Gambling Addiction & Recovery Support Group
Compulsive gambling is an urge or addiction to gamble despite harmful negative consequences or a desire to stop. A preferred term among many professionals is problem gambling, as few people described by the term experience true compulsions in the clinical sense of the word. Problem gambling often is defined by whether harm is experienced by the gambler or others rather...
It has been 3wks of being G/F and am loving it. The only thing is I received a letter from the IRS yesterday because I took money (lots of Money) out of my 401 k and didn't claim it on my taxes nor did I pay taxes on it in 2010. So, now I owe them around $11,000.00. Didn't figure that into my budget. This is just one more thing that gambling does to us. I makes us spend, spend and more spending and not worrying about it until it is too late. I am so glad I am not in the frame of mind to gamble anymore. I have taken several steps back and evaluated myself for what I have done to my life and my families lives in the last 10yrs of gambling. I am looking now @ getting our lives back to where we were financially 11yrs ago. I now feel like I have another hurdle to jump over. I do realize that it took me 10yrs to get here and it will take me a few yrs to clean up the damage that I have caused. By the way I still owe IRS $8000,00 from a previous yr. that I am making payments on. AUGH!!!!!!!
Unfortunately, these things will pop up for folks like us. The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, so just be honest with yourself and with your debtors and pay a bite at a time- you'll find that they will work with you if you work with them and are honest about your situation. Enjoy your recovery, don't fall into the trap of being overwhelmed.
Once again, great to see you've made it through the first 2 weeks (they were the toughest for me).
Keep on keepin' on!
Jay
You are on your way :)
You have the right attitude about looking at getting back on track as hurdles. But you aren't adding more or making them higher!
And Jay, you are SO right! It is little bites, an exercise in patience. And patience is not a quality most CG's possess naturally. But keep a ledger or balance sheet handy and as you see the numbers dip it's so empowering. It's a lot like weight loss, we want to see that scale dip, while it creeps down so slowly.
Enjoy the freedom from this terrible compulsion, and be patient with the rebuilding process :)