Replace gambling with?

Hi

In time I was able to abstain from gambling.

Yet to abstain and not fill your time and thinking to some healthy things in your life is doing hard time.

Things that helped me was meetings after meetings.

Mixing with like minded people.

Focus on and write down my needs.

Focus on and write down my wants.

Focus on and write down my goals.

Make plans for holidays or cheap trips.

Find a hobby and not allow it to become an obsession.

A healthy life is about a healthy balance.

Write down any thing I do not understand or which is confusing.

Then meet with different people to get a perspective which best suits you.

Learn what your emotional triggers are and talk them out with a like minded person in recovery.

Learn to understand when we are vulnerable and how best to cope with things and situations.

Love and peace to every one.

Dave L

AKA Dave of Beckenham

I suffer with ADHD and get bored and lose focus very quickly. Gambling is the only thing that can hold my interest for longer spells 

Replace gambling with LIFE.

Ive found i can distract from gambling, But replacing gambling with something else that gives you the same buzz will only tantalize your dopamine receptors. In my opinion you are better lowering your dopamine levels, or i believe that after a few weeks or months your brain will seek a bigger dopamine hit that only gambling may be able to provide.

You really need to learn to relax and reduce your dopamine cravings, yes i know that is much easier said than done, but craving hits needs to be reduced as it will just lead you back to gambling in the future.

Good Luck and work hard to find the answers.

@sinceninetyeight it’s not. Gambling was probably fun at one time, but slowly over time it has pushed everything else out if the way. You don’t need a replacement for the buzz or feeling otherwise that’s when one addiction replaces another. Ideally you need to find peace with yourself. This takes time and changes within have to happen.

There is a lot of talk about filling the void in the early days of stopping gambling and i agree that’s important. Long forgotten interests, new hobbies, whatever keeps you occupied. It’s not a long term strategy though, that comes through change and finding peace and acceptance with putting the gambling down. I find if I avoid watching gambling activities I tend not to think about it. The less I think about it and the more I can do in my life the further away from my last bet I go.

For me it’s through the GA 12 steps but if you aren’t in GA maybe counselling might help you find the change that’s needed.

Chris.

 its a destructive habit so can only be "replaced" with another destructive habit like drinking or drugs

In short the answer is you don't replace it 

@suckedin best answer out there from you,it really is when I stopped gambling I just wanted to stop gambling at that final time of me making that decision and I never looked back.Didnt replace it with nothing just started to live life like everyone else around me.

And it worked.I definitely won't spend a penny on gambling ever again in my life even if someone holded gun at my head.

Been gambling for over 20 years,spend about 500 000 quid out of my pocket rollovered around 4-5 milion.

I, like you gambled everyday for 10 years. I’m 5 months into recovery. For me it sounds cliche but exercise helped me get the buzz. As I got further into my recovery the simple things began to feel good again. Listening to music, walking and then actually being able to do things because I had some money again. It doesn’t happen over night but it does become better with each day. Your brain starts to adjust and I can now feel ‘happy’ with the mundane stuff of life.   

@ae20 fantastic to hear this,keep going mate life without gambling is much much happier I want to say life without addiction to alcohol,drugs,or gambling is great.

You can still smoke from now and then lol

Posted by: @ae20

I, like you gambled everyday for 10 years. I’m 5 months into recovery. For me it sounds cliche but exercise helped me get the buzz. As I got further into my recovery the simple things began to feel good again. Listening to music, walking and then actually being able to do things because I had some money again. It doesn’t happen over night but it does become better with each day. Your brain starts to adjust and I can now feel ‘happy’ with the mundane stuff of life.   

I feel exactly the same you start to enjoy doing stuff with time it takes take time and everyone is different

Hi

The true answer to this question is you heal from an illness to get back a healthy life and some straight thinking about life

A gambling addict is an ill person trying to get better. NOT a bad person trying to be good

This is not actually about doing a jigsaw or finding a small hobby

This is about finding out who you are and why you were so jaded with life. Gambling plays off other illnesses in the mind.

Your desire not to do anything else needs to be looked at closely. Yes gambling is a drug so why did you need that drug above all else? 

I understand believe me. I've lived the gambling addict life for forty years. I did not realise how ill and delusional I was

I had no real desire to get a girlfriend....they just drifted in and out of my life. I had no real ambition and I ended up living in old clothes with no desire to buy anything.......or do anything better

The experiences I could have had like holidays and nights out........ all given up as a J****E addict for gambling

How can I get through to you? I now have a car and I enjoy buying things for that car.   I have some smart jackets and I look forward to going out more if only just to be around people. I saved money up and now realise that I was never gambling for any money that would have made a d**n difference to my life. I built my credit rating up and can carefully access money with control.

I'm not smug or gloating! I'm saying you can all start to make a difference to your lives and gambling was never the answer. Indeed the gambling I did was ONLY an escape drug from the hurt and my mental illness...an illness distracting from my core illness.

I see a sunrise with the birds singing......I'm already a wealthy man just experiencing that if you understand?......money  how much do we all want?......its got to be worked for by the majority of us and life isn't fair.....again all the gambling dens ever sold you was drug addiction

By all means start a hobby but it's far far more complex than that

Best wishes from everyone on the forum

Hi

Thwe wording that people say is missing the buzz.

For me that was the highs of my fears, the bigger the risk the bigger the buzz.

Before my recovery the wording I used was I have to.

Saying I have to implies resistance, reluctance, resetments.

By me saying I have to I get no satisfaction n the things I do.

The recovery program for me is about healing my pains.

The recovery program for me is about exchanging unhealthy habits in to healthy habits.

The recovery program helped me understand that I wasted a lot of time due to lack of confidence and self esteem.

The recovery program helped me understand that in the old days I was very unhealthy.

The recovery program helped me understand that I can change from unhealthy reactions in life.

And change those in to healthy interactions.

I know that living with healthy interactions is far better than reacting to pains fears or frustrations most of the time.

The recovery program helped me understand that I can help my self make much healthier choices each day.

Just for today only I do not want or need to gamble.

I only have to face TODAY, why worry about things I can not change.

I can not change the past so why live in the guilt and pain of the things I can not change.

Learn from the past, do not live in  today.

I have been in recovery since 1969.

I am 30 years clean f my addiction.

If I do not gamble today why still go to meetings if I am not gambling.

The recovery program helped me understand that I can heal more each day and become a person I like to be with.

I only have to put more effort in to healthy actions and nopt be froze in the fears of my past.

Today learn to be more productive

Today learn to be more open less afraid and focus on my needs my wants and my goals and become a person II can love and respect even more.

Love and peace to every one.

Dave L

AKA Dave of Beckenham.

I understand how you feel about getting bored and losing focus easily. If you find yourself losing control or becoming overly invested, it's important to take a step back and reassess.