Abstain and maintain.Stepping forward never back.

Hi Duncs,

Just catching up on a few diaries after a few days away.

First of all I want to say how I have the utmost respect for you. Nothing will change that. You have been a great source of support for myself and so many like me over the past few years and i hope that you will continue to be for a long time to come.

Like myself you have a loving, caring and supportive wife. We should cherish every moment we spend with them and not allow the gambling guilt to eat away at us.

Take care and keep taking those steps forward.

With my very best wishes.

Dave

Dunc,

You have been in my thoughts over the last few days.

i can relate to the feelings of low self esteem-think it manifests from the guilt we are carrying. i suppose a year plus gamble free seems like a long time, but in reality it's fairly short compared to the time spent gambling. Hopefully you'll stay on this forum, perhaps posts less on others diaries-i know there were some posts about "God-like status" etc which can't be good for any person in recovery.

Stay strong my friend,

gazza

Evening diary

well I Saw a consultant today who was disgusted at the way my knees have been dealt with, and they have diagnosed the root cause, acute gout which will take 6 months of medication to clear up, at last i got to the bottom of it! Horaay! So perseverence has got me a result, another lesson learnt. Never give up.

Today i am getting back to basics in my mind, what made a difference? I set goals, small ones and bigger ones, then stopped, why? Again i became lazy complacent. Today i gifted myself a swift kick in the backside and set about making targets again, first one is to get up each day this week early and bake something before work and sarah and kids go off with a treat each day, so got home made some dough and will leave it to prove over night and will send them off with some breakfast rolls and hopefully a smile.

Today i made the all important choice to make this possible. I gifted myself a gamble free day. Today i am happy with that.

My name is duncs i am a compulsive gambler no bet today. Stepping forward never back.

DMac,

Great for you. Lovely to see you back in your stride.

In the past week, I have tried to take a page from your book and I am focussing on what joys I have received through deciding not to gamble that day. Small simple pleasures have brought an overall feeling of happiness to me. Tonight, I am going to bed before 9pm with a good book and I will be happy reading instead of worrying about how much I could have lost today.

Homemade bread rolls first thing in the morning sounds great. The smell would wake me up. In my house we would all be downstairs.

Tomso.

Hi Duncan,

Sorry to read about your woes, I would have responded earlier if I had known but I too relapsed again last Thursday and have been coming to my senses ever since, trying to get my focus back.

All we can do is dust ourselves down and get on with things, putting our losses behind us.

Standing alongside you my friend, ps are you on Facebook?

Hi Duncan

I am shocked reading your diary, your one person who I thought had managed to overcome this addiction. But like you have said in past we will never beat it we just have to live with it and try and not let it win.

All the best

graeme

Evening diary.

The lesson i learnt today was brought through the honourable tomso's thread.

That lesson is patience. Gambling was always through my fixation through the fobt instant, i took that trait into many parts of my life. The want to see results now, no time to enjoy the growth, no organic nurturing everything had to be done yesterday.

For 21 months things have been different, foolishly i thought the answer to a very short term problem was last week to be found in a punt.

Truth is it will never be found in a bet, the only thing gambling will gift me is long term misery. Today i carried on with my short term goal, i baked our youngests birthday cake ready for his 15th tomorrow, a day he shares with mr blue one of our whippets who will be 4, to which i secured a couple of decent bones today, so tomorrow we can all enjoy a treat.

Managed to cash in some vouchers to get our boy the onesey he wanted, not sure joe will agree lol.

To boot the rolls went down a storm, lily said she opened hers and thought oh, dads gifted me an empty roll! ! Then smiled knowing i fill the raw dough with a few savoury treats before baking to encase a lovely suprise in the middle. So smiles all round.

Today i will think on that proverb. All good things come to those who wait.

My name is duncan i am a compulsive gambler no bet today stepping forward never back.

Yo,

Not been reading much of late , but caught up with your diary on the way home from work tonight .

Good on ya mate ,for dusting yourself down quickly and the positivity returning . Which I believe has served you so well to abstain and maintain.

Addicts relapse , suppose we would not be addicts if we didn't . But we learn and if we have the will to move forward we will.

All we can do in my opinion is our best .

Take care mate ,

Shiny xx

Morning Diary.

I had to return to the Gp this morning due to the fact the pain in my knees today is at a whole new level of pain. I actually cant remember being in so much pain.

The doctor gifted me the fact that once again the gout attacks and all I can do is medicate with pain relief and can't start the course of drugs until the gout has passed.

This puts me in a difficult place, the medication messes with my mind!!

I will go with the pain for today.

To which my mind has been again re-focused by this wonderful forum.

today my thoughts are with elizabeth.

duncs stepping forward never back.

Hi,

I suffer a lot from inflammation in several joints. A few things I've found helpful which you may or may not have already tried:

- icing (I keep a bag of frozen peas at the ready but do mark them with a permanent marker so you don't accidentally eat them... blech!)

- drink lots of water

- avoid/limit alcohol (only just started doing this myself), meat and seafood, dairy, sugar, wheat

- eat lots of berries (esp blueberries) and leafy greens (esp bok choy)

- and as I've previously mentioned, eat lots of turmeric and if you only do one of these suggestions, this one would be it... it certainly hasn't "cured" me (won't ever happen) but has made a huge difference for me. You need to eat a lot of it and every day if you can. If you can't stand the taste or don't want to cook with it every day, then try to get in the habit of downing a teaspoon of the powdered spice every day (can minimize the taste by not breathing through your nose until after you've chased the swallowed powder with some juice or other healthy chaser)

I'm feeling for you! Hope it feels better soon.

Forgot to say... mix the powdered spice with a bit of liquid... water or juice to make it go down easier and then follow with chaser. I noticed the positive effects after about 2 weeks of doing this.

Hi Duncs just want to say thank you for the post on my diary feel so ashamed that I'm back here, but I'm very determined this time.... I no I prob said that last time and time before :-/ but hey one day at a time 🙂 hope alls well with you Hollie xx

Just to echo Carla here Duncs ..

Apple cider vinegar removes uric acid from around the joints and it's cheap as chips...

Tastes cr** but a few glasses a day the colder the better and even with honey to mask the taste will get rid of the acid that's eating into your joints,wearing down your cartilage and giving you bone on scraping bone pain and inflammation...

Also cherries ....very good for removing uric acid..

Xxx

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