Abstain and maintain.Stepping forward never back.

Hi Dunc's.. good to see that you continue to be in a very positive recovery mindset. Long may this continue am sure it will. Thanks you for your support as always. Warm regards... S.A 🙂

Hey Duncs

Thank you for reminding me on my post ....3 words ..."you're worth it" ..lol ...

Have a good day with the wuffski a and the fam xxx

Good Morning Dunc's.

Thankyou for that post on my diary. Read and tried to take in every word. Its hard when everything makes perfect sense, and then it becomes a battle between what you know whats right and whats going to bring you too your knees. A real no brainer hai!!

''This is a project for life, a life choice, one which above all other things will lead to only better things.''

Need to drum that into my ever thick skull. Strength and honor to you.

Hey Duncs,

thanks for your posts on my chat, and thankfully it has gotten a lot better for me the past few days. You and your wife's progress is an inspiration as to what can be achieved, keep up the great work.

Phil

afternoon diary.

popped to work this morning feeling on top of the world.

came home this afternoon to be brought down with a bump.

my gambling past haunts me again.

I did not pay the council tax for four years whilst gambling and through abstinence got the bills put into one monthly payment of a ton.

in February they did a review, we had knocked a grand off, all happy, so Sarah did the paperwork and we carried on paying a ton a month ever since, happy days.

well i came home to a bailiffs letter, default notice!!

when Sarah signed up the paperwork the 'nice' man had written 120 in the monthly payments box, so we are 60 quid short in the last three months.

no rational conversation ensued, just a blunt conversation to say there is 200 quid odd to be paid tomorrow or they will seize goods tomorrow.

so once again my past haunts me.

well we have the money, that's our buffer for the month gone.

the 200 quid is extra charges, so we get nothing off the bill.

All because we did not read the form.

so tomorrow i shall see the bailiff in person, i am tempted to go to the post office and get it changed into pennies.

The life and times of a compulsive gambler.

17 months in still learning.

My brain went into melt down, it hollowed f***k em, go punt the wedge, they won't get it then!!!

well Mr compulsion to gamble you can f*****k of an all!!!!

My life will one day be free at least from the legacy of gambling debt i gifted it, for that i can rest assured.

no bet today, got a bailiff to gift my hard earnt, maybe three months ago they could have picked up the phone about the shortfall?? oh no there was no 200 quid in that!!!

Duncs stepping forward never back.

looking forward to 29 days of rationing, beans on toast anyone??

Hey duncanmac,

Sorry to hear you had to come back home for bad news, too right, i wouldn't be impressed to get a letter 3 months later with load of b....t. I'm afraid, there is a lot of gaps in the system.

Just keep doing what you doing and stay strong, because gambling won't sort any problems out, just put extra ones on.

Take care

Sandra

DMac,

That is absolutely shocking news. I cannot believe they are offering you no understanding whatsoever. A simple mistake. They disgust me.

On the other hand today you have proved the difference in DMac and how far you have come in such a short time. You can cope with anything life throws at you and you take it on the chin and carry on. No gambling allows you to make this payment. O.K. so things will be tough from now until the end of the month but you are better equipped now to deal with such issues compared with 18 months ago. Today, the gambling demon takes a straight right hand to the chin. He cannot tempt you back and must know he is onto a long term loser.

P.S. I bet you make a great beans on toast. Tomorrow night I think I will join you in enjoying delicious beans on toast as a salute to you our leader in recovery.

Marching on with you.

Tomso.

You must be feeling so good that you now have the skill to overide the feelings that a******** like this raise to the surface in all of us. Still one more example of the crazy situations life throws at us each day.

Methinks curried beans would be a good option and really let rip when he comes to the house, such a good combination beans and curry, their combined forces should blast him to hell and back.

xxx

Oh Duncs

What a horrible episode- today's a testament though to your progress. You coped admirably mister.......feel a blast of REs recipe wouldn't go amiss though!

Take care

Irene

x

Yo,

Today I raise my cap to you , when faced with that niggling voice , saying just punt it , you spat back in its face .

Good on ya my friend !

Always forward never back !

Shiny xxxxxxxxx

evening diary.

thanks folks for the fantastic support, I do feel like i have my back covered, the only place left for my bastar##d addiction to stab me.

Well i payed up the bailiff and put a few questions across, no answers given, just patronized and told over and over they knew how i felt, I guess they learnt that on there training course. I did throw in the "i will be talking to the organ grinder in the future, as you monkies all talk nonsense"

that went down well lol!!

So after a quick investigation today i have some forms to download in the morning, and i will start about complaining about the way my case has been dealt with.

truthfully I don't think it will change the outcome of Todays visit, that has been another harsh lesson, I have taken it on the chin and will move on.

but if i can help another person not have to suffer the same degrading experience in the future that would be for me enough.

So morning off tomorrow i will get it done first thing and then once again move on.

I refuse to let it divert me from the path i am on, it's just another lesson, recovery dishes up the odd bitter pill, which i will swallow and learn from and be safe in the knowledge that the good days will outweigh the sh#t ones.

You just have to want it.

i do 'BELIEVE'

no bet today. those odds are sh#t. too much to lose.

A tonic came in the way of half a dozen big punnets of strawberries for two quid!!! they now sit in the form of four jars of jam on the kitchen window, now those beans will be sweet eating, as there will be scones a coming.

Duncs stepping forward never back.

Hey Duncs

I know you have the money to pay this but it may be worth ringing Stepchange .....only becasue they know how the system works and will reassure you in 2mins.

I have had a few bully boy bailiff letters before and it seems that they have less power than we think...this is what I was told anyway,

You may be able to renegotiate again and pay off the surplus in a smaller amount . As far as I know , so long as you are paying something ,a small amount , they can't seize your stuff,

R and D xx

Raising a glass of concrete to you Dunc's, yet leaving enough of the grey stuff to cover that foooking bailiff.

Strength and Honor for supporting me in stepping forward and hopefully never back.

Paul

Morning diary.

Well that's my complaint sent off, as I said I don't expect any outcome but it may make somebody have a think about proceedure.

Found out quite alot this morning on how much more rights we have and there verbal muscle flexing is about all they can do.

I don't want to dwell on things, to be frank it has been another good lesson and the bottom line is, if it had'nt been for me letting my addiction reign for so long, in truth the bailiffs would not be visiting.

so a good dose of medicne taken and I will move on.

If I continue to arrest the compusion to gamble life will continue to improve.

This forum has this past week seen a few relapses and that I use as a dose of medicine too, that some folk are still being beaten by this addiction, I think we can all take strength from them.

I Take great heart from the courage it takes to admit to our shortcomings, my Sarah blamed herself for not reading the form properly regarding the debt arrangment, and felt she had let the team mac down, before I would take this as a sign of weakness and would have exploited it to my own ends satisfaction, well my addictions.

I truly believe today I just see it as a lesson, my brain still formulates about gambling, there is an addiction sat in there, it will spend the rest of my life trying it's upmost to flick the switch and get me back at it.

The compusion to gamble lead me to make the same mistake over and over again, the only difference was the losses grew, but fundimentally I just kept repaeting the same process over and over to no avail.

I knew every time I walked into a bookies I would lose, or at best get tomorrows stake to lose.

Yet I still went at it.

Yes the formulating is still the same, my brain telling me I could win, yes I probally could, but I would not stop playing until I lost all those winnings and more.

Abstinence gifted me that vision, to all those who have relapsed recently, I wish for you to find that switch of yours, I had enough of losing.

On the 23/01/2012

I won, I actually won, yes there are lessons to be learnt, and learn I will.

But there is one contending factor, I will only do that and continue to if I make a choice not to listen to the ridiculousness that is my addiction.

Here's a funny thing the debt I am paying through those nice folk has through there latest round of paperwork risen by an unexplained £3, now whilst at it would any of us give a hoot about £3???

Well today I do, I care about every single penny.

Those pennies need looking after, i'm fortunate enough that my Sarah does, for that I thank you, my beautiful amazing wife.

Duncs stepping forward never back.

No bet today.

Hello dunc. Glad your learning and taking the right attitude to things. Your doing so well and to be what close to 18 months gamble free is exceptional. A pleasure to have you on the thread. I'm hoping it can be a great success for us all.