Success I think

400 days is great but what has driven you to start gambling again?

A compulsive gambler cannot become a "normal" gambler.

Stay safe.

I'm not convinced this is in any way a success story on day 1 of your return to gambling & am with fatuesque in regards to us never being able to turn it around.

Congratulations on your 400 days & please remember why you came here in the 1st place...Stop playing with fire.

My addiction told me for many years I could control it, stop if I wanted but that was complete nonsense. I wouldn't/couldn't stop without help & as for control, I snort @ the thought as I remember the mental battles I had with myself as I sprinted off to the cash point or huffed & puffed @ the desk because I needed to try & reload.

The site is littered with diaries of people thinking it will be different 'this time' & as much as I hope for your sake you figure this out, I think this is pretty irresponsible place for your story, giving false hope to fools like me who would have run with this earlier in my journey. I personally would consider this a relapse & hope no-one out there reads this after a period of abstinence & uses it as an excuse.

What does gambling give you that you can't survive without...Is it really worth the risk?

I've flagged your post as abusive for the reasons aleady given by ODAAT.

CW

Not a success story in any way. You may be able to 'control' your gambling for a week or even a few months but eventually old habits will return. Forget about the money for a second, think of all the time you wasted gambling. Are you happy to go back to wasting hours on end either gambling or thinking about gambling?

This shouldn't be in the Success Stories section as it's anything but.

Deaar Reddy,

I have moved your thread into the "recovery diary" section of this forum.

You posted your story on the day when you started gambling again. The wish to continue gambling (in moderation) or return to gambling is a very prominent thought pattern amongst people who are trying to stop gambling. It is often linked to gambling having occupied a very important position in someone´s life and the thought of never doing it again feels like an insurmountable loss.

Maybe you would like to ask yourself what makes gambling so important to you that you would risk your recovery ?

Some members here have asked what lead you to want to post your story about returning to gambling today as a "success story". Maybe reflecting on this question can help you gain more clarity about your situation and about what you would like to do going forward.

The "success story" section of this forum is designed to give space to experiences which have the potential to motivate others in their attempt to recover from problem gambling. You describe returning to gambling today after an absence of a year. While this may count as a "success" to you and may be what you wanted to achieve all along, it doesn´t offer a great deal of motivation for others.

Kind wishes

Gabriele

Hi Reddy

I just wanted to add to what Gabriele said yesterday. At GamCare we don't advocate either total abstinence or controlled gambling as being the only path to success. Each person has to find their own way and work towards their own goals. Forum users here are telling you that they have not observed controlled gambling to work long-term.

While your definition of success may be the ability to return to controlled gambling, since you've only started this yesterday, it may be too soon to declare that this is working for you.

If you do want to pursue controlled gambling, you can continue to report on your experiences here in the recovery diaries section, but be mindful that this topic can be triggering for some people so avoid going into detail about any gambling activity.

Deirdre

Forum Admin.

Understand where you are coming from with your post mate. I thought I could adjust to controlled gambling but you'll just end up losing and chasing the losses. You'll lull yourself into a false feeling of security then you'll end up betting big to chase a loss. You don't need the ups and downs of gambling in your life at all mate.

That is a really sad post. 400 days of hard work undone.

We will be here when the time comes.

Hi All,

Want to to write a follow up to my post.

Firstly apologies if I have offended anybody, it wasn't my intentions and I certainly didn't want to negatively affect individuals recoveries.

My post was in the 'success stories' section as I hope for it to be one. I don't see my bet after 400 days or so as a negative, I see it as an introduction back into normal life and a stage of trusting myself again.

I appreciate abstinence is needed for some but responsible gambling and making sure 'you stop when the fun stops' should surely be just as encouraged.

I dont think being overly cinical and negative about the future of a individuals recovery is helpful and it's not a good mindset to be in. Positivity is always to be encouraged. Therefore I am determined to make this a success story and return to this in 400 days or so and be at a stage where this recreational bet remains the only one.

I see that as achievable as I have yet to use gambling blocking software, not set foot in a bookies during my recovery or bought a lottery ticket. It is also not my intention to play online casino or bet on every football game like I was doing. I definitely don't need the intense heart beat of putting hundreds on the spin of a wheel in my life anymore..

Again I appreciate all of the support from the early stages especially from CW and ODAAT .

I accept at this stage maybe it was naive to be posting in the success section, but I want to prove it was justified in time. Finally I would like to add I did consider carefully where to post but didn't see this thread being used as a diary so thought recovery DIARY not the place for it to be,....

R

Hi Reddy,

I have often thought like you that surely once you've broken the cycle of being addicted to gamble you should be able to enjoy the odd bet again, but from personal experience you can't as my mind set is if I lose a pound I want to then get that back and so the cycle starts again but that's just my opinion and this time round I will know that I have to do

Well done on 400 days that's an amazing achievement good luck in the future.

Shaun

Reddy I'm just going to be blunt. If you continue to gamble then it's only a matter of time before old habits return. A compulsive gambler can't just become a 'normal' gambler again, it simply doesn't work that way. The evidence is irrefutable. Show me one person out of the tens of thousands of CG's who returned to gambling and their lives were better.

That first bet was a mistake, I just hope for your sake it doesn't take you too long to realise that.

All the best

Sorry to hear about your relapse. Hope you can sort yourself out soon

Hi reddy,

I am not one to judge and its totally up to you how you want to go forward but i looked back at some of your early posts and you wrote the below as the first line in a in thread titled "Reddy to Quit for Good".

"I am Reddy and I am looking to quit for good! I've not lost all that much to this troublesome "hobby" but I've lost enough to know it wasn't just recreation. That's why I am here.

What has changed?

Damo

Reddy - after a 'great' 2016 of profitable gambling, plus Jan & Feb 2017 being also in the black, I have just smashed all the way through the winnings and some more over the last 3 weeks. Absolutely scary stuff. I self excluded yesterday after just uncontrolled kneejerk bet after bet, chasing losses. I was totally out of control and luckily the racing stopped, so there were no more to bet on. I immediately self excluded and what a relief.

I have been where you are on so many occasions. I guarantee that although you may win the next few battles - maybe pick out the winner of the Masters, maybe the Grand National too - you will not win the war. Any winnings will result in stakes for more and more events. At some point, you will crash, like I have just done.

I kidded myself that I had a separate kitty for gambling to the rest of the finances. Then the lines became blurred, borrowing here and there and repaying when things sorted themsleves. After a crash, you cannot pay back. Thankfully I am not totally wiped out and things could have gone much worse. I am not going to curse my luck and moan, just accept that a gambling addict's crash was inevitable. Go carefully Reddy.