Getting Past Gambling

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A place to come and share experiences, to find support and strength, for those of us who are putting gambling behind us and finding new exciting and happier ways to live our lives.
" You never achieve real success unless you like what you are doing."
*Dale Carnegie {1888-1955 American Author & Achievement Expert}


ARE YOU GAMBLING WITH....
... the feelings of those you love most?
... with your family's security and happiness?
... with the roof over your children's heads?
... with money that you can't afford to lose?
... with the trust that your partner/parents/children/friends have in you?
.... with your future?


ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS TO SEE IF YOU ARE AT RISK:.....
Do you think about gambling every day?
Do you chase your losses?
Do you feel depressed because of your gambling?
Do you hide your gambling from people close to you?
Do you borrow money so you can gamble?
Do you argue with family or friends over money or gambling?
Do you often gamble until your last dollar is gone?
Do you let bills go unpaid because you use the money for gambling?
Do you find that you are not talking honestly to anyone about how often or how much you spend on gambling?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you may have a problem.

Top Tips To Beat Your Gambling Problem.


Tell others about your problem and decision.
It is easier to overcome your problem if you have some support.
Take financial control.
Become aware of the situations that have turned your gambling into a problem.
For example, when you are bored, angry, have some spare cash, feeling lucky or thinking about losses.
Think about your thinking.
How you think about your gambling will strongly influence how you act.

Money Management.
To gain perspective on the value of money, try to reorganise your finances.
For example, pay bills by direct debit, have your partner collect your wages and leave the credit cards at home when you go out.

Organise your time.
When gambling becomes a problem, it takes up may hours of the week.
Many gamblers feel a "gap" when they reduce their gambling time. Try socialising or taking up a hobby or sport.

Relaxation is important.
A lot of problem gamblers are intense about many areas of their lives.
Learning to relax is one way of overcoming the initial strong desire to return to gambling.

Saying positive things to yourself can determine how you feel and act.
It requires a deliberate effort to overcome negative self-talk.
Try to remember the good things about not betting.

Make a commitment to be honest to yourself and others.
If relationships have broken down due to dishonesty make a big effort to be totally honest in the future.

Remember that it sometimes takes a few efforts to reach your goal.

KEEP FOCUSSED ON YOUR SUCCESSES.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Reflection for the Day

April 1
If we don't want to slip, we'll avoid slippery places. For the gambler that means shunning poker parties and race tracks and anywhere that gambling is taking place. For me, certain emotional situations can also be slippery places; so can indulgence in old ideas, such as a well-nourished resentment that is allowed to build to explosive proportions.

Do I carry the principles of the Gamblers Anonymous Program with me wherever I go?

TODAY I PRAY
May I learn not to test myself too harshly by "asking for it," by stopping in at the casino, the Bingo hall, or the track. Such "testing" can be dangerous, especially if I am egged on, not only by a craving for the old object of my addictions, but by others still caught in addiction whose moral responsibility has been reduced to
zero.

TODAY I WILL REMEMBER
Avoid slippery places.

April 2
What causes slips? What happens to a person who apparently seems to
understand and live the Twelve Step way, yet decides to go out gambling again? What can I do to keep this from happening to me? Is there any consistency among those who slip, any common denominators that seem to apply? We can each draw our own conclusions, but we learn in the Gamblers Anonymous Program that certain inactions will all but guarantee an eventual slip.

When a person who has slipped is fortunate enough to return to the Program, do I listen carefully to what he or she says about the slip?

TODAY I PRAY
May my Higher Power show me if I am setting myself up to gamble again. May I glean from the experiences of others that the reasons for such a lapse of resolve or such an accident of will most often stem from what I have not done rather than from what I have done. May I "keep coming back" to meetings.

TODAY I WILL REMEMBER
Keep coming back.


April 3
In almost every instance, the returned slipper says, "I stopped going to meetings," or "I got fed up with the same old stories and the same old faces," or "My outside commitments were such that I had to cut down on meetings," or "I felt I'd received the optimum benefits from the meetings, so I sought further help from more meaningful activities." In short, they simply stopped going to meetings. A saying I've heard at Gambers Anonymous hits the nail on the head: "Them that stops going to meetings are not present at meetings to hear about what happens to them that stops going to meetings."

Am I going to enough meetings for me?

TODAY I PRAY
God keep me on the path of the GA Program. May I never be too tired, too busy, too complacent, too bored to go to meetings. Almost always those complaints are reversed at a meeting if I will just get myself there. My weariness dissapates in serenity. My busyness is reduced to it's rightful proportion. My complacency gives way to vigilance again. Any how can I be bored in a place where there is so much fellowship and joy?

TODAY I WILL REMEMBER
Attend the meetings.


April 4
Another common denominator among those who slip is failure to use the tools of the Gamblers Anonymous Program--the Twelve Steps. The comments heard most often are, "I never did work the Steps," "I never got past the First Step," "I worked the Steps too slow," or "too fast" or "too soon". What it boils down to is that these people considered the Steps, but didn't conscientiously and sincerely apply the Steps to their lives.

Am I learning how to protect myself and help others?

TODAY I PRAY
May I be a doer of the Steps and not a hearer only. May I see some of the common mis-Steps that lead to a fall: being too proud to admit Step one; being to tied to everyday earth to feel the presence of a Higher Power; being over- whelmed by the thought of preparing Step Four, a complete moral and financial inventory; being to reticent to share that inventory. Please God, guide me as I work the Twelve Steps.

TODAY I WILL REMEMBER
To watch my steps.


April 5
Still another common thread we invariable see among slippers is that many of them felt dissatisfaction with today. "I forgot we live one day at a time," or "I begain to anticipate the future," or "I began to plan results, not just plan." They seemed to forget that all we have is NOW. Life continued to get better for them and, as many of us do, they forgot how bad it had been. They began to think, instead, of how dissatisfying it was compared to what it could be.

Do I compare today with yesterday, realizing, that by contrast, what great benefits and blessings I have today?

TODAY I PRAY
If I am discourged with today, may I remember the sorrows and hassles of yesterday. If I am impatient for the future, let me appreciate today and how much better it is than the life I left behind. May I never forget the principle of "one day at a time."

TODAY I WILL REMEMBER
The craziness of yesterday

posted by LindaH @ 1:07 PM 0 comments