ex and would be ex-gamblers support thread

mcajshaw

Hi everyone George introduced me to this thread and it's great to be around people who have experienced problems through their betting like me. I just posted this on a gambling therapy forum - wondered if any of you guys want to come on board?!

The Christmas Challenge - Volunteers Wanted! (with a song a day too!!!)

Hello everyone,

I am just starting again to try and have another serious attempt to kick my gambling. I thought with Christmas just about in sight I would use this as a realisitic target to stay gambling free by. Christmas time holds a lot of special and treasured memories for me, and I thought it was a really appropriate time to have as a goal. I know how wonderful it would feel to to get to Christmas knowing that I had not had a bet since early October. I wondered if anyone wanted to take this challenge with me and we could all encourage one another to on this forum. The rules are simple:

1. Refrain from any gambling between now and Christmas (this doesn't mean we start again after of course)
2. Listen to one (or more!) Christmas songs of your choice every day between now and Christmas to remind yourself of the challenge in hand.
3. Feel proud of yourself at Christmas for achieving your target.

Hope you will all join me - Good Luck and Merry Christmas!
Jon.

cantcope

Welcome Jon and Good Luck with your task.

For me setting myself a target is too much pressure though. I take it one day at a time. I'd want a reward if i reached my goal. And ultimately it would be what i'd stopped doing. A bit like having a cake after a weigh in at a slimmers class.
I'm sure there are some others that might join you though.

riquelme

little bump back to the top

over 60 days without any sort of bet for me, having a few problems with my creditors at the moment.

been going to GA,


anyone watched Sunshine BBC 1? with steve coogan


what do people think, very sad and all too true reflections of the life of a gambler, lads in GA also watched it and keep watching it on iplayer just to remind themselves of the hurt theyve caused and what they could still be like if they returned to gambling

today i will not gamble

cantcope

Well done Riquel. I hope you are feeling that life is getting better. Even though you're having problems with creditors at least you know you aren't adding to your debt x

Sunshine has been excellent, I think they are going to touch on GA tonight. Our meeting has been discussing it too. It's nice that its being shown, maybe people will get a small insight into what its like for both sides. Steve Coogan is portraying his character magnificently and I am interested to see tonights final episode.

It's almost 2 years off a bet for me, although it seems like a lifetime ago. I have no reminders of what i did now other than my meetings and the block on my laptop. Life is good

Just for today, I will not gamble

GeorgeUK

A few weeks ago i was thinking of gambling quite a bit. Not actually doing any gambling, but thinking of gambling i had done in the past. It was like i was remembering how i had made certain bets or what i did when a certain event was on - kindof a "what could have happened" experience. Don't know if it was some type of regression thing, but it was gettling on my nerves a bit.

Not thought about any old gambling since and not even thought about betting since i closed my account. Starting to get some junkmail from online casino's i've never heard of so i guess with Christmas coming up they will be sending out more promotional stuff - just be careful and prepare yourselves to deal with this. Might be worth having a word with OH to make them aware that some stuff may be dropping through the letterbox and it's not something you've done.

Good too see no-one's hit any mayjor bumps with their progress. I think i spend so much time on this site that i don't have time to gamble but i'll need to make sure it's not a case of idle hands so that even when i don't keep myself busy i won't be tempted.

Still not done anything on the excercise front. I need to find something that gives excercises for the extremely unfit then work on the motivation to actually do it. I'm not a slob - but only because i can't be bothered

riquelme

ive managed to do some exercise - 2 games of footy, playing again this week. the OH is a bit worried that im about to start playing football again every week! im justifying it because of my moods over the past few months - withdrawl, moody, grumpy etc

since the exerciuse ive felt lots better, hopefully it will kickstart me into being a bit more active


if anyone has recorded sunshine, or know anyone that has recorded it, could i ask a massive favour and ask to send me a copy (im prepared to pay/ or send a blank dvd)

anyway, if by chance there is someone could you send me a PM

thanks

xgingerx

Well, I was addicted to online poker and gambled 1000'ssss and got into a mess a year or so ago, still didnt admit i had problem but then this August I joined a Gym and havent gambled since, so for me I dont know why had kept me away from poker full stop and not even missed it. Before Id sit at home and always be tempted but now ive got something else to do its helped me. I also cancelled all my poker accounts and self excluded to the point where I dont really have any sites that I could use, thank god !!!!

Well just wanted to share that as Im a much happier person for stopping, i know its hard, and getting in 30k worth of debt for nothing is also hard to accept but whats done is done and Ive got to move on and put it behind me and dont go there again !!

Thx

mimar

Thanks for that post ginger, hope you manage to stay away from the poker. Now the nights are getting colder and darker it must be harder to drag yourself out to the gym, but finding something else to do with your time is really important.
The trouble with gambling is it leaves a bloody massive legacy - you can't just stop and get better, you have all that bloody debt to pay off as well.

Riq - at my OH's GA meeting they talk about how 90 days is important, how going without a bet for 90 days breaks the cycle or something. So you are two thirds of the way there, what a result! Well done, been reading your posts from the start and they've really helped.
My OH used to play five-a-side football regularly, not as physically demanding as 11-a-side but still good fun. May be somewhere near you that runs a session, he used to go to the local school one evening a week.

Also been a lot of discussion about Sunshine at hubby's GA meetings and haven't seen a single episode! We cancelled Sky (to save money to pay off these enormous gambling debts) so I have been trying to wean myself off the TV. It must be coming out on DVD soon though mustn't it?

penguin83

Sorry to gatecrash! Riq and Mimar - you can view it online on BBCiplayer - they have got all 3 episodes x x

buddiebabe

Hi

I can't believe this is the first time i've seen this thread. I wish id seen it when it first started. I started gambling again after almost a year and a half not doing it.... can't quite find a reason for it. Everything seemed to be going really well. I had a new boyfriend who moved in with me, my debts were reducing and things were going ok at work but for some strange reason i started gambling again. The first month i didn't seem to loose that much and was even winning quite a bit but instead of paying off the debts with the winnings i bought stuff, clothes, games for the wii and food so although i was winning the money always disappeared. Then i started loosing. When i'd started gambling again i started with £100 at the online casino then it gradually increased to £1000 a night and i would deposit this in one transaction so i couldn't put anymore in. It got to the stage that i was leaving work early so i could go home and gamble.

My boyfriend would come home at night and would find me lying on the couch in tears and being moody with him all the time he asked me to stop time and time again and i always said that it would be my last time... it never was.

It all came to a head one night when i said i was going to do it and he couldn't stop me. I basically told him i wanted to do it and it was my money and my debt and i could do what i wanted!!!! So i did! I went online that night and gambled while he sat on the couch and watched.

While i was doing it i felt so bad and i stopped. I got him to sit with me while i went through all the sites i was registered with and emailed them asking to be excluded. I don't have a problem with betting shops just online casinos, bingo and slot machines. They have now cancelled all my accounts and i have had no emails from them.

Its been around a month since i gambled and i don't really miss it the only time things get to me is when they are being advertised at every opportunity and when people at work have a go because i wont take part in office sweepstakes.

Reading the posts on here are so familiar to my own life it feels good to talk to people that actually understand what i have done and how it feels to do it.

My boyfriend is really supportive but doesn't understand how it made me feel to actually gamble.

Buddiebabe x