Hi all,
Tomorrow I am 6 months gamble free and I feel so proud. If you had told me 6 months ago that I could go 6 months without a gamble I’d have laughed and said no way!
I’d attempted to quit well over 20 times, with 3 months being my longest run. So relapse was pretty rife for me, so when I quit on 6th October 2020, I didn’t believe in myself at all. But now I do. I believe that I can continue to do this.
If you’re reading this and your still within your gambling addiction, I want to leave some pointers and things that have helped me.
- If you’re reading my success story & others and thinking “They can do it but I can’t” this is what I used to think when reading these success stories. But you’re no different to me. I don’t have anything special about me that made me quit, my willpower is historically pretty bad. My addictive personality is still there. So you can do it.
- Find something that interests you and dive into it and try new things. That could be anything from Lego, sports hobby, the gym, something creative etc. You have to try new things to find new interests. I think this is crucial to staying away from gambling.
- You don’t have to believe in yourself or trust yourself in order to quit. As I mentioned above I didn’t believe in myself one bit, I had let myself down a million times. It took me 3 months after quitting to start believing in myself again.
- The feeling of being gamble free is the most incredible feeling. Better than ANY win, any game, any rush that gambling ever gave me. I would take this achieved feeling any day over a 20k win.
- I think I recommended this before but the book the fifth vital by Mike Malak really helped me in the first weeks. Well worth a read for anyone wanting to quit an addiction.
- Start thinking ahead rather than behind. I wasted way too many hours regretting what I did, thinking of how I can get my money back etc it’s gone it’s done. And you did all that to learn a life experience. I spent well over 300k in the years I gambled, I wasted months worth of time gambling. But that’s given me a life experience that now enables me to help other people.
You can make money back. You can buy a new home. You can meet a new partner or repair a relationship. You can gain forgiveness from family. You can’t win back time. But what time you lost is done. Do you want to waste another 1,2,10 years? Do you want to lose anymore money? If your answering no then you can put a stop to that today.
I wish you all the best. And to anyone who’s on a quitting journey too, your doing the best thing you could ever do for your life.
Well done Lola.
What an inspiring post?
Well done , day four for me , can’t wait till I can say 6 months! X
Brilliant post, thank you.
Well done Lola and keep up with the good work.
Wonderful post Lola, I’m so pleased for you xx
Just relapsed after 2 months and this has given me inspiration to keep going! Thanks here’s hoping I can post after 6 months day 1 today
Hi Lola
wow very well done I today have completed my first week and seeing people like you is really inspiring me and knowing there is a way out of this and I just can’t wait to be 6 months myself. Keep up the good work you should be very proud
Hi Lola
wow very well done I today have completed my first week and seeing people like you is really inspiring me and knowing there is a way out of this and I just can’t wait to be 6 months myself. Keep up the good work you should be very proud
Hi Stephen, how are you getting on?
Just relapsed after 2 months and this has given me inspiration to keep going! Thanks here’s hoping I can post after 6 months day 1 today
Hi Sean,
how are you getting on?
Thank you all so much for your lovely messages. X
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