4 May 2021 at 11:00 am
#77391
G Rec
Participant
Days Since Last Betting: 69
I attended the topic group on here last might. The topic was potholes on the way to recovery, and we had another very useful discussion with a number of members jumping in to discuss which was great to see.
We started out looking at some examples of potholes that we might experience and realised that there is a huge variety of potential pothole with some being more obvious than others, and some that are more hidden. Some of the examples we touched on included
- Any unexpected negative events such as losing your job, bereavement, unexpected expenses, a fight/disagreement with someone etc
- Unexpected positive events. Even though these events are considered positive overall, some can still be a pothole for recovery if not managed correctly. Examples include getting unexpected access to funds such as a tax refund or a gift.
- A positive change in our financial situation providing more disposable funds. For example, if we set a certain amount of our wages for paying Debts back each month, once the debts are cleared, we now will have excess funds each month from before. Another dangerous potential pothole if not managed and planned for
- Overconfidence – The longer you go GF, the more confidence you can get that you can stay GF, this can lead to attending less meetings etc which in turn can increase the changes of returning to gambling.
So with some potential potholes identified, the next question was what can we do to limit the chances of them occuring, and came up with some strategies
- For events that you know (or expect) are going to happen, put a plan in place. For example, when we have 1 or more debts paid off, what is our plan for the funds that we were previously using to pay off this debt(s)
- For any unexpected access to funds, have a plan in place for how you can make these funds accountable funds as fast as possible.
- For unexpected negative events, have a plan in place for things that can be done to help get through them such as attending more meetings, speaking with a trusted friend etc.