This is my 6th attempt at a successful Recovery Diary. Sigh.
I was making more of an effort at the end of last year and beginning of this year and reached a new personal best for my number of gamble free days. I had a bad day and decided to have a bet. I did not do too much damage and I started all over again the next day. However, I was disappointed with myself and I was not concentrating as hard as I had been previously. I started having a few harmless bets for small amounts every other week. I thought this helped as going totally gamble free felt like I had dark clouds hanging over my head the whole time.
Although my gambling is not as intensive that approach has only lasted a few months. I follow the horses, I got more involved as the Festival season and National races started and I had to have a bet on each day of certain races. I have been gambling more and more heavily.
Time to stop gambling again.
One harmles bet snowballs into hours of betting. I have been there as well, be strong and keep away from temptation. Dont look at the cards and dont look at the results.
Hi degen
So sorry you've had a lapse. I'm wondering what you mean by 'successful' recovery diary? Is it important to you that your diary thread should not contain anything about lapses? It can be really useful to document everything in one thread so you can see your whole journey and all its ups and downs in one thread, and look back over it and see any patterns, and how far you've come.
Have a look at this post from Megan about how she felt looking over her diary, including relapses: http://www.gamcare.org.uk/forum/come-long-way .
But if it's important to you, feel free to start a new diary. And remember you can call us on the Helpline if your struggling, or chat to us on the Netline.
Take care,
Forum Admin.
Thanks guys. I should be looking back over the past year and thinking of the progress i have made rather than the fact I keep relapsing. Anyway, I am hoping this time success is permanant (e.g I stop completely) or I pay off some debts.
What are you going to do differently this time? The emphasis is on "do", it's the actions you take that change things for you.
CW
Day 16
This time, I am keeping busy and I am not thinking of gambling very much at all. I am making an effort to stop watching the big races at the weekend. I know a small harmless bet due to boredom can quickly snowball into a lot more money.
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