Life With Sports Bets Only

Stumper - thanks for post mate. I managed to go and just put on normal football bet today and not random gamble and the urge has now gone. It disappeared whenever I walked into the bookies.

I now see all these poor souls gambling on anything that moves and cant believe I ever did this, never mind for more than 20 years of my life. I used to walk in and join in the action, now I despise it. An important day today I think - an urge is immediately cured just by returning to the 'scene of the crime'.

It was the first urge I'd had for a number of weeks and hope its a long time before I get any more but I'm a bit more confident I can deal with them now.

The challenge of filling my time when no football is on remains a big one though.

Hey Cap'n,

Reading your diary, I recognise the random gambling urges myself, but those always used to follow on from my regulated bets on the football gave me a run of bad luck.

We do have the World Cup coming up this summer, and after that it's only a few weeks till the regular season will be back again.

Well done on sticking to the middle path.

Ryan

Hi Captain,

Long time no speak 🙂

You been anywhere in that new leather jacket yet?

Keep sticking to you plan C.

Jas x

My bank balance is today showing a (small!) positive balance for the first time in over 4 years instead of being overdrawn. This is due to no random gambling for almost 4 months.

Excellent news mate--perhaps you could lend some to Greece!

Captain

Good to see you have saved some money.It hasnt taken you so long to sort out your money problems so from now on you will see the benefits.World cup soon m8.Good luck if you can sort out the winner there.Good to see you are doing well kid .All the best Jeff.

Well the football season is over barring Cup Finals and the World Cup so for me that means my hobby of betting on football is over until August. As I've said before that leaves a HUGE gap in my life. Its only been a few days but I'm already struggling. I have so much spare time and nothing productive to do with my mind. In previous summers I just ended up spending spare time in the bookies betting on anything that moved.

I've had all the advice about things I could do but nothing grabs my attention, have literally been trying to identify something for years. It would need to be something productive that I had a real interest in, not just something for the sake of it to stop me gambling.

For anyone reading, I'm not looking for ideas of what to do, as like I say I've thought through loads of things for years without success, and I can always find something to do to pass the time, but just need to get my head away from thinking about the possibility of gambling cos right now August seems a light year away and emptiness from when I get home from work every night till its time to go to bed is hellish. By this I mean emptiness of productive thought, buzz, adrenalin, something to look forward to.

Why not write a book about your experiences. I am being serious Captain as I am sure what you have to say and how you handle things would be of interest to many and it would certainly take up most of your time before the pig bladder kicking season comes around again in a few weeks.

Good idea from Stumper,not that i'm encouraging you to gamble Captain,(i actually think this a good opportunity for you to see if you can quit altogether)......,i am surprised that you wont be betting on the world cup games or even the tennis and cricket as these fall within your re-mit of advanced sports bets?.The other thing you could of course do is enter chat on here of an evening to give you something to focus on.Whatever you choose to do i sincerely hope you manage to avoid gambling because of boredom.

Seano.

OK - hands up - the boredom got the better of me and I have random gambled for the last 3 days, losing £1000. This is after 4 months random gambling free.

Apologies to those who have supported me - I have let down you and myself but it was somewhat inevitable as the end of the football season left a huge gap. Going from studying football form, or watching and tracking results every day of the week to nothing was just too much. It has been like this other years too.

However after my 4 months 'clean' I am determined that this is just a minor blip and part of my ongoing recovery and plan to immediately get back on the wagon from tomorrow.

To those who have been willing me to fail, you' ll be jumping for joy and celebrating now but I will prove you wrong in the long term. ( And I have to also say I find it sad that you take delight from the difficulties of others as opposed to just providing support )

We can all succeed in our own way.

Hi Captain,

Chin up mate. You have been a great friend and supporter to many on here. I'd like to think that nobody will be celebrating your recent loss.

I've been indulging in a bit of random gambling myself over the last few months and it is all so futile. Like you i am now having another go at beating my demons.

I'd love you to have a go at joining me in stopping betting altogether though i remember how miserable that made you in the first few weeks of your diary.

I hope you find the strength to get back on your chosen path. 4 months was a great effort and you now know you can do it if you want to.

All the best Captain.

Cheers for the support Captain.

It is kind of ironic that we are both starting again at the same time. You will definitely have my support.

Hey Captain,

Sorry to hear about your lapse the other day, we've all been there, and it feels all the worse for the work you've put in before. All you can do is put it behind you, move on, and look to the future.

Personally I can't say I've experienced anything but positive support on here, and let me assure you that the vast majority will be wanting you to beat the compulsive gambling, after all it's what we're here for. Anyone bringing negativity isn't anyone worth listening to.

All the best,

Ryan

Hi Captain,

I'm certainly not jumping for joy, and I don't think the vast majority of people on here will be either. Everyone on here is at different stages of there recovery and should be treated with respect accordingly. You have my best wishes with your recovery and if you have any handy tips with getting myself fit enough to do a 10km by the end of the year, the advise will be much appreciated. (I'm really unfit at the moment).

Take care and Stay Strong

Steve

Hello captain,

What an extraordinary thing to write...

"To those who have been willing me to fail, you' ll be jumping for joy and celebrating now but I will prove you wrong in the long term. ( And I have to also say I find it sad that you take delight from the difficulties of others as opposed to just providing support )"

I think everyone here works on their own recoveries, in their own ways. I am almost positive that knowbody celebrates when another poster gambles when they didn't intend to.

I for one have always acknowledged the seriousness of this addiction and what it can do to people caught up in it. I also respect its power.

Having lived with the consequences of this addiction and experienced all that I have, because of this damned addiction... (including my husband (In the past)trying to gamble in a controlled fashion... just like you) celebrating someones misery is just plain ridiculous, not to mention a disgusting thought.

The way that you have chosen for your form of recovery is/was always going to have a high risk of out of control gambling sometime within it.

This is because you choose to continue gambling every week... all be it just once a week. (when you have had a self confessed history of major gambling problems & debt).

Unfortunately for you, the addiction doesn't care about 'end of season'.

Because you have kept it alive(thats the risk you take by betting each week), it now simply wants feeding... wants its weekly 'fix' and thats what you did.

Draw a line under it all captain, forget the loss & move on forward. Work on filling that void you now have, the time that you normally use to keep up with 'form' or whatever.

Going back to the basics of recovery, may help.

This as always is your choice, none the less and you have said all a long that you can control it, thats why you have these weekly bets, so good luck to you, if thats the case.

So with all that said, I hope you can get back to a place where you are happy captain.

Jackie