THE URGE TO CHASE LOSSES AND OTHER THOUGHTS

Attend Ga. There you will find no judgement, understanding, experience & solutions

You are certainly not alone MrStop...My rock bottom was £300 in my account to make it through the month not being enough! Despite all my years of gambling misery, the only solution I could come up with was to gamble it to make it more & yep, you've guessed it, like all the thousands of days that had gone before, then I had £0 to last me the month. Don't waste your petrol money, don't put yourself in a position where you may have to sell something & more importantly, don't be the fool I was!

These type of sites have gifted me my recovery & there's hours & hours worth of reading on them if you need a distraction. I'm so glad you went with the blocker & a tiny piece of my advice is helping someone! You have a long bumpy journey ahead but you can do this - ODAAT

Thanks for the encouragement you have all given me and the advice re blocker and GA. I will continue to come to this site and I'll go to the GA site to have a look at what they offer too.

I've been on the GA website and their meetings are in the evenings twice a week. I can't do evenings because questions would be asked by relatives as to where I was going. I can't tell them about my gambling problem as my family situation is very delicate at present owing to an ongoing crisis. If they found out it would create a real nightmare scenario. Believe me it would cause absolute mayhem. It's that serious.

Let's put it this way, if I can keep from gambling from here on in I'll be OK. The lies and horrible deceit will hopefully fade a bit over time. I hope.

I do intend to come to this site each day for encouragement and to offer it to others if I can.

I'm minded to go for face to face counselling with a daytime appointment so I'll look into that aspect.

Today I got a couple of pangs and due to force of habit the thought came into my head just for a split second to visit a gambling site. It was weird the way it just appeared in my head from absolutely nowhere ( I was concentrating on reading something totally divorced from gambling). Accompanying the thought or urge was a pleasurable sensation and that's obviously what can lead to a relapse. It was like taking an injection of a pleasure inducing drug that would have nightmarish withdrawal symptoms. Then I quickly remembered I'd got the block in place and could'nt bet. I was just about OK.

One thought has passed through my mind about the use of all the I's in my posts. That's probably because being a gambler is a hugely selfish pastime. It's all about me or should it be I. Horrible.

Best Wishes

Sorry to hear you think GA is not an option. You talk about selfishness in your post. I have some news recovery is also a selfish process. When i dont put my recovery @ the top of my agenda i have nothing. Without recovery my family will suffer any monies earned will be burnt @ the alter of gambling so recovery is my priority over all other things. There are no shortcuts to this its a hard but wonderful journey

If you want recovery bad enough MrStop, you will be able to get it! I had help from OH breaking my triangle (which is what you have done with your blocker) but the rest has been accomplished through determination & sites such as this! The fact that you put the blocker in this time hopefully means you are ready for recovey & no longer willing to risk the devestation it will reap if your family find out! The addiction does not want to lose you, the urges will come & try & catch you off guard @ all sorts of odd times...As long as you don't let them win, each time they try, you get stronger!

Recovery is all about 'I' & that's fine, once you start getting stronger & feeling better, other people in your life start reaping the rewards!

Look after you - ODAAT

Thank you people for your encouragement.

Hi MrStop, it's very encouraging to see that you have been very busy offering advice & support over the last couple of weeks...Looks like your recovety is becoming less & less about 'I' which I know was worrying you a while back! I hope you are finding posting & reading about other people's journeys as positive as I do!

Congratulations on your 16 days 🙂

Keep safe, be strong - ODAAT

Hi ODAAT,

Thanks for your encouraging words.

There are a lot of positive posts on this site.

It's helped me greatly.

Just glad to be able to offer others some help from time to time.

Addiction can be a lonely place.

Best Wishes.

MrStop wrote:

Hi ODAAT,

Thanks for your encouraging words.

There are a lot of positive posts on this site.

It's helped me greatly.

Just glad to be able to offer others some help from time to time.

Addiction can be a lonely place.

Best Wishes.

Very lonely! No one understands you, when I tell my family ive had a slip I get the eye rolls and 'not again' and then the shouting, you cant explain or show them how you feel because they don't understand

Hi Mr Stop, congrats on 17 days of winning 🙂 I hope you don't mind me responding to the above on your thread...

Leah1991, we understand! Maybe not why we do what we do but we know your pain! Why don't you start your own Recovery Diary on here & see if a little bit of support from a bunch of lovely strangers doesn't just help you get this nipped - ODAAT

Great work on 3 weeks Mr Stop & awesome advice from you all over the site 🙂

Keep it all up - ODAAT

Thanks ODAAT.

I really appreciate your comments.

Determined not to slip up again as I've done in the past.

Stay Strong

Bye for now.

Mr Stop, I'm not sure that you spend a lot of time on here (your own diary) but I wanted to drop by & salute you my friend! You came here a broken man a few short weeks ago & since then have continued to leave valuable footprints all over the forum 🙂

It's wonderful to hear you starting to feel more positive whilst not being complacent & I'm sure with the exercising that you must be getting healthier too 🙂

Keep up the great work - ODAAT

Thank you ODAAT,

This site has helped me a lot. I am feeling mentally a lot stronger than I was. It's not only your bank account that is drained by gambling. I try to help wherever I can and see that aspect as part of my recovery. I feel the 2015 Challenge has been crucial for me as well. I don't keep a diary on here as I've never been a very good "diarist" at any point in my life really. I'll still keep posting though unless I'm away on hols and stuff.

Stay Strong People.