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Sono tornato a giocare con la mia modalità, (slot, giochi da casinò) dopo 3 anni di astinenza. Dopo alcune settimane stavo male come sempre e sapevo che dovevo smettere. Ho anche provato il gioco d'azzardo con altri metodi (lotteria, gratta e vinci) e sebbene non decollassero allo stesso modo, non mi piacevano i giochi mentali e le emozioni che evocavano, quindi ho rinunciato anche a loro. Ora mi considero un non giocatore d'azzardo.
Non mi sento depresso per questo. Sento che la mia vita si è espansa molto, ora che non trascorro ore in stanze senza finestre e orologi, a guardare luci lampeggianti e ruote che girano. Ho visto la vita senza gioco come una sfida che ho affrontato a testa alta. Ci sono altri modi più sicuri per fare soldi che potrebbero non darti il brivido, ma renderanno la tua vita molto più interessante a lungo termine. Se vuoi brivido, usa i soldi per lezioni di sci nautico, immersioni in cielo o qualsiasi altra cosa funzioni per te. Devi trovare la tua strada. I migliori auguri.
Een terugval begint bij de planning en de voorbereiding. Het maken van tijd voor – het uitchecken – het beschikbaar stellen van de financiën. U moet nu actie ondernemen om ervoor te zorgen dat u niet weer gaat gokken. Praat hier met mensen op een 1-2-1 of in een steungroep om te kijken wat er voor u aan de hand is. Bouw uw verdediging op en geef indien nodig de controle over uw financiën over. Je moet sterk blijven. Ik wens je het beste.
A relapse starts with the planning and the preparation. The making time for – the checking out – the making the finances available. You need to take action now to ensure that you don’t go back to gambling. Talk to people here on a 1-2-1 or in a support group to look at what is going on for you. Build up your defences and if you need to, hand over control of your finances. You must keep strong. I wish you well.
Una ricaduta inizia con la pianificazione e la preparazione. Il tempo per – il check-out – la messa a disposizione delle finanze. Devi agire ora per assicurarti di non tornare al gioco d'azzardo. Parla con le persone qui su un 1-2-1 o in un gruppo di supporto per vedere cosa sta succedendo per te. Costruisci le tue difese e, se necessario, affida il controllo delle tue finanze. Devi mantenerti forte. I migliori auguri.
When I read your post – my first thought was that you sound really alone with all this. One of the things gambling does is cut you off from people. Not even to stay for dessert but instead rush to the inhumanity of the machines.
Great that you have banned yourself from places where you could gamble. Great that you have read around the forums. I hope you can feel able to join this community and maybe join a group (there are sessions for new people on Mondays (tomorrow) and Thursdays and I am sure you will be made welcome and given plenty of advice. I wish you well.
Thanks for writing such a positive post. I wish you well.
Often people turn to gambling to avoid other issues. I was a gambler from the age of 16 but it only became a real problem in my late 20s and I know now that it was because there were problems in my marriage that I was not dealing with. Then my mother died and I really went off the rails.
Gambling takes over all your senses so that you cannot think about anything else whilst you are in action. Perfect for people that don’t want to get into painful issues.
I would strongly suggest that if you know what your issues are that you tackle them with a professional. Again as I don’t know which country you are in, I can’t be specific – but if in the UK you could try to access counselling via your GP – try and find someone who specialises in your issue and if you have to pay, get a free or cheap first session – so you know if you can work with your counsellor. Often getting on with the counsellor is more important than the style of counselling involved.
If that is not possible – see if there is some self-help groups or more informal ways of tackling the issue – but don’t put it off or it will only gnaw away at you and you may find yourself with some other behaviour problem. There is a one-to-one service here that might help and the links that I posted to you earlier are there for anyone who needs to talk. You don’t have to be suicidal. I hope this helps. Keep strong.Hi ZNH – sorry to read how you are feeling. If you are really down and feeling suicidal please talk to someone now. If you are in the UK – https://www.samaritans.org/ and if elsewhere – https://www.befrienders.org/ and click on find helpline by country. First the good news: This behaviour we have does not have to be forever. I have been “clean” for several years – and even longer than that if you exclude stupid slips. The bad news is that getting there wasn’t easy. I needed the support of others going through it, in my case with Gamblers’ Anonymous and also taking the necessary steps of losing access to gambling sites, losing (as much as I could) access to money and access to time (by firstly getting as busy as possible – and later replacing my gambling with what really matters to me.) Two things concern me. I don’t think a 6 month ban is long enough – what happens in 6 months, will you feel you will want to test it? Secondly, this talk about some bets will find you. I know what you mean and since I have stopped gambling I have passed on sure things. I passed on one once that I knew would come up and “lost” quite a bit of money. Why did I do that? Because my sobriety is far more important than money. What would I have done with my sure money? Well it was a gift wasn’t it – so lets splash out on some gambling! I now have to believe that I am a non-gambler and I don’t gamble on anything. I can tell you the peace of mind this gives me is worth every penny of the non-winnings. Good that you have posted. Good that you have taken the first steps in admitting you have a problem, both to yourself and to us on this forum. Keep posting and hope to hear how you are progressing soon. Take good care.
I wrote on my current thread about “affordable gambling” – that is when your means will cover the losses you have.
When I was off and on gambling (and whilst in GA) this happened to me a lot. I wanted to stop – but I found myself doing small bets and losing a little. It didn’t do a lot of IMMEDIATE financial damage, but I felt bad about myself and I hated having to go to GA and say that I had slipped again.
Eventually, I decided I had had enough of my brain being screwed up and put ALL my energy into stopping. And looking back I am so glad I did.
I might not have needed the money at the time – but a few years down the line, I met someone from the other side of the world – so I needed money to visit. I had to stop working as hard because of health issues – so I needed money to support myself. I am now travelling and the unexpected is happening where I need money to get out of a hole. The fact that I have been able to do these things is because I completely gave up gambling and put my money to better use.
I think you know why I am telling you all this. Redouble your efforts. Are there things you haven’t tried yet; counselling, GA (I can’t remember if you have tried that) hypnotherapy, journalling, whatever?
You don’t know what could happen to you down the line. You don’t know when your wealth (which is what we are talking about) will become a necessity. Keep strong. I hope to chat to you again soon.
I don’t think it is realistic to be consistent in all we do. I know I get fed up and unmotivated from time to time. What works for me is to ring the changes occasionally. For GA – maybe look for a meeting in a town you have always wanted to visit (by the sea?) and spend the day there with the meeting in the evening … Here, maybe instead of posting in this forum – have a look if you could add something to the “recovery tools” part or just take part in a group at some time. Or maybe just take a break and try some other approach. Are you involved in any counselling? That is a good way of getting a handle on who you really are – and also getting some honest feedback on how you appear to the outside world.
You are doing really well – over 200 days is no mean feat. Keep it going. Perhaps you just need to add some spice to your life!
It’s normal for us non-gamblers as well. Remember that the downs will pass. Cheer yourself up with whatever non-gambling ways work for you. Congrats on your 40 days!
Get rid of that * because win or lose – if you just gamble once for special reasons – you will end up loosing more. I’m afraid stopping gambling is an all or nothing affair.
Hi Chris and welcome to these forums. I was in a similar situation to you. I was managing to keep going but every month I had nothing and had to borrow to get through it. I would gamble in the hope of getting out of debt but of course only got deeper in.
Then one day I realised that I had a problem – that if I kept going I would no longer be able to manage my debts and then I would be in trouble. I would like to say that then I decided not to gamble ever again – and stuck to that, but it took me several years to actually stay stopped.
I went to gamblers’ anonymous some months after making the decision to stop – still unsure if I had a problem or not!
So in your situation I would say stop now. You have stopped before for several months – so get yourself good support so that you can identify the triggers that might lead to you gambling again. Consider GA – or if you can’t then see if you can get counselling. Read the forums here to see what you need to do to stop and keep posting so we can see your progress. I wish you well.