my betting diary

Winning Post--you are doing brilliantly mate. Stay strong and don't let the ba****ds get you down.

Stumper

35 days and nothing to report..managed to sneak onto a computer at work...today i have not gambled..tomorrow i wont gamble..keep the fight up folks..

5 weeks wp

Good news that is kid.

As me you post a lot. it definatley helps us m8. Keep posting and offering help all the best Jeff.

Hi Winningpost great to read your doing well. 5 weeks bet free !! wtg wish you a continued gamble free recovery! Blocked

thanks for the posts lads..never occurred to me it was 5 weeks yesterday so al give myself a belated pat on the back..day 36 today and still no urge to bet...keep the fight up folks we can do this...

Hey there wp.

Thanks for your post on my diary. Hard but fair words. Just what i needed.

Well done on day 36 and also well done on your continued support of others which is a great credit to you.

Don't you go f*****g this up either!!

Hi wp,

Passing the five week mark is brilliant - well done! I can see from your diary that you are committed to doing this, and not hiding away from your previous problems which I really admire. To echo other comments, the support you give to others on here really means a lot. Your positive recent post on my diary put a spring in my step. I'm going to follow your diary with interest - keep up your positive approach!

Cheers,

Alan

Hi wp thanks for the message on my diary. I have spoken to the nat debt helpine a number of times. There is help out there but im battling to see if I can sort this mess with out any arrangments or debt plans. CCjs are nasty things that hang around for years - somthing im trying to avoid - but not sure i will long term. Hope all is good - keep strong day by day. All the best Blocked.

Cheers for post mate. You are doing well on your recovery. I hope that I will be on that level myself soon.

As I said, payday loans have earned thousands from me in a little over 2 years. If I do not relinquish my reliance upon them, then I will never escape my situation. Next month will be difficult. After paying all debt payments, bills, rent etc I will be left with zilch. I have not even got enough to cover food or travel expenses. I also have valentine's day. I am not expected to make a massive fuss of it but even a small gesture like a takeaway will cost something. So I will have to figure it all out soon. I could sell my phone and use an old one which I did not sell because it wouldn't have fetched anything of value. But my gf will question why I have done that. I have a DVD collection but I know they give you ridiculous amounts so I am loathe to do that.

So........anyone wanna buy a half eaten tuna sandwich, a desk lamp with no bulb, a 21inch telly which weighs about the same as an elephant, my old hot water bottle or an old Xbox console which doesn't work. Anyone???

Hi Winning,

Congratulations...into your 6th week!

I really like your posts Winning, very encouraging.

Jas AKA Mother Theresa ! x

Well done on your 6 weeks wp. It feels like youve been on here for longer.Keep up the good work Jeff.

day 37...strange had an urge earlier from that little devil on my shoulder wanting to put £1 on tonights lotto..i thought its only a £ and i could become an instant millionaire then the wee angel on my other shoulder belted him with her brolly and told him where to go.close but not close enough..today i will not bet tomorrow i wont bet...keep your guard up folks we can win this..

Cheers for the post on my diary wp.

You didn't offend me at all with your earlier post to me. Short sharp words was just what i needed. Your input is appreciated as always.

He is a little blighter that devil chap isn't he? He is always in my ear telling me to have a little bet but like you the angel on the other shoulder is winning these days.

Keep going wp you are making it look easy.

Hi Winningpost,

First of all thankyou for your support on my diary.. much appreciated.

I totally relate to your thoughts about the lottery.. that is my achillies heel. I have to keep revisiting the reasons that i don't do the lottery cos like you say its very easy for the little devil on the shoulder to say "hey its a pound!". But in reality its more than that. For an addicted gambler its like stepping back into the gambling mentality.. living life on a dream. I wrote the below in the summer of 2008, thought i'd reporduce it here and see if I can add to it...

1. I would not be able to spend just one pound on a lottery ticket once a week..sooner of later (probably sooner) I would be buying tickets for the mid-week draw or daily play or for other lottery games and scratch cards and before i would know it..i'd be spending £20 a week..thats over £1000's a year..frightening!

2. If I won a small amount of money..i'd want more..so if i won £10's the likelyhood is that i would then buy ten more lottery tickets and/or scratch cards

3. A small or medium sized win would likely trigger me to other forms of gambling..i'd see the win as extra play money..then once the emotional rollercoaster has set in..i'd be doomed. I have experinced this before where a small win on a scratch card led me to putting hundreds into machines..ultimately it all goes.

4. I would plan my time around watching the draws on tele and id spend time thinking about when the numbers were to be drawn and what they might be.. i'd spend time looking at previous weeks numbers thinking that somehow I could pre-dict what was due to come up... even though my logical mind knows that its all random. I would waste my time thinking about the gamble.

5. Gambling does not make me happy..its just a very temporary euphoria. I red sometime back in some research on lottery winners. There conclusion was that jackpot winners return to their previous levels of happiness within a few months of the win. I accept in myself that winning money does not lead to long term happiness. My happiness can only come from within.

A new one...

6. I just don't especially want to take the risk. I have suffered enough because of my gambling addiction. I havent gambled on anything for 20 months and thinking about it I havent bought a lottery product since the summer of 2004.. I intend to keep t that way.

Anyway ive gone on a bit.. albeit in copy n paste fashion.. keep working recovery a day at a time.. regards... S.A 🙂

Hi wp,

I have also often thought about the odd £1 on the lottery, but like you, I'm not sure if it will end there. So I have stopped buying a ticket each week (I also make sure that I dodn't even have £1 on me to avaoid any risk of spending it at the bookies)

Good move by you I think. Good to see your positive approach to this at the moment.