My Recovery Diary (last bet 22/04/06 )

A fantastic message to send out to all Jim.

It really is a massive boost to all users of this board to see someone clocking up years gamble free and still returning to help others.

Some good friends have stopped posting and I can't help but worry about them, hopefully they are simply too busy to post.

But anyone reading your diary can't help but be inspired to fight on. Gamcare, GA or whatever method works you & people like you show it CAN be done.

Long may you continue onwards & upwards Jim.

Hi Jim

I have never been to your diary before but I do remember seeing the Torquay logo on various diaries..So I have a quick comment for you if that's okay..

I have only been gamble free now since 26th october 08 but in little short of 2 months I feel my life has changed drastically. I feel sharper more confident and almost back to my best, and this (I feel) is due to giving up gambling.. For me the easiest issue to solve was the financial one. Getting the self respect back and respect of other's will take longer..

I think that I agree with you, from a point of putting life on hold just because I was a gambler. YOU should have good things to look forward too. So I think that making a payment plan and sticking to it, is the way forward thats what I have done and thus far its working. I am planning a holiday to florida this year and I know that that's something I couldn't have considered when I was gambling..

Anyway You seem to have a lot of really good answers ( one's that would work for me anyway) so I just wanted to congratulate you on rebuilding your life and the live's of your loving family. Danm

Cheers dan

I just try and let people know that ther is a way through this.

What i do works for me, it seems that some people dont like the fact that some of us have found a way out.

Whatever anybody thinks of me and the way i deal with my addiction will not deter me from my chosen path.

As I said....what I do works for me.

Jim (last bet 22/04/06)

Just a note to myself to remind myself of the anger and frustration people still caught up in gambling feel.

I shouldn't let it bother me but try to remember that I too felt like that when I felt that all hope was lost.

I will try to be more tolerant.

Jim (last bet 22/04/06)

Good point

well made, Jim.

I have been where you describe Jim. What a great place for a compulsive gambler who wants an excuse to himself, to bet. I have learned over the years to except others for what they believe in. It is frustrating but if it's their path then they must tread it. Your posts are very well tought out and calculated. I enjoy reading the experience from someone who knows.

Sorry if I'm putting you on a pedastool but that's the way it works.

Best wishes to you and Jac

Steve E

Hi Jim, thanks for your post in my diary. I know anger and frustration were one of many traits i exhibited when i was gambling and to be honest a long time after i stopped. Im slowly learning to deal with those, not always sucessfully it has to be said, but better nevertheless.

There are those on here, and outside, who are showing similar characteristics to how i was and i now know how and why i was that way. When in that state i chose to lash out, argue for the sake of it mainly because i was angry with myself. I now choose not to respond to those people or get into silly arguments with them on here or otherwise as i know ultimately they have to find out themselves and eventually we all hope they will.

As always, i appreciate you and Jacs input on here and can see many others do as well. It is invaluable and the forum is all the better for it.

Best wishes

Keith

Hi Jim

Just a question really.

A shock happened last night. Iain had been to GA, he hasnt had the opportunity to go since before xmas, and lots going on. But he came back and said the chap that had been running it, had gambled, and was now not going to run the group, he was, instead going to find a group to go to nearer home.

I found myself worrying alot, as if this man, who has been gamble free for years, and running a group can turn back to gambling when something has gone wrong, can this then happen to anyone?

Iain is doing remarkably well, but I am no innocent, I am well aware anything could happen, but this has shook my faith a little.

Any thoughts?

Debs x

Hi Debs

I along with others have posted on your diary.

Stay strong

Jim (last bet 22/04/06)

Still plodding along working my recovery.

Life, even with all its problems, is good.

Not really too much to say except that anyone can be enjoying a gambling free life if they truly want it.

Jim (last bet 22/04/06)

Still plodding along working my recovery.

Life, even with all its problems, is good.

Not really too much to say except that anyone can be enjoying a gambling free life if they truly want it.

Jim (last bet 22/04/06)

Hi Jim,

Not sure if you remember me but I used to post on here a good couple of years ago. I've been pretty much "clean" since then apart from one slip three or four months ago but luckily that was short lived.

It's good to see that you are still on here offering support to all who seek it, those first days/weeks/months can be sheer hell and it's great to see that people like you stick around to prove that it can be done. Top man.

Take care,

Skippy.

Hi skippy

I still hang around here because it works for me, new comers keep the horror of what I had become fresh in my mind.

I want to remember what gambling does to me, I never want to forget how bad it gets.

I also want people to know that it can be beaten, that our lives can be rebuilt.

Although some people just think I am sad...lol

But I will carry on reading and posting, because I know where complacency leads me...and I dont want to go there again.

Glad to read that you are doing ok and got back off the merry go round quickly.

Stay strong

Jim (last bet 22/04/06)

I dont think your sad Jim,i think your an ok guy,

Regards,

"" A NEW LIFE ""

Cheers anl.

I am sitting here trying to think of something to write but finding it hard as my life is just "normal" these days. Its not perfect...I wish Jackie wasn't in pain all the time, I wish I could do more to help her.

I do what I can but I cant take the pain away.

But, I love her and I know that she loves me, without her I am nothing.

And to think that I almost threw it all away just because I wanted to bet on which horse could run faster.

Madness, utter madness.

I think she gets fed up with me telling her I love her all the time..I must tell her at least five times a day..lol.

But I cant help it, every time I look at her or think about her it buzzes around my head...God I love this woman.

I had better stop or she will get embarrassed when she reads this.

Anyway, my point is that I can feel like this because I don't gamble anymore, my head is no longer full of thoughts of betting and hiding bills and making up elaborate lies.

My mind is clear to think of the important things in my life...like Jackie.

Jim (last bet 22/04/06)

Still here and still not gambling.

It is fast coming up to three years since I realised that I could not gamble any more and made the decision that I would not gamble any more.

The best decision that I have ever made in my life...bar non.

Jim (last bet 22/04/06)