Since I started on the GA recovery road five years ago, I had gone thru many ups and downS on this bumpy RECOVERY road. I would like to share my experiences here with you all so may be it can help you avoiding the same mistakes I made before.

In the beginning, I was just like everyone else doing the thing we were supposed to do, first is going to GA meeting. I was doing so well for 2 months and made few friends and also had a sponsor. Even though the religious part of the meeting kind of making me uncomfortable but I stuck with it. 2 months later when my friends and sponsor all having relapses… then one night, I went ahead relapsed myself too.

six months later, I made myself take a different approach and that is visiting GA forum and start writing my journal every day, this lasted for 3 months of Gambling Free till one night I found myself was in desperate help but no one was on the forum to help me, I tried everything I could to stop myself but none of the method was useful when you really needed. So I relapsed again. 3 months later I was back again to the forum and
continue to struggle every month for the next 3 years. Off and on, I relapsed at least 8 times.

Almost 4 years went by; I was almost back to the starting point 4 years ago except loosing $60,000 more…

One method that I did not try at that time is self-banning. Because I knew myself well, there are over 40 casinos within 1-5 hours driving distance, if my urge comes, I will drive to any casino even 6 hours away. And there are over 800 casinos in the US…

Finally I had reached a point after I got laid off from work and had 8 payday loans in debt early last year, I realized I must do something more FORCEFUL and with more DETERMINATION in order to overcome this addiction, and that is to give up handling my own finances totally. No Money, No Gambling! PERIOD.

My trusted partner for 20 years was willing to help me to handle all my finances. First we got rid off all my credit cards and 2 ATM cards, then we found a debt relief company to help me stop paying high interest on the payday load debt {40% a month of interest], also they come up with a monthly payment for 12 months for me to paid off the entire payday loan debt. I did not have to worry about the numerous phone calls from debtors. Since I don’t have access to $$$, I had not really* gamble for more than a year now. All my debts are gone in a year, and my saving goes up even I was making only half of what I used to make before. By the end of the year I had saved close to $10,000.

I have come to a conclusion that all methods involved with this GA recovery has its purposes and cannot be left out along. Idealy it comes in the following order: step 1, Attend GA meeting & seeking Counseling help. Step 2. Writing Journals, participating in GA forum daily Step 3. Self-banning. Step 4: Limit Money Access 5. Step 5 combining step 1,2,3,4 to maintain a healthy recovery

If I took the final step first which is limit all my money access and did not participate in step 1 and 2, I would be still having trouble to control my urges and believe me I will come up with a way to GET MONEY. So it is important to take step 1 and 2 and get your MIND SET first. Please keep in mind that Gambling addiction is not a substance addiction, it is a combination of behavioral, pshychological and body chemical problem. That’s why it is the most difficult addiction to get rid of in comparision to other addictions. Thus we must use a combination of differenct methods to overcome this addiction.

* Only gambled 5 days when I visited my sister in Vegas and gambled only $20 a day under supervision. {Basically just chatting and drinking}.– 04/05/2012 09:01:58: post edited by harry.