result of gambling and i knew then i had to stop. I have had 3 relapes in 2016, but now it's time to really kick on and give up this horrible addiction for good, and this is the longest i have gone without a bet in 10 years which is crazy!

Welcome to all the new guys joining the challenge and here is to a gamble free 2017!

RA