Life With Sports Bets Only

Hi Captain hope it works out for you with doing the controlled gambling thing. Zero judgment from me. If it does work the way you want it - im really happy for you. Like you said your in a better place that you were before. And hopfully have the strengh to really control your urges and keep it sane. All the best Blocked.

Thanks for the post Captain,i hope you had a better nights sleep,if you are going to have a football bet tomorrow try to ensure that you get in and out of the bookies as quickly as you can,that is my main concern for you,i know you are feeling stronger, but to put yourself in that environment is testing the resolve not "random" bet to the limit!!!.

Seano.

Jeff/Blocked/Ade/Seano - Thanks for posts and support.

I'll continue to support you guys and others to be gamble free as you support me to be random free.

I will be RF for 28 days tomorrow. My football selections are made, I will be in and out of the bookies to place the bet faster than a rat up and down a drainpipe.

I will go in early so there is no queue and no having to endure racing commentaries. ( That said I know there is absolutely zero chance of doing a random bet right now - in a good place).

I also have a Road Race to run tomorrow so looking forward to that.

Hi Captain,

Cheers for the post mate. I'll get back to you on that 5k run. Need to do a bit of training first.

Well done mate on continuing to stick to your weekly football bets. I've just posted on my diary about placing a bet myself on the golf this week. It's been coming mate.

Good luck in the roadrace. I expect you will be able to give the field a head start and yet still emerge victorious! You are like Billy Whizz on acid mate.

OK folks, post on tonight's chat as I have been encouraged to share my thoughts:

I have been on chat and diaries for 4 weeks and up to now have found everyone really friendly, helpful and supportive.

I admit to going against rules by mentioning odds as part of chat tonight and apologised for that immediately when it was pointed out.

People will always have differences of opinion at times but tonight an extreme difference of opinion between myself and another user made it my first disappointing experience on the chat.

I think that there is a big difference between providing advice and experience, which I have received gratefully via many on here recently and someone coming across as being a dictator. I know the typed word can sometimes be misunderstood but thats how it came across continually for an hour from one person, when at same time all others were great as usual.

I have gone random gambling free for 4 weeks, really happy with that and everyone says well done except one person who basically says: 'you've got it all wrong, you're achieving nothing, you must listen to me'

Although I have only been here 4 weeks I have already also provided experience and support to others and had credit for it. I do not always agree with others views but support them regardless - we are all here because we have suffered.

I also felt a bit aggrieved that the moderator seemed to side against me when if there was fault it was surely equal fault so we should both have been told off or thrown out of the room.

Wont let this one occasion put me off and enjoyed chat with all the usual suspects. Thanks folks.

Hi captain,

Enjoyed chat tonight. Hope you didnt feel picked on. Sometimes when others challenge your attitudes, its done with love not hostility. In my own experience, when I have found someones questions are hitting a raw nerve with me and causing a strong reaction, it is for a reason. In these circumstances, Im glad that they challenged me and encouraged me to re-evaluate. I do accept that you are different though, and this may not be constructive or helpful to you.

I would like to share with you one of my experiences that sprang to mind after tonights chat:

I was around 4 - 5 months into recovery, and had managed total abstinence from all forms of gambling. It was at this point that I started to think about playing the lottery again.

I was talking about this in chat, and someone was challenging me. He was asking why I would want to risk triggering a relapse, if I was serious about my recovery. I maintained that I didnt think it would trigger a relapse for me, but he pointed out that I didnt know for sure so why take the risk?

I have to admit I found this a bit pushy. I was a bit irritated. I took the decision to start playing the lottery again in spite of this. If Im being totally honest with myself, he was right. I dont like that he was, but since I re-introduced lotto I have had other slips too. I am struggling to accept that for me, total abstinence may be necessary.

Looking back, I think I found his attitude irritating because I didnt want to accept that I couldn't bet at all. He was forcing me to face something that I wasnt ready for.

Anyway, this is a long-winded way of saying that I think gull was trying to be your guardian angel tonight, and play devil's advocate in order to help you. I totally accept that he may be wrong though.

I hope you manage to get things back to what you are comfortable with, whatever form that takes.

Take care,

f x

ahhh i missed that chat...was there earlier...i do think you have to take what suits you...if it can work for you great.All advice is welcome some may be hard or b******t...but i guess we take out of it what we can...

regards

micheal

PS - I was very grateful to you for supporting my request to not talk odds in chat. Thank you for for respecting my feelings. You are a good guy captain, and you do have valuable and valid views to offer.

Hey Captain, Iv just read your post and it sounds like 2 me sum1 has upset you in the chatroom 2night. Captain I know we had harsh chats recently so don't let this chatroom thing get 2 u.

Its just a chatroom for people to get things of there chest and share there views.

keep your chin up Captain

All the best

Morning C,

Sorry I missed you in chat and looking at your last post seems something upset you? When I first came on here I was upset once in chat and to be honest i still remember it. Something harsh was said to me and i still feel it was uncalled for. I'm way down the recovery road now so it doesn't really impact on me but i do remember it...so i know what you are getting at. Best advice i can give is to talk it through on netline...one to one....it helps.

I read a diary couple of days ago (not yours by the way) and a post got me feeling really angry...I went onto netline and chatted it through. I had to work out why it had made me feel so angry and what i could do about it. I know it's a lot of self analysis but try it C...it works for me.

I hope you manage to stick to your plan and not be tempted back to RG. You are definitely a controversial character on here and for that alone I really like you....it wouldn't do for us all to be the same...we need colour in our lives!

Enjoy your weekend...believe it or not I'm watching football again this afternoon!

Jas xx "love in an elevator"

Hi Captain

I wasnt in chat m8 but sounds like you got upset about something.Different people have different ways of dealing with this addiction .There will always be things for people to disagee with.Nevertheless this is your recovery and this is your diary. Im sure people are just worried about you but sometimes it comes out wrong. Anyway kid keep posting and reading Jeff.

4 weeks - 4 whole weeks random free - thanks for support I have got on here to get to this stage.

Ran Road Race this morning - 19.30 for 5k, not bad for a middle aged guy !

Football bet placed 5 mins after shop opened this morning - no queues, no distractions, just in and out.

Here's to the next 4 weeks being like this.

Captain,well done on the time on your 5k run,superb effort.And well done on getting in and out of the bookies quickly this morning.......,i remember recently you mentioned to me about going in the chat room,i don't like it/them Captain, look what happened last night,they can be very busy and users are all "thinking on there feet",

and with the best intentions in the world can write something hurtful,and vice versa.

Just as an aside,about 8 years ago i went a few times to GA,i know they are "dynamic" and each group differs ,but having come to blows 2 weeks running with the most vile bloke i have ever met,i decided it wasn't for me,it obviously works for a lot of people,and that is fantastic.....,however i am 100% certain that many hundreds of people who need help have been to 1 or 2 GA meetings never to return ,frightened away by the intesity and overbearing nature of the "dynamic".

Seano.

Afternoon Captain,

Chat was very strange last night. I must admit i felt like some kind of pariah in there and i expect that you felt the same. I don't see any reason why you should not be offered support for the way you are choosing to tackle your problem and i would agree with you that such support was lacking. I think i will give it a swerve in future to be honest.

For what it is worth i have done a lot of soul searching over the last day or so and i have decided that i simply will not be able to stay in control. I've tried a million times before mate and failed. I do not want to risk failing again as i'm loath to waste all the hard work i have put in over the last few months.

That is not to say that i will not be continuing to follow your journey closely and i really hope you manage to succeed in your chosen path. You will continue to have my full support.

One last thing. wp wrote in my diary about perhaps my lapse being due to the way others were dealing with their recovery. I can only assume he was referring to you. Just to let you know mate that i put a bet on because i chose to. Not because i was influenced by the route you are taking. I'm a big boy and i make my own decisions so don't feel bad in any way.

Oh and lastly i will be bettering that time for the 5k by the end of March 2010!

Mmmm......footie is on...yaaaaawn! zzzzzzzzzzzz! lol

Thanks for the post on my diary C. I remember when I first came on here...was in a real mess....totally screwed up and it was all down to gambling. I had tunnel vision and for me total abstension was the only way. I used to get really frustrated with users who continually made a mess of their recovery by lapsing, I just didn't get it...but that was my issue not theirs. Your decision to gamble in a controlled manner, is without doubt, a talking point! Perhaps it stirs up a lot of old emotions in some individuals, which may have been what happened in chat.....just guessing....and soz for going on about it. I just want to say that I hope you will continue to use the chat facility here....you bring life to the convos and definitely have the ability to get peeps talking and thinking....can't be bad.

I will continue to support you in whatever you decide is best for YOU. This is about YOU and noone else...remember that!

You have two today...lucky C..............

" I Love Rock & Roll"