Post Number Of Days Gamble Free

Keep up the fight Sconced !

Gambling addiction does indeed have a high rate of relapse but I'm proud of your determination to not give up . This is your year to make the changes you need to remove this disease from your life .

I've learned a lot on my recovery journey and I think one of my most important lessons was the understanding of what I was really up against . My addiction will never give up its battle for control of my life . It will always be there waiting for a weakness , some chink in my armor , a vulnerable moment . It will return with its full malignant force if I allow it to .

I wish you a strength and a Happy , Gamble-free New Year . You can do this !

3287 days .

9 years looks like a lot , feels like it's a good beginning . I think 2024 will be the last year I count my gamble-free days . I'm kind of looking forward to the time when this anniversary becomes an afterthought , a dim remembrance in the vein of " Oh yeah , I also quit gambling on this date ___ years ago ."

After having my addiction and recovery journey be such a huge part of my life , I now want it to be a small part of who I am and what I've accomplished and I can feel that happening now . This doesn't diminish what I've experienced and achieved , it's more like a slow merging with the whole of my time here on earth . It's like looking at an old scar and remembering how you got it .

I wish all of us the best for this new year . Be safe , be strong and be the person you want to be . You deserve that .

Much love ,

NSR

Thanks for the encouragement NSR.What was your rock bottom, was there a particular loss or did you just decide to give it up as a New Years Resolution 9 years ago? Had you many relapses, I think you relapsed after 12 months before your current 9 year successful streak. It is very hard initially as you know, I think you found the first 6 months particularly difficult?

These past 10 days have seemed much longer to me, nearly like a month, it’s the change in thinking and a realization that gambling will never work ever. I liken it to serving a prison sentence, a mental sentence if you like. There will be no vacations for me this year.I wouldn’t enjoy a vacation until I have a lot weeks/months , mayble a couple of clean years behind me. I guess this is the punishment for the crime of gambling. I know gambling isn’t a crime but readers will know what I mean.

For now, it’s the old mantra, one day at a time, time is a healer, I shouldn’t be hoping for time to pass by, as one should enjoy every day, but that’s just another downside of the aftermath of gambling. After enough time has passed, the wishing of the days away will also pass I guess.I have wrote down some of my bad experiences with gambling and read them a couple of times a day as motivation to stay away from gambling.

Also if I mentally picture someone else recklessly gambling like I was they seem rather foolish. Sometimes you have to see or picture someone do as you did to see how stupid it is. I find that helps.Keep strong people. 10 days gambling free

I relapsed after 6 months of not gambling in the summer of 2014 . Previously , I had not been able to stop for as much a 24 hours in the 7 years I had been addicted to gambling . That relapse after 6 GF months set off the most violent spiral into uncontrolled compulsive gambling that I had ever experienced .

My rock bottom came shortly after : I made a last ditch attempt at the end of December 2014 . I chose January 1, 2015 as my quit date . My work had recently changed their pay periods from every 2 weeks to every 30 days beginning in 2015 . I had gambled away my first 2 weeks of pay in December . My next check would come on December 30 . After that , I would not get another paycheck until January 31 .

On December 30 , I got my last 2 week paycheck . I paid my rent and bills , I bought some food , gassed up the car . Once that was done I had about $100 to get me through the month . It gonna be tight but it was doable . On December 31st I went and gambled away all but roughly $10.00 of that money .

I had no savings , my credit cards were maxed out and I had bank loans out to my limit . I couldn't believe what I'd just done to myself . That 30 days of having near-zero money turned out to be a blessing in disguise . No money = no gambling .That month I limped along , scraping together enough to feed myself and that's all. I went from work to home and nowhere else . I subsisted on ramen noodles , canned tuna and tap water. I slept a lot . I cried a lot .

When my check finally came at the end of the month , I was 30 days gamble-free. That was the beginning of my recovery journey . I had spent that broke January making my battle plan and forcing myself to write down every penny of my debt and look at it every day. I joined this forum . I began to think about my future , something that didn't interest me in the least when I was gambling.

Sconced wrote:These past 10 days have seemed much longer to me, nearly like a month, it’s the change in thinking and a realization that gambling will never work ever. I liken it to serving a prison sentence, a mental sentence if you like.

Time dragged for me too , in my first months of recovery . Life without gambling seemed incredibly dull and boring . Nothing made me happy , nothing sparked my interest . I had to force myself to socialize after years of addicted isolation . During the first year , it slowly started getting better.

In my opinion , it's gambling that's the prison sentence but I do understand what you mean . Just be wary of the thought that after X amount of time , it will all "be over" . It was that kind of thinking that conned me into my worst relapse.

Stay strong !

NSR I don’t know how you got through that month. You were really at rock bottom after the relapse.Fair play to you for staying clean over the last 9 years. It takes serious willpower as the real test comes when things get better from a financial point of view and you have the ammunition to gamble again. But you have passed that particular test where many others would falter and relapse. I am feeling a little better now. I haven’t been able to save as much money as I’d like for this is the time of year with the most bills from a personal point of view.It’s only been a few weeks though, even though it feels longer. The early days and weeks of giving up gambling seem to crawl by. It’s like time stands still as we begin the long road to recovery. We have already discussed this but it’s worth mentioning to anyone starting out on the clean road, not to give up and return to gambling as the initial clean period can be frustrating and progress seems slow. Tough it out and things will improve after a few months or thereabouts. Days gambling free 20

Thank you Sconced , for your kind words and I applaud your commitment ! Stay strong , your 1 month milestone is coming up fast . We're looking forward to celebrating with you .

Sconced wrote:The early days and weeks of giving up gambling seem to crawl by. It’s like time stands still as we begin the long road to recovery.

This is why we celebrate . One month may sound like only a short amount of time but for someone battling an addiction , it truly is a huge achievement . Be proud of yourself . This is no small feat that you have accomplished and every day without gambling is a victory won by you alone . You will only get stronger from here .

Sconced wrote:the real test comes when things get better from a financial point of view and you have the ammunition to gamble again.

I was very nervous about getting my first post-debt paycheck . I was 18 months into recovery and had been throwing every cent of my pay at my debt , keeping myself essentially broke even though I had stopped gambling . I worried that I would face an onslaught of gambling urges once my debt was gone and I had no reason to "get rid of " my money . Having large amounts of cash on hand made me uncomfortable . So the drive to save for my retirement replaced the drive to pay off my debt . Over the years , I've found balance and normalized my relationship with money . I neither obsessively save it nor frivolously spend it and it's no longer the main focus of my life. The thought of gambling with my money is as ludicrous as thought of burning it.

This will happen for you too . Stay strong and look to your future !

Sconced wrote:the real test comes when things get better from a financial point of view and you have the ammunition to gamble again

I think having access to money is the biggest trigger for people like us (I am curious what others on this forum think about this). I also felt that once I had money, my first thought was to go gambling. Actually, before I even received my paycheck, I was already thinking about what I would gamble on. Money is also something we can't live without, which makes fighting this trigger so difficult. Imagine a drug addict who routinely receives drugs every two weeks. How will they fight this addiction?

The only way I can think of is by being like NSR, who put every penny they earned into their debt and living on the borderline of broke. The second way is by giving up all control of their finances to a friend / spouse (like I did). I guess the third way would be by sheer willpower. I think many of us have tried willpower before, and I must have failed 50+ times using this method. Bravo to those who were able to do it!

Indeed NSR and Aries. I think it may be the hardest addiction of them all to fight. I feel also that gambling doesn’t get as much hate as it deserves from the media and general public. Governments take action against drug dealing but little or no action is taken against gambling establishments. In fact gambling is promoted by advertising on television. People say nobody is forcing people to go in and make bets which is true. But if you said nobody is forcing drug addicts to take drugs you would face a backlash.Gambling establishments prey on gambling addicts the same way as drug dealers prey on drug addicts. Both ruin lives. I feel in years to come gambling will be eventually clamped down on and perhaps restricted when public awareness realizes the damage it does. I’m sure we have all thought to ourselves how different our lives would have been if gambling didn’t exist. How happier we would be?How long are you gambling free Aries? I am 31 days gambling free today.

I am about 3 months shy from 8 years. The more time you put between yourself and the last bet, the easier it gets. Life pretty much return to normal at about 2 years being gf, but there are still the irrational thoughts that pop into my head. By continually checking out the forum and trying to provide advice, it keeps my thoughts in check and reminds me that I always need to be aware of what can happen if I drop my guard

Aries411 wrote:By continually checking out the forum and trying to provide advice, it keeps my thoughts in check and reminds me that I always need to be aware of what can happen if I drop my guard

Aries, you inspire me/us with these sharings. I also made it a point to come to check the forum once a while, either weekly or biweekly. I don't time these, but rather when I'm bored, I come here to see if there is any latest postings.

I'm about 3 and a half months away from 1 year of gf.

I guess work and family, kinda keeps me busy. But I'm vary of anything that can make me stumble.

Looking forward to see you Aries post on your 8th year mark.