3 month - Christmas Challenge

Hi David i haven't been on here for a while but I'm now into 77 day's gamble free i did your last challenge and it was a great help to me so i would love to join this challenge thank you 

Thanks David, just to say if anyone does start to struggle please post straight away for support, we are passing this as a group, together we are stronger.

Posted by: @d122010

Hi all,

I am going to be running a 3 month challenge. I think challenges and goals can really help keep us focused, keep us checking in on gamcare and overall just help us on our non gambling journeys.

This one as titled is the Christmas challenge. I found that I needed to do something around Christmas and other "trigger dates" to make sure I didn't fall back into gambling. Although I am a big kid and love Christmas, it is also a high pressure time, particularly financially and that is going to present urges and just speaking from my own experience when the urges get extra strong you need a to get a stronger defence to make sure you get through it.

This challenge should only be a part of your defence but I hope its a helpful and enjoyable part.

So my thinking is starting the challenge on November 1st as this gives us a little bit of a head start, gets us in a good place, hopefully one month+ gamble free once December hits and we run the challenge until 31st January, which takes us through Christmas and New year and hopefully past the panic stages financial linking to Christmas.

Also what I really like about running it through to the end of Jan is, what a great way to start the new year!! The first month of the year gamble free and all being well those completing the challenge in full would have 90+ gamble free days, sets up 2023 perfectly. Wow 2023 that's scary to type!

I will do a weekly update every Monday/Tuesday, highlighting any milestones and to list who is involved in the challenge.

This challenge will be kept open throughout, you do not have to have started from day one, joining half way through (or at any point) and completing the remainder of the challenge will always be a big achievement and I think more importantly a great commitment in yourself, in you saying - I WANT TO DO THIS!

Anyone that slips during the challenge, please let us know straight away, it will stop the slip become anything more and of course you'll have all our support and we'll help to get you through the remainder of the challenge.

I ran a 30 day challenge recently and @cerrry93 suggested for the new challenge, to have a talking point or question for each week that we could all post and comment on. I really like that idea so if anyone has any suggestions please let me know and I'll use them in the weekly updates, I think it would be good if we could all be involved, so comment away...

So to sum up, 1st Nov to 31st Jan, 3 month, 92 day challenge. A great way to start the new year. I wish everyone the best on this journey and challenge. I'm excited, not sure if it's for the challenge or for Christmas maybe 50/50 haha.

Comment below to join and I'll list all names on day 1 and the on the weekly update. 

 

I'm in thank you my name is Ken and I am an addict and I want to beat it and break my habit thank you 

Hi,

@ssc180922 to bring it to 100 days that's quality be great start to 2023. 

@lakelands great to have you back - well done on the 77 days - one day at a time but you'll be over 150 days gamble free after this challenge, bet that sounds good - we'll I guess I don't bet! But it does sound good!!

@lids19635 well said definitely this challenge should give us extra focus, motivation but also support and we can help each other during the journey.

Just on that, that's my only disappointment at the minute that I haven't been able to be as active as I'd like on here, with work which is over 50 hours every week and family plus I'm trying to start a second job - which is exciting, I want to be a kids entertainer and do kids magic shows. Which again is great but everything together taking a lot of time. Hopefully can find the right balance at some but it is nice to be busy but have to take time to shut off sometimes. Anyway that's enough rambling. 

@gamblingfree37 hi Ken, great to have you on board. I hope this challenge can help. Being new here I would say explore the site and read some diaries, there's a lot of help, info and support on here. If you have anything specific you want to ask or discuss, please message in this challenge and I'm sure we'll be able to help. I'd say best thing to start with is to keep posting (either on other diaries/posts or start your own diary), make a habit of it and you'll find people truly want to support and help each other.

Take care all.

David. 

Thanks David yes 150 days gamble free sounds great I'm looking forward to the challenge take care 

Hi, haven’t been on here in a little while but definitely keen to be a part of this. Found the last one very helpful ☺️

Hi @cerrry93 really glad to hear the last one helped and great to have you join this one. 

16 names below signed up, congratulations all, we have all made a great decision to stop gambling and improve our lifes. 

@rock123

@ssc180922

@lids19635

@steve13

@jobbo 

@nyaba 

@simonsmyork19

@mendoza

@brigitte85

@adam123

@ssc180922

@lakelands

@lids19635

@gamblingfree37

@cerrry93

@d122010

Hi all, 

Day 1 pretty much in the books, apologies for not posting earlier, it's been a hectic day. 

16 of us on the list for this and I wish each and everyone all the best, I hope that we can all have a great gamble free challenge, a great gamble free Christmas and a great gamble free new year. 

Whatever stage of your recovery there will be a lot of milestones along the way of this challenge, if your at day 1 you'll be 3 months gamble free and approaching the treble figure club! Something to be very proud of. 

Once a week I'll do an update and also pose a question or a topic to discuss, hopefully every can give there advice and opinions. So my question to start things off is,

What is your main tool or strategy in helping you not to gamble? Now you can answer more than one, as I'm sure we have multiple and you may have some ideas that we have never thought of trying and even if it's a "we'll known" tool please still mention it as it may not be well known to us all.

So for me I would say self exclusion and blocking apps. 

So self exclusion for those who don't know is banning yourself from betting shops/casinos/arcades etc. The best and easiest way I'm aware of is through M.O.S.E.S (website - https://self-exclusion.co.uk/ and contact number - 0800 294 2060) as you can exclude from multiple shops at once. But you can visit each site individually if you prefer - you will need passport photos (2 per site or just 2 for moses). Going in to the bookoes/casino etc to self exclude can be very imppowering but also can be unnerving and you also run the risk of gambling so I would advise contacting moses directly unless you are sure you will be ok going into the arcade/betting shop etc. - or a really nice idea might be to go with a friend or family member, they will ensure you don't gamble and it will show your level of commitment to stop to someone who hopefully can offer you support going forward. 

If you gamble on your phone/laptop/tablet then install a blocking app that blocks gambling sites. There are I believe free ones but they are probably not as effective as the paid versions and the paid ones are inexpensive especially compared to the sums you could gamble away without the blocking app. I won't recommend any as it's probably best to do your own research and you can find info on this site. 

So why have I named the 2 above, 2 reasons, 1, I believe there a massive help to preventing gambling and secondly I wanted to say or SHOUT SELF EXCLUDE, GET A BLOCKING APP DO ANYTHING THAT WILL HELP PREVENT YOU FROM GAMBING!! 

Why am I shouting that, because in my experience as an addict I wanted to keep the door open to gambling, part of me, addicted I still wanted to gamble even though I hated gambling. I would convince myself I shouldn't self exclude because I should be strong enough to do it on my own. I don't need any crutch, I'm a grown man and if I choose not gamble well that's what I'll do, I don't need no help - guess what I need help and I'll take all the help I can get if it helps me to stop gambling. Every year I renew my self exclusions and my blocking app auto renews every year. 

So that's my advice, hope it helps, look forward to hearing from others. 

If anyone does have any questions on self exclusions or blocking apps, ask away. 

Have a great gamble free week.

For anyone just seeing this you can join at anypoint just reply saying you'd like to be apart of this, we'd love to have you. 

16 of us below, congratulations all, we have all made a great decision to stop gambling and improve our lifes.

@rock123

@ssc180922

@lids19635

@steve13

@jobbo

@nyaba

@simonsmyork19

@mendoza

@brigitte85

@adam123

@ssc180922

@lakelands

@lids19635

@gamblingfree37

@cerrry93

@d122010

Access to money is my biggest weapon ...... If it's in my dad bank account it's safe..... I know I have money if I need it but I only have access to a small amount.......it's worked for six year why change it..... All the best Adam checking in still gamble free

Great idea, good luck! 

Blocking apps and self exclusion as mentioned ,and also access to money again already mentioned. But taking things forward “learning to relax”,part of that is coping with stress, trying to balance out and level off my moods so I don’t get highs followed by depression, and learning that if boredom sets in there is nothing wrong with just relaxing and enjoying doing nothing. So yeah for me finding how to relax again.

Thanks @cassy0110, good luck to you to, feel free to post on here and join any discussion we may be having. It's all about supporting each other. 

@adam123 spot on if you don't have the funds to hand you can't gamble.

If you travel about the gamcare forum you'll hear of the triangle - time, money and location. If you remove 1 (try and remove all 3!!) then you can't gamble. So remove access to money as Adam says. Remove location (self exclusion/blocking apps/walk or drive a different route so don't pass gambling sites) and time as @lids19635 says find something to replace gambling both in terms of filling the time, distracting yourself from the urges and ways/things to do to deal with urges.

Also I think what @lids19635 says is a great way to stop gambling but also a great for self improvement, I feel like I don't choose to stop gambling but I am now I person that just doesn't gamble - I've change who I am or that's how I like to think of it. You can do that with your time, instead of the person that spent x amount of time gambling you might now fill that time with meditation, yoga, gym, cooking and eating healthy or any number of things. Or certainly one thing I would recommend is find anything you enjoy maybe something you've neglected because of gambling and do that everyday if you can even if it's just saying for 10 mins today I'm going to do something for me, I think that's really powerful.

Take care all

Hi I just wanted to post here because I have upset my partner and I am feeling the urge to gamble because of the way I have made her feel thank you for letting me talk about it here as it is helping by expressing myself here

Hi I just wanted to post here because I have upset my partner and I am feeling the urge to gamble because of the way I have made her feel thank you for letting me talk about it here as it is helping by expressing myself here