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.
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.
All of us are faced with the troubles and problems of daily living, whether we've 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 wasn't 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.
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 wasn't 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.
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.
MARCH 26 Reflection for the Day
I know today that getting active 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 harboring 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.
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.
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.