One year gamble free

Bdog,

Fabulous achievement. 

Great news and great to learn that you’ve turned your life around.

This forum needs success stories like this. Thanks for sharing.

RR

Hi Bdog,

What a fantastic achievement, you should be so proud of yourself.

Warm Congratulations

AL

Absolutely fantastic. Well done bdog x

This is great news.  Hearty congratulations from me!

Well done mate, ive managed to only gamble away under two nudred pounds tho year and although I have gambled since may ive been pretty controlled. I stopped again on the 3rd December and am going to go for the year this time! Allways been a pleasure talking to u on chat so super pleased with ur achievement mate. All the best mate and happy new year mate! What ur next vice to give up? U said gambling was first u got any other unhealthy habbits dragging u down? Keep at it mate adam123

Thanks everyone.  All you lovely people have contributed to this achievement and I can't thank you enough.

Adam: If you remember I started to get fit again, but that's taken a hit over Christmas (if you cut me I would bleed a mixture of alcohol and quality streets), so that'll be on the list. I told many people to have an end goal in sight, be it a timeframe or an event, so i'll find one of them too. Proper Goal Setting (S.M.A.R.T) is crucial to being successful at anything.  Might go for a tough mudder or something?

Will also be saving up some money for a tour of Europe with Leicester in the champions league (fingers crossed!)

Dear @bdog,

Congratulations on your one year anniversary of becoming gamble free! What an amazing achievement, you're an inspiration and your wonderful post will give hope, faith and courage to many others.

Thank you for taking the time to post your excellent news and for sharing your journey with us all, please do keep sharing with our forum community and keep up the outstanding work.

You should be so very proud of yourself, we're all proud of you too.

Kindest Regards

Joanne

Forum Admin

brilliant goals mate i like them!!!! great ideas

Congratulations dog on 1 Year GF.

Wishing you contentment and happy days as you continue on your journey.

Stephen 

Well done bdog, you don't  know me.and I don't know you yet, I'm fairly new to this gamcare site, been 34 days since my last relapse but until then I never wanted to admit I had a problem even though I did.

I now know and admit that i am a compulsive g****** and have come to terms with the fact that I'm always going to be but i now have things in place to help prevent me from ga******ever again, I've recently started going to a weekly ga meeting and it seems to be great so I think I'll be taking it up for the rest of my life. This site also seems to help me immensely, plus I have great support from my partner who is willing to take control of all the finances, I think this is going to be one of the best things I have done to help prevent the addiction from grabbing me by the b***s. 

Anyway enough about me I just wanted to say well done my fellow gf buddy and keep it up, your smashing it.

No doubt I'll see a post in the future from you , until then peace out mate ?

Thanks all.  It means a lot.

The fight isn't over and despite me banging on about Goal Setting, there is a problem with having a time frame. When you reach the end, something in your head tells you you've finished. 

I haven't! I know that and that is what a year GF does for you. It allows you to understand the tricks the brain plays on you.  It doesn't free you from irrational or impulsive thought, but it gives you more time to reflect and act wisely. It's hard to control thoughts (they'll always be there, eve if they're lurking in a dark place in the background) but recognising and not acting on them is the clarity I'm now enjoying.

I've said it before and it sounds somewhat perverse whenever I share it on here, but I now have a little laugh at myself when I glance back at where I was and for me that's key. It means i'm in a different place.  Maybe a laugh is the wrong word, but the sort of shake of the head and chuckle you have when you miss an open goal, reverse your car into a shopping trolley, accidentally hit a kid with a snowball.  I hope that makes sense!! 

Glance back (recognise that things were out of control), but don't stare (that will send you mad)....and if you can have a little smile of acknowledgement and allow yourself the freedom to move forward, more power to you.

Well done Dog. 1 year is great and you have some good advice for all to keep going and set goals but not to forget you still have a Devil that could try and sway you back to hell. All the best for 2020.