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A gambler's journey

Welcome to the forum, I read your thread and I hope that your methods help you to find continued abstinence.

I am a mechanical man in a digital world!

I myself couldn't use a computer before I entered my own recovery journey simply because I had no time to.

All my gambling was carried out through the physical act of being in the bookies.

The size of your losses may shock some folk but for me the simple truth is as compulsive gambler's we will simply gamble all that we can get our hands upon. The money is purely the fuel that feeds addiction.

I don't know if your thread will receive more public acclaim if so I hope that the reception is positive, through my recovery I have seen one other fella do something similar and the media portrayed the poor fella in a fashion that derailed his recovery.

Unfortunately I believe that the public in general are very naive to gambling addiction and the gambling industry itself paint a picture that we simply need to adopt 'self control'

Something that no active compulsive gambler can manifest.

So I wish you well on your chosen form of recovery.

Something I learnt very early is recovery has to be tailored to each individual person.

Abstain and maintain

Duncs stepping forward never back.

Hi

The logical thinking fallacy is what ruins most of us. In my day life I am quite prudent now and again you will see the gambler come out in me. But me when gambling and literally I am buzzing and my brain no where to be found. Good luck on your journey.

Thanks guys. I've relapsed so many times after the past few years, because I always think I'll be able to win it back. I'm not expecting my forum to be seen by so many people that the media will ever got sight of it. I was going to write everything down in my own journal, but I thought I a blog will help to keep my thoughts for longer, track the dates of my posts, and I really do want to help other people. I'm fortunate to have friends around me who have helped me out at times I really need it (paying the mortgage and so forth), but not everyone has this support, so I wanted to try to give something back to others in a similar position with gambling problems (whilst supporting my own journey).

Thanks for the support. Day 2 today.

Day 2 on my blog (please follow here http://agamblersjourney.weebly.com/ ). Please take a look. I discuss some of the feelings I get and wanted to get others views on the subject - are they the same as mine or different? There is a poll to collect your thoughts.

Another bill came in today which I can't afford to pay. Definitely struggling, but I need to stop gambling and focus on overcoming my addiciton. I'll add another post to my blog in the next few days. I've tried to include some quotes to help get us through and inspire us to overcome our problems.

My blog link is above. Please give it a read and get involved in the polls / surveys. It really helps knowing I'm not alone in this and we're all working through it together.

I have added a new blog posting taking about relapses and what I'm goign to do to try to stop myself relapsing in the future. I hope it helps others too. http://agamblersjourney.weebly.com/blog

NT, thanks for your thoughts. Hopefully I'll be gamble free one day 🙂

As for my hope to change the world and make it a better place, I guess you've been there and it's hard to do! From my professional working life, experience has taught me that if you want to bring about change, you'll need to influence the right people and give them a reason to want to change. That's hard - a) who are the right people? Is it the groups you spoke of that can bring about the change you want, and do it effectively? and b) why should they want to change? Unfortunately, no matter how good our ideas our, individually we don't hold much weight. If we have an innovate idea that we all agree with, a petition or something may get the idea noticed as a first step?

I want to spend more time thinking about gambling reform; I haven't had a chance yet, but I'm certainly interested in hearing your ideas. If you have a link to the other forum where you've posted some stuff, please PM me and I'll give it a read.

Thanks for your support with my individual journey - it's much appreciated

AGJ

I read your blog and its really good, I hope your recovery goes well and the days keep growing!

Thanks very much. New blog posted today: http://agamblersjourney.weebly.com/blog

Hello Logical Thinker,

I have just checked your blog and it's impressive and the numbers are impressive too. You mention you have read self-help books, have you read 'Overcoming Problem Gambling' by Philip Mawer? What helped him is making his gambling problem GamblerAloud opposed to Gam Anonymous and one of his points is do not hide this fact but, on the contrary, make it verbal, notify all your friends in writing by drafting your gambling history in a CV format stating dates where, when and how much you lost) and then email it to your family and closest friends so that next time when you have this urge to gamble there is this tiny but still a barrier between you and gambling.

Another thought - have you ever thought that gambling and money won is devil's money and it is not fair for you to get it this way and that when you do win it, it is like an advance payment which will be taken away from you at later stage through illness or through misfortunes of your family? i.e. back when you started weren't you afraid of the law of the boomerang effect? I am not a gambler myself but sometimes when I think 'Oh newbies are lucky, I wish I could just have this extra £300 right now to buy something nice, maybe I should just try this one time', the thought that this money is not actually earned and that something bad will happen to me afterwards, would stop me.

Also, have you listened to Gabor Mate? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66cYcSak6nE

Thanks

Helen

Also, you may want to use this one for the 'Quote of the day' section in your blog:

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.

“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

I really like that tale... I need to feed the good and not the evil.

New blog post up to day if anyone's interested in my journey: http://agamblersjourney.weebly.com/blog

Thanks for the thoughts. I will include the tale soon on my quote page!

Sorry it's been a few days! New post here: http://agamblersjourney.weebly.com/blog