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.
When people say rash or ugly things, we sometimes say they are forgetting themselves, meaning theyre forgetting their best selves in a sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury. If I remember the kind of person I want to be, hopefully I wont forget myself and yield to a fit of temper. Ill believe that the positive always defeats the negative: courage overcomes fear: patience overcomes anger and irritability: love overcomes hatred.
Am I always striving for improvement?
Today I Pray
Today I ask that God, to whom all things are possible, help me turn negatives into positives anger into super-energy, fear into a chance to be courageous, hatred into love. May I take time out to remember examples of such positive-from-negative transformations from the whole of my lifetime. Uppermost is Gods miracle: my freedom from the slavery of gambling addiction.
Today I Will Remember
Turn negatives into positives.
As we are restored to health and become increasingly able to live comfortably in the real world without gambling, we begin to see many things in a new light. Many of us have come to realize, for example, that anger, comes disguised in many shapes and colors: intolerance, sarcasm, distrust, anxiety, envy, cynicism, discontent, self-pity, malice, suspicion, jealousy. As more insights are granted to us, we begin to see how often anger is at the root of many of our restless, uncomfortable feelings. Such insights help us understand our anger and seek new ways to deal with it.
Do I let my feelings get the best of me?
Today I Pray
May I recognize that my anger, like a dancer at a masquerade, displays many forms and many faces. May I strip off its several masks and know it for what it is.
Today I Will Remember
Anger wears a thousand masks.
I posted a rant at the start, January some time, about the casinos, about there subversive tactics to get our money.
but really, I just don't feel angry anymore, I am mostly sad that I got in this and for the repurcussions.
mostly probably self-pity.
you know I hate the idea of someone pitying me but myself, well that can be a different story.
mmmmmmmmmmhhhhh.
Do I waste my time and energy wrestling with situations that arent actually worth a second thought? Like Don Quixote, the bemused hero of Spanish literature, do I imagine windmills as menacing giants, battling them until I am ready to drop from exhaustion? Today Ill not allow my imagination to build small troubles into big ones. Ill try to see each situation clearly, giving it only the value and attention it deserves.
Have I come to believe as the second of the Twelve Steps suggests, that a Power greater than myself can restore me to a normal way of thinking and living?
Today I Pray
God, keep my perspective sane. Help me to avoid aggrandizing petty problems, tying too much significance to casual conversations, making a Vesuvius out of an anthill. Keep my fears from swelling out of scale, like shadows on a wall. Restore my values, which became distorted during the days of my gambling compulsion.
Today I Will Remember
Sanity is perspective.
My comment:
Well, I had a pretty rough day at work today. A co-worker got angry with me over something really small and snapped at me. I didn't get angry back at her although I was angry. I put my anger into action and worked extra hard doing some cleaning and organizing. I'm a very sensitive person and it hurts when people snap at me. The daily reflections will help me to learn how deal with my emotions and keep me from wanting to gamble to escape feeling them.
When I came to Gamblers Anonymous, I found people who knew exactly what I meant when I spoke finally of my fears. They had been where I had been; they understood. Ive since learned that many of my fears have to do with projection. Its normal, for example, to have a tiny back burner fear that the person I love will leave me. But when the fear takes precedence over my present and very real relationship with the person Im afraid of losing, then Im in trouble. My responsibility to myself includes this: I must not fear things that do not exist.
Am I changing from a fearful person into a fearless person?
Today I Pray
I ask Gods help in waving away my fears those figments, fantasies, monstrous thoughts, projections of disaster that have no bearing on the present. May I narrow the focus of my imagination and concentrate on the here-and-now, for I tend to see the future through a magnifying glass.
Today I Will Remember
Projected fears, like shadows, are larger than life.
Here is the second Serenity Prayer
God Grant Me The Serenity To Except The People I Cannot Change
The Courage To Change The Person I Can,
And The Wisdom To Know That Person Is Me.
The Twelve Steps teach us that, as faith grows, so does security. The terrifying fear of nothingness begins to subside. As we work the Program, we find that the basic antidote for fear is a spiritual awakening. We lose the fear of making decisions, for we realize that, if our choice proves wrong, we can learn from the experience. And should our decision be the right one, we can thank God for giving us the courage and the grace that caused us so to act.
Am I grateful for the courage and grace I received from my Higher Power?
Today I Pray
I ask that I be given the power to act, knowing that I have at least a half-chance to make the right decision and that I can learn from a wrong one. For so long, decision-making seemed beyond my capabilities. Now I can find joy in being able to make choices. Thank you, God, for courage.
Today I Will Remember
Freedom is choosing.
As for the reflection of today for Feb 23rd.
"Freedom is choosing."
I have been so afraid of doing anything for a long time. My husband and I joke about it. Every time we make a decision even if we think long and hard about it, it seems to be the wrong one. This makes us fear making any decisions. It stops us from moving forward. I know now I need to move forward even though I am afraid. I will take baby steps. I will get up and start moving. I will go to Al-anon. I will keep coming here to D.S. I can't let my problems suffocate me. I'm going to take a deep breath and begin to do the things that are right for me in my life.
Here is a link to some presentations by a lady named Brene Brown
1 ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_QRetTj38Y
2) http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html
I can banish fear by realizing the truth. Am I afraid to be alone? This fear can be banished by the realization that I am never alone, that God is always with me wherever I am and whatever I do. Am I afraid that I wont have enough money to meet my needs? This fear can be banished by the realization that God is my inexhaustible, unfailing resource, now and always.
Today I have the power to change fear into faith. Can I say with confidence, I will trust, and I will not be afraid?
Today I Pray
That I may fear no evil, for God is with me. That I may learn to turn to my Higher Power when I am afraid. I pray diligently that my faith in God and trust in what God has in store for me is strong enough to banish the fears that undermine my courage.
Today I Will Remember
Turn fear into faith.
Today's reflection is about turning fear into faith.
I am going to try my best to do this in my life. I have many things I am afraid of and I need to let go and let God. I must realize I can't control them. But...I can control how I react to them.