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.
We must think deeply of all those sick persons still to come to Gamblers Anonymous. As they try to make their return to faith and to life, we want them to find everything in the Program that we have found even more, if that is possible. No care, no vigilance, no effort to preserve the Programs constant effectiveness and spiritual strength will ever be too great to hold us in full readiness for the day of their homecoming.
How well do I respect the Steps of the Program?
Today I Pray
God, help me carry out my part in making the group a lifeline for those who are still suffering from compulsive gambling, in maintaining the Steps of Recovery and Unity that have made it work for me and for those who are still to come. May the Program be a homecoming for those of us who share the disease of compulsive gambling. May we find common solutions to the common problems that this disease breeds.
Today I Will Remember
To do my part.
Jay
Why do people gamble compulsively? Dr Robert Custer, a pioneer in the treatment of compulsive gambling, believed we have four basic human needs - affection, approval, recognition, and self-confidence. When these needs are not met, people feel inadequate and overwhelmed by life. Gambling may for a time appear to fill these needs. But whatever the cause, the principles and Fellowship of Gamblers Anonymous have proved effective in helping thousands overcome the compulsion to gamble.
Am I grateful for the insights and fellowship of Gamblers Anonymous?
Today I Pray
May God expand my understanding of the illness of compulsive gambling through life stories shared in the safe harbor of the GA meeting. There, we learn the true meaning of winning over the addiction to gambling and all its life-affecting negative effects. May God continue to show me the positives that can be mine through working the program honestly and wholeheartedly.
Today I Will Remember
The Program has the answers.
Absolute humility means freedom from myself, freedom from the demands that my character defects place so heavily upon me. Humility means the willingness to discover and carry out the will of God. Although I do not presume to attain such a vision, just keeping it in my heart helps me know where I stand on the road to humility. I recognize that my journey toward God has barely begun. As I shrink in self-importance I may even find the humour in my former pomp and ego-tripping.
Do I take myself too seriously?
Today I Pray
May the grandiosity that is a symptom of my addiction be brought back into proportion by the simple comparison of my powerlessness with the power of God. May I think of the meaning of Higher Power as it relates to my human frailty. May it bring my ego back down to scale and help me shed my defences of pomp or bluster or secret ideas of self-importance.
Today I Will Remember
Humility is freedom.
gby=god bless you
My illness is unlike most other illnesses in that denial that I am sick is a primary symptom of my sickness. Like many other incurable illnesses, however, my illness is characterized by relapses. In the Gamblers Anonymous Program, we call such relapses slips. The one thing I know for certain is that I alone can cause myself to slip.
Will I remember at all times that the thought precedes the action? Will I try to avoid stinking thinking?
Today I Pray
May God give me the power to resist temptations. May the responsibility for giving in, for having a slip, be on my shoulders and mine only. May I see beforehand if I am setting myself up for a slip by blame-shifting, shirking my responsibility to myself, becoming the worlds poor puppet once again. My return to those old attitudes can be as much of a slip as the act of placing a bet.
Today I Will Remember
Nobodys slip-proof.
Happy Easter.
Jay
If we dont want to slip, well avoid slippery places. For the gambler, that means shunning poker parties and race tracks and anywhere that gambling is taking place. For me, certain emotional situations can also be slippery places, so can indulgence in old ideas, such as a well-nourished resentment that is allowed to build to explosive proportions.
Do I carry the principals of the Gamblers Anonymous Program with me wherever I go?
Today I Pray
May I learn not to test myself too harshly by asking for it, by stopping in at the casino, the Bingo hall, or the track. Such testing can be dangerous, especially if I am egged on, not only by a craving for the old object of my addictions, but by others still caught in addiction whose moral responsibility has been reduced to zero.
Today I Will Remember
Avoid slippery places.