I'm at the end of a week off and I feel great! I needed it. I shut my phone off (you wouldn't believe how often I get work calls on time off) and I just did whatever I wanted on this staycation.

I'll admit MOST of what I wanted was nothing. but who cares? It was MY vacation, right? I saw family & friends and watched movies and played on the computer and not once... NOT ONCE... did I think about gambling!

It's like it's own vacation being this far from the addiction. It no longer haunts my dreams. It no longer controls my thoughts. It no longer owns me. I. Am. Free.

Never in a million years did I think I would be that guy. The one who succeeded in breaking an addiction. Yet I did.

Wow.

My favorite part of that is that I'm not extraordinary. I'm just like you. I was desperate and depressed and feeling hopeless - lost and alone. Yet I'm here.

You can be too.

It isn't easy, no. But it isn't as hard as you believe either. It was truly one day after another of saying with more need to get free, than the need to gamble... 'Today I will not gamble. Never again'. And then doing just that.

Another thing that really helped me was recognizing that voice in my head that convinced me (each and every time) that it was a good idea to go gamble, was the addiction's voice. Once I realized that it wasn't MY voice, and that my voice was saying 'No!' I started getting stronger.

There's no way any of you will quit exactly the way I did, or with exactly the same tools, but there's also no way that any of you can't succeed YOUR way. For what it's worth I throw out to the Universe the greatest two sentences I've ever learned. Feel free to grab 'em!

Today I will not gamble. Never again.

(Now I'm off to enjoy the last few hours of my vacation :0)