Life With Sports Bets Only

Thanks for your thoughts Bear.

Just read I Am Addiction thread on Overcoming Problem Gambling. Amazing and should be inspirational to all.

Hi Cap,

It is powerful and true post on overcoming, I am glad we can agree on something so inspiring and helpful for all of us.

I suppose we both know that gambling destroys lives, takes it all and a lot more on top of that, leaves u empty and crushed to the ground. Recovery is a light for us, something we have hope for to keep carrying on. To change things around, to heal our souls and most important to get that trust back from our loved ones. Me, ive got no one to to prove I can keep on the right track, I do it for myself, learning each day, being patient, avoiding dark thoughts waiting to give a green light to this habit. Gambling is awaste of time for me, and I know u prob don't like to hear it, but honesty I learned to share on my journey is something I never want to let go.

Sorry for ramble, I'm not attacking ur tread here, after all we agree or disagree on something, life goes on, world never stops turning, but if we can find that strength to stop something painful and destroying from happening, why not to give it all to try and avoid it?.

Take care and stay safe

Sandra

Thanks Sandra

9 months random gamble free today, 3 months to go.

Many Congratulations Captain, what a fantastic achievment ! you must feel on top of the world.

Have a celebration drink for yourself tonight, i will raise a glass or 4 🙂 i dont normally need much of an excuse.

Dark Place /

Congrats Captain.

Returning to random gambling would be utter lunacy if you ask me...

Personally, I am finding that real progress has come only in recent months (i.e. approaching 18 months off gambling). I mean personal, social and professional progress. You and I have discussed before how there is no 'epiphany' moment - no sudden release when we feel our lives are wonderful without gambling. For me, this is coming progressively - but taking many months and years of hard work and patience to achieve. Don't take that backward step.

D123

Thanks D123, good to hear you are still going strong.

Yes no moment when life becomes wonderful. I am not surprised that my only benefit through 9 months of random free gambling is financial. My recovery has spanned a 6 year period. Before that period I was totally immersed in gambling and it had an enormous effect on me as a person and on others both emotionally and financially.

Over the past 6 years I have gradually found my true self again, not just over the past 9 months abstinence. My life and person analysis over the 6 years has been thorough. I have found my true self but although I'd love to be 17 again I can't be and unfortunately at 47 bad decisions, circumstances and a narrow interest in topics restrict my opportunties a great deal.

So I respect your opinion D123 but I doubt that another year of abstinence would make any difference.

Hence my consideration of a return to random come July. And as I said in my earlier post, an opportunity to prove I could do it with small stakes. I simply could not bet £100 on a virtual horse now, my head is in a place which just wouldn't allow it.

I am proving I can live without random gambling. I am proving I can be a better person and I am at peace financially without sleepless nights although I have a number of years to go of clearing debts. At the end of my year of abstinence I need to make a choice of what to do next. Although I have proved I can live without random gambling I may not want to particularly in light of other pastimes being so limited. Living how I do just now is better financially but it's a robotic existence it's not really a life.

Thanks for your continued support captain,and a huge congrats on 9 months random free.

I would love to eradicate the mad thoughtless gambling and just have a wager on events I have strong opinions on,but I have no control when my initial bet goes down captain.

Thanks for the thought tho captain. I'm gona throw myself into other money making schemes that don't involve gambling,I've been lazy,even tho I work 50 hours most weeks,I could use my boredom moments more productively.

I am really sick of gambling,defo couldn't gamble at the spur of the moment anyway,no card and I don't know anymore bookies,hopefully this will carry me through the next few weeks,give me a chance to re discover the true me,like you have done in your recovery.

Thanks again

Needed to log on and report a really stressful day at work. The type of day that for years would have led to unplanned random gambling. Now it doesnt as I have put it out of my system.

Finding another way to deal with the stress is a challenge though, got to stay calm. Random gambling helped me do that most days, although obviously not the days where I lost all my money.

I dont need relaxation techniques when stressed I need to let the stress out somehow, by doing something productive or exciting, not easy, deep breaths.

Hi Captain, Want to thank you for your caring and supportive post a while back.... oh yeah, I have definitely been on a downward spiral with gambling and life in general.... definitely confused and feeling stuck. You said I need to analyze where I've been, where I'm going, etc. but to be honest, I 'm not sure I have the energy for that. I suppose it's the depression talking. Oh well, for now, I'm just going to try to motivate myself to follow through with some pretty basic things.... trying to push myself to do one or two productive things every day.... like coming on here which I've neglected. Congrats to you on reaching 9 months! I hope to get there too but...... That truly is an achievement so give yourself a pat on the back!

Further to a previous post, I have done a lot of thinking and I have decided that at the end of my 1 year abstinence from random gambling on 28th June, I will not be returning to it.

Random gambling provided an escape from a mundane life. Without that escape the everyday problems are more difficult to deal with. I really wish I could go back to random gambling at small controlled amounts.

But the bottom line is I simply cannot risk my finances going downhill again.

I know I will get to 28th June and do a year. I am concerned as to what happens after that though. Think it will just be a case of 'I can do it now, I can live without it' but life will continue to be average and it will continue to be about mandatory day to day routines and survival and debt reduction.

Random gambling provided the escape from a life ruined by bad decisions. I am now serving the sentence given for the combination of the bad decisions and the use of random gambling as a coping mechanism for over 20 years.

Having paid off some debts during the 9 months of abstinence from random gambling and not used credit available, a combination of cards and overdraft means I have £26000 available to me in credit.

I have no intention of using any of this but it tells a story. In random gambling days that £26000 would be gone in a few months.

Off Friday Monday for Easter. Will just be like Christmas time off spend time in nostalgia world watching DVDs from years ago and remembering when life was better.

Nothing in the current world to interest me except a football bet on Saturday afternoon. Should at least get some benefit from time away from work but very limited benefit in comparison to a lot of people who will have great weekends.

Always remember there are many worse off than me and my predicament and robotic life is partly my own fault but difficult to stay in that frame of mind continually.

Hi Captain... if its any consolation I will spend much of the Easter weekend just pottering around. Yes I have my running but as with you perhaps there is not a great deal else going on. But to be honest that's ok. I'd rather live a calmer quieter and more peaceful life than what I went through when spending the whole easter weekends just gambling.

My guess is that some people will indeed be having great Easter weekends but others won't be, like my mate who lives on the edge of eviction. Enjoy your time away from work. Regards.. S.A

Don't get this thing about people feeling happier because the sun is shining, never have. Wouldn't that mean everyone who lives in a hot country are deliriously happy? Here we find people who only leave the house to go to work or some indoor pursuit in leisure time suddenly feel compelled to do something outdoors because it's sunny, but normally they wouldn't dream of going for a walk on a cloudy or rainy day...don't get it.

Happiness can be defined by many things but I don't get how weather alone makes someone happier.

For a compulsive gambler they are happy when winning and miserable when losing. Until of course they realise they have an addiction which is affecting their lives and they can't continue to live like that.

When I was in random gambling action I slept great on nights when I had won and badly on nights when I had lost everything. Small wins and small loss days I slept somewhere in between those nights. Now it's somewhere in between all the time.

Someone on here a couple of years back 'discovered' that compulsive gambling wasn't about the winning and all wins were just ammunition for more bets. You don't say. Surely most compulsive gamblers had always realised that. When you win you don't spend the winnings on a holiday or new clothes or anything tangible. For CGs the first thought after a win is about the next bet, maybe a larger stake to get a bigger buzz.

That's why we are in it, to be active, in the action, and a win means we can stay in the action for longer that day or the next day. It's not about the money, sure some will dream of a life changing win but most will be realistic and realise that their primary aim is to win to stay involved.

I've never suffered from any other addiction but I'd imagine most are the same, you just want to feel the positive from it.

If you are feeling a high from your addiction, you feel happier, irrespective of the weather.

But then when you realise you need to stop because you can't control and the lows outweigh the highs and affect lots of other parts of your life, you feel sad, regretful and it is a challenge to change your life and omit the problem areas of gambling. Again irrespective of the weather.

Hi Captain... you sound a bit bitter in your last post. I say this with a smile because I can appreciate (in part) where you come from.

For me when gambling I really couldn't give a rats a**e what the weather was doing. I'd go out to gamble come rain or shine, hail or snow. All that mattered was getting to and being in my usual haunts... gambling!

Also if am really stressed or otherwise pre-occupied in my thoughts I hardly notice the weather. It could be quite heavy driving rain or really hot bright sunshine but because my mind is focussed elsewhere or in a panic I only have a slight awareness of the weather and its impact on me. I remember running a marathon last year and only realised after the event how sunburnt I'd actually got.

However for me, when am not gambling, when am not otherwise pre-occupied or stressed about something else I really notice the weather. This might sound a bit namby pamby but the other day when it was pleasantly warm sunshine with a gentle breeze and I wasn't feeling stressed about anything else I really tuned into the weather and my walk up town was lovely...warmth on the cheeks, gently breeze, very invigorating. I felt happier!

I do believe that the weather can have a positive or negative impact on our moods. But I also take your point about if we win we feel happy regardless of the weather and If we lose it could be the nicest day of the year and we'd still be miserable. That's true but am just saying what happens with me when I take gambling and stress out of the equation... in short am more aware of the weather and its impact upon me.

Ramble over... S.A