Day one : positivity

Good for you jspray1984. I also have a couple of little one who mean the world to me and deserve the very best from their dad. Let's knock this on the head not just for our futures, but for theirs. Keep up the fight. All the best

Day 5: Resillience. So its day 5 without a bet or spin and the resolve is good. Saturdays would usually be a very active day of betting for me so thoughts naturally or habitually are drawn towards the days fixtures and racecards. My access to funds is however zero and self exclusion is apparent on every online account. This hasn't stopped me in the past as payday loans are so easily accessible even to those with the worst credit history. I am staying away though. Just 5 days gambling free and I'm starting to focus on the important things in life. Career, family and above all happiness. I may not have much in the way of money or assets but the one thing money cant buy....love is in abundance.

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Well done Jspray, keep that positivity going, you're spot on about love being the most important thing. Keep the love of your family in your thoughts every second of today, it's a protective factor for the risk of you doing way you usually do of a Saturday. Take care.

Well done on your progress so far, how has the rest of your week gone?

Great news on seeking the help too. I am not sure if I'm ready to talk as seems too real when the words are actually spoken. I know must face up to it. It's probably what I need.

I'm on day 8 now. Although I think if I had some spare money I may of given in.

Got a tough journey ahead of us... one day at time...

Hi jspray1984,

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for your post.

It seems like you’ve been struggling for a long while with your gambling problem, and in spite of different attempts that you made to try and overcome it, you find yourself going back to gambling again.

Eventually, you’ve decided to go for professional help from Gamcare, and rightly so as it is rather difficult to stop gambling problem by yourself. We are ready to help and support you every step of the way to overcome your problematic gambling. We can advise you on strategies that you can apply to distract yourself from gambling. We can also sign-post you to other charitable organisations if we think you’d benefit from their services.

12 sessions of free counselling is readily available on request, and if it would help you to stop gambling, and all our services are highly confidential and also free of charge.

Depending on the type of gambling you do (online, bookies/ casino/ etc.), we can advise you to go for a blocking software or, to go for self-exclusion from bookies and casinos in your area.

Please do contact us again with more details about your gambling problem so we can advise you accordingly.

In case you’d like to contact us on our free phone Helpline, our number is: 0808 8020 133, and you can speak to one of our advisers regarding your gambling issue. Our lines are open every day from 8.00am to midnight.

I’ll encourage you to continue to read from our forum, and also to try and stay in touch with us so we can continue to support you, and to know how you’re getting on with your recovery.

My best wishes to you on your journey to recovery, and please keep posting!

Kind regards,

Beatrice

Day 13: Breaking the habit!!!!!!!!!!! The hardest thing is filling your day with alternatives to gambling. Especially those times and days when you are most likely to gamble. I have been away on a course for the last three weeks coming home only at the weekends when I have the pleasure of sharing it with my beautiful daughter. If I didn't have her, I would without doubt find it difficult. Its still difficult, the thoughts of gambling naturally creep upon me at numerous points throughout a day. "just one bet.....that's all. I can control it" but we all no that's certainly not the case. One slip, and straight back down that horrible slide into that dingy pit that we have all come to loath. Remembering those low times is key. We don't want to wallow in self pity or remember the bad times to feel bad. We need to remember them and use them as a shield towards a happy gamble free future to fight off them urges. I'm not putting things off. I'm going to do the things I've been saying I'm going to do but when my heads been buried never happened. My career has been in reverse, that's changing. I'm making steps to see a psychologist to address my mental health which in the past I have been too ashamed to fully acknowledge as an issue. So the fight goes on remembering with my shield in one hand and fighting with the actions of actually doing something with my sword in my other.

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How you getting on JS? I saw a post on an old thread where you said I find myself wondering why I always return to the one thing which has made me miserable time and time again but then went on to say that is addiction all over. I wanted to thank you for that comment as it really resonated with me. I’ve now read a couple of posts on your diary and can see your day counter is really high! Are you still GF? Hope things are well.