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...
Good Afternoon Folks
Took me awhile to figure out how to get back into the site.
I am not computer wise.But am back and I am going to start
posting the GA Reflection for the Day again and hope to catch
up with my old recovery friends and to meet some new people.
If you are interested I visit a new site called Gamtalk that is run
out of Montreal Canada and it has 24/7 chat room and on Friday
at 3pm est we have a group Topic Session.Today's topic is Step 9.
God Bless
Ken L GRCG
March 22 Reflection for the Day
Once in a great while, I find myself thinking perhaps things werent quite so bad as they seemed to be. At such moments, I force myself to realize that my illness is talking to me, trying to tempt me into denying that I am, in fact, afflicted with an illness. One of the key action steps of the Gamblers Anonymous Program is that we give our illness to God, as we understand Him, accepting our powerlessness in the face of His greater Power.
Do I believe that the grace of God can do for me what I could never do for myself?
Today I Pray
May I know that much of our lives depends on faith. For we cannot know the limits of space and time or explain the mysteries of life and death. But when we see God working through us and through others who have found new life in the GA Program it is all the evidence we need to know that God exists.
Today I will Remember
The Big Wheel runs by faith.
Took me awhile to figure out how to get back into the site.
I am not computer wise.But am back and I am going to start
posting the GA Reflection for the Day again and hope to catch
up with my old recovery friends and to meet some new people.
If you are interested I visit a new site called Gamtalk that is run
out of Montreal Canada and it has 24/7 chat room and on Friday
at 3pm est we have a group Topic Session.Today's topic is Step 9.
God Bless
Ken L GRCG
March 22 Reflection for the Day
Once in a great while, I find myself thinking perhaps things werent quite so bad as they seemed to be. At such moments, I force myself to realize that my illness is talking to me, trying to tempt me into denying that I am, in fact, afflicted with an illness. One of the key action steps of the Gamblers Anonymous Program is that we give our illness to God, as we understand Him, accepting our powerlessness in the face of His greater Power.
Do I believe that the grace of God can do for me what I could never do for myself?
Today I Pray
May I know that much of our lives depends on faith. For we cannot know the limits of space and time or explain the mysteries of life and death. But when we see God working through us and through others who have found new life in the GA Program it is all the evidence we need to know that God exists.
Today I will Remember
The Big Wheel runs by faith.
Hugs
Lisa
of this definition.I still have many character deflects that I am working on and some of them may take me for ever but the good news is that today I am aware of them.And when I first went to GA in 1999 I was looking for any excuse not to be there and I used the word "Higher Power." not to attend.Too religous for me.I spent another 3 years out gambling to the point where in 2002 I was about to lose my family home and job and went away to family cottage to end my life.But a few things happen that day that convinced me not to give and I went back home and call GA.Attended my first meeting June 15th 2002 and my Higher Power was and still is the other people in the rooms that attend.
So sort of a long winded relpy to your question Johnny.I had/have faith in the people who were in the room that day.They shared their Experience Strenght and Hope with me and 10 years later I still share this faith and belief in my Higher Power ( the people in GA rooms.)
Ken L YBIR
March 23 Reflection for the Day
Gamblers Anonymous teaches us, through the experience, strength, and hope of the Fellowship, that the worst situation imaginable does not warrant a return to gambling. No matter how bad a particular situation or set of circumstances, the return to our old ways for even a minute will assuredly make it worse.
Am I grateful for the caring and sharing of the program?
Today I Pray
May I insist that no stone can be heavy enough to drag me back down into the pool of my addiction. No burden, no disappointment, no blow to pride, or loss of human love is worth the price of returning to my old way of life. When I harbour thoughts that life is too much for me, that no one should be expected to take so much and still remain sane or that I am the fall guy, let me listen for the tone of my complaints and remember that I have heard that whine before before I concluded that I was powerless over gambling and gave my will over to the will of God. such wailing sets me up for gambling again. May God keep my ears alert to the tone of my complaining.
Today I will Remember
Hear my own complaints.
from Gamblers Anonymous "A Day At A Time"
All of us are faced with the troubles and problems of daily living, whether weve been in Gamblers Anonymous two days or twenty years. Wed sometimes like to believe we could take care of all our problems right now, but it rarely works that way. If we remember the slogan A Day at a Time when we are ready to panic, we may come to know that the very best way to handle anything is to turn it over. We put one foot in front of the other, doing the best we are capable of doing. We say A Day at a Time. And we do it a day at a time.
Are the Programs slogans growing with me as I grow with the Program?
Today I Pray
May even the words A Day at a Time serve to slow me down in my headlong rush to accomplish too much too fast. May just those words be enough to make me ease up on the accelerator that plunges me into new situations without enough forethought, ease off on the number of hours spent in material pursuits. May I hark to the adage that Rome wasnt built in a single day. Neither can I build solutions to my problems all at once.
Today I Will Remember
A Day at a Time.
From Gamblers Anonymous "A Day At A Time
Jay
If a compulsive gambler wants to live successfully in society, he or she must replace the power of gambling over his/her life with the power of something else preferably positive, at least neutral, but not negative. That is why we say to the agnostic newcomer: if you cant believe in God, find a positive power that is as great as the power of your addiction, and give it the power and dependence you gave to your addiction. In Gamblers Anonymous, the agnostic is left free to find his or her Higher Power, and can use the principals of the Program and the therapy of the meetings to aid in rebuilding his/her life.
Will I go out of my way to work with newcomers?
Today I Pray
May the Power of the Gamblers Anonymous Program work its miracles equally for those who believe in a personal God or in a Universal spirit or in the strength of the group itself, or for those who define their Higher Power in their own terms, religious or not. If newcomers are disturbed by the religiosity of the Program, may I welcome them on their own spiritual terms. May I recognize that we are all spiritual beings.
Today I Will Remember
To each his own spirituality.
I know today that getting advice means trying to live the Steps of the Gamblers Anonymous Program to the best of my ability. It means striving for some degree of honesty, first with myself, then with others. It means activity directed inward, to enable me to see myself and my relationship with my Higher Power more clearly. As I get active, outside and inside myself, so shall I grow in the Program.
Do I let others do all the work at meetings? do I carry my share?
Today I Pray
May I realize that letting go and letting God does not mean that I do not have to put any effort into the Program. It is up to me to work the Twelve Steps, to learn what may be an entirely new thing with me honesty. May I differentiate between activity for activitys sake busy-work to keep me from thinking and the thoughtful activity that helps me to grow.
Today I will Remember
Letting God means letting God show us how.
Storing up grievances is not only a waste of time, but a waste of life that could be lived to greater satisfaction. If I keep a ledger of oppressions and indignities, Im only restoring them to painful reality. In Lewis Carrolls Through the Looking Glass, The horror of that moment, the King said, I shall never, never forget. You will though, said the Queen, if you dont make a memorandum of it.
Am I keeping a secret storehouse for the wreckage of my past?
Today I Pray
God keep me from harbouring the sludge from the past grievances, annoyances, grudges, oppressions, wrongs, injustices, put-downs, slights, hurts. They will nag at me and consume my time in rehashing what I might have said or done, until I face each one, name the emotion it produces in me, settle it as best I can and forget it. May I empty my storehouse of old grievances.
Today I Will Remember
Dont rattle old bones.