My Road to Debt, Recovery and Relapse.

Thanks tara 🙂

Hi all

World cup has caused me to relapsed and I can now say goodbye to a holiday I had planned. Cancelling it In the morning. Feel completely useless, down and unprepared for another week at work.

World Cup has made it really difficult. The best solution for me was to stay really busy prior to kick off and I never sat down and watched a whole match. I kept busy and did jobs then watched 10 mins, went off again, came back watched another 10 mins and then watched last 30 mins. I had to try and find a way to distance myself from the usual football betting cycle of thinking about build up, getting excited to see the bet pan out etc. A little sad but I’ve got a lot of decorating done this weekend!

Keep your chin up pal. It’s another relapse but you need to learn and improve for the next urge. It’s tough but you can do it.

Cheers mate

Hi all

I relapsed again on Wednesday after 3 months. It seems to come in 3 month periods and the feeling gets worse each time

Does anyone else suffer from obsessive thinking after relapse about how to get the money back and get back to normal? for me, it's a security thing but it will mean for the next few months I'll now live without a life again and save massively to recoup back what I lost. I don't feel as if I'm living any kind of a life. It's an OCD thing

Any help/advice would be appreciated

Dear CC12345,

Sorry to hear about your relapse. It sounds like you are in a cycle of gambling - getting into financial trouble - scrimping and saving to get out of said trouble and not gambling - finally getting on the straight and narrow - the feeling of a 'little bit won't hurt' aka 'it wasn't too bad' sets in - you gamble - the cycle starts over again. This is why we generally recommend blocks. The terrible feeling you get when you had a gambling episode and lose unfortunately doesn't last forever. And the blocks are there to make sure that you can't gamble even after the dust settled.

Recovery is about learning and understanding and growing. Hope you are ready to put the blocks into place.

Wishing you all the very best,

Eva

Forum Admin

Hey mate. I read your whole diary. PLEASE don't end up back at square 1. You made SENSATIONAL strides to pay off your debt. Don't f**k it all up and let yourself to down again and everyone around you. You have already proved youre better than that.

You don't have to gamble. Just for today. You know this already. Then do it again tomorrow. Get your a**e back to meetings asap. Put blocks in!!! Good luck friend.

3 years is 1096 days... Its 156 weeks. Its 36 months. 36 paychecks you've had to slog for in order to pay that debt back...

Don't throw away all that graft over an hour or twos thrill. Its all a fake thrill anyway. You could watch a film in that time for £10 at cinema and it could blow you away and give you a REAL thrill... A real feeling of something beyond the normal.

People are falling foul of gambling every day man. Don't be the next victim. Do you have the energy to start again with those paychecks. 36 paychecks. 1096 days of grafting. For the sake of an hour. Do the math mate. Then close this book for good. Good luck.