Two years since my last post. An Update.

Well how wrong wasI? The last time I posted here was more than two years ago. During that time I entered into two horrendous gambling episodes and many sub episodes, on each occasion promising never to gamble again. I felt as though I had hit rock bottom and looking back at my behaviour I realise now how evil and powerful this addiction can be and not least isolating. In June I lost it all again and on the back of a depressive episode as a result of the gambling and the losses I decided to purchase Allen Carr’s stop gambling book. This book has really helped me to move on and this is the longest period of time (73 Days) in which I’ve been gamble free and not just gamble free but completely gamble free. I can genuinely say I no longer have the desire to gamble, not even the odd scratch card or lottery ticket. In the past I felt like I was depriving myself of something when of course as we all know when we free ourselves from gambling we in fact gain everything and lose absolutely nothing. I now see gambling for what it is. In the past I didn’t see what the problem was with the odd scratch card or lottery ticket and every time I have entered “recovery” in the past I continued to purchase these items with the naive view that I was addicted to online gambling. I even fooled myself into thinking I didn’t have a problem in land based casinos despite loosing thousands. What this book taught me was all forms of gambling regardless of their type lead to destruction.I hope admin will allow me to post this. This isn’t a paid advertisement for the book I simply wanted to spread the word.

A particular focus within the book is all about celebrating that fact that you are now a happy non gambler and every time gambling comes into your mind Allen Carr encourages you to celebrate and rejoice in the fact that you are now a non gambler. The book also encourages you to write down all the passions you had before your gambling addiction took over. This massively helped me and in my ongoing recovery I have used this list to re-persue the things I once enjoyed. Only the other day did I have to stop and take stock at the fact that I can now go out and about with friends and family and genuinely enjoy their company without having that itch and urge to get home in order to gamble. These moments occur regularly at the moment and every time they occur get a tad emotional as I think about the time I lost and the time I am now so fortunate to be getting back.

P.s: The book is around £10 on Amazon possibly cheaper on other websites. If you signed up to audible/kindle services I believe you can get a free trial for the first 30 days meaning you could download a digital version of the book without having to pay for a physical version.