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    • #47073
      Cosmo
      Participant

      At the suggestion of Pathetic Shark, I am setting up a new topic so I can find the responses easier. I am new on here and still learning the website 

      Thank you 3eraser for responding so quickly to my initial post asking for help. I am in the US but I’m so happy to have found this site. 

      Went back to G.A. last night after being gone for months. I’ve taken steps over the past month to set up barriers to help me succeed. 

      Last night at G.A. I was accepted back with open arms and no judgment and the meeting was small 6 of us but it was amazing. We ended up 

      crosstaking, for my benefit, and it was amazing to experience the meeting in this way. After, the chair said we have never done that before 

      but loved the result. I needed it, I needed the guidance, examples, explanations, sharing, all of it.  

      I am so hopeful this morning. I pray my date will remain 10/20/18.

    • #47074
      3raser
      Participant

      your own thread will give you your own valuable space to use as you wish the information will be directly for you,

      having said that, if you do want to comment on my thread or anyone else’s with questions or just to connect with people then rather than replying to a comment in the middle of someone’s thread, scroll right to the end add your comment on the end and when a comment comes in, you will see the word “new” on the right hand side where all the threads are listed, click on that and it will take you right to the comment instead of you scrolling through looking for it which is where i think you have been finding it difficult. hope this helps

    • #47075
      Cosmo
      Participant

      thanks for the directions and help! I’m sure the more I’m on here, the easier it will get but I appreciate all the helpful tips. 

      Today I will not gamble. 

      Im going to take just one day at a time and not think about the future. 

    • #47076
      Anonymous
      Guest

      Glad to see you have started your own thread.

      I went on and off to GA for over 30 years on and off. Before, (mostly) during, and since I last gambled.

      One of my worst pitfalls was letting complacency creep in. It takes a hell of a lot of effort to accept and gain a great understanding of all the old cliched sayings and advice that sometimes would seem a barrage of instruction from do-Gooder know it alls. Usually the ones that hadn’t gambled for months and years and seemed to be arrogant and full of themselves. 

      It took years and three periods in rehab for me to finally submit. I’d admitted and understood I had a problem for years. Two years ago I was still gambling, the longest I’d ever been gambling free is about six months. I was working but up to my eyes in debt, I was stealing food to feed myself. I was on a downward spiral and heading towards my sixth prison sentance.

      After Christmas, which had been abysmal, I finally submitted and gave over full control of my finances to my boss. He withheld my wages and paid me a minimal amount each week. This had been the missing link in my recovert.

      Not everybody has someone they can trust with their money, I thought the person that I trusted the least was myself so it made sense for somebody to hold it for me. My boss is now my landlord, he is no longer my boss and although he has nothing belonging to me he is my friend and will keep my savings for me. 

      Complacency, for me, would creep in more often when I had any access to cash, and then in later years money in the bank was just as good, the temptation always became too much.

      I had became so dishonest I’d persistently lie to everyone, including myself. Eventually I realised that, for me, the obvious thing to do was stop the lying, be honest. I struggled with this for years, I really didn’t believe in myself, why should I?

      I’d always ficked things up, Really I was convincedI always would. 

      One of the hardest things for me to accept was I could change, I never left go of gambling until I had given over control of my finances. It hasn’t restricted my life at all and his given me freedom. 

      I havnt gambled for 21 months, I came close once, and at times when life is getting on top of me I sense a change in my behaviour. I don’t really get urges but did do for years and years, I know that feeling, I also know the feeling of relief with each passing day in the first few months of recovery. 

      When it stops becoming a relief, an achievement, and becomes the norm or nothing special, then that for me was when my life really started.

      I don’t post  on this forum often, I hope you get the support you need. The more you post, the more responses you will get.

      I wish you well in your search for a better life.

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