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.
"The language of friendship is not words,but meanings,"wrote Thoreau.Life indeed takes on new meaning in the Gamblers Anonymous Program.To watch people recover,to see them help others,to watch loneliness vanish,to see a Fellowship grow up about you,to have a host of friends - this is an experience not to be missed.
Can I recall my initial reactions when I came to Gamblers Anonymous? Do I believe that I've finally come home?
Today I Pray
As the GA Program has given life new meanings for me,may I pass along to others that same chance to re-evaluate their lives in the light of recovery, common purpose,friendships,and spiritual expansion.Praise God for my new vision of human life.Praise God for restoring for me the value and purpose of living.
Today I Will Remember
I value my life.
When I first listened to people in Gamblers Anonymous talking freely and honestly about themselves,I was stunned.Their stories of their own gambling escapades,of their own secret fears,and of their own gnawing loneliness were literally mind-blowing for me.I discovered - and hardly dared believe it at first - that I'm not alone,,I'm not all that different from everyone else and,in fact,we're all very much the same.I began to sense that I do belong somewhere,and my loneliness began to leave me.
Do I try to give others what has been given freely to me?
Today I Pray
May I begin to see,as the life stories of my friends in GA unfold for me,that our similarities are far more startling than our differences.As I listen to their accounts of compulsive gambling and recovery,may I experience often that small shock of recognition,a "hey-that's-me!" feeling that is quick to chase away my separateness of the group,giving and taking in equal parts.
Today I Will Remember
Sameness,not differences.
When newcomers to Gamblers Anonymous experience the first startling feeling that they're truly among friends,they also wonder - with almost a sense of terror - if the feeling is real.Will it last? Those of us who've been in the Program a few years can assure any newcomer at a meeting that it is very real indeed,and that it does last.It's not just another false start,nor just a temporary burst of gladness to be followed,inevitably,by shattering disappointment.
Am I convinced that I can have a genuine and enduring recovery from the loneliness of my compulsive gambling?
Today I Pray
Please,God let me not be held back by my fear of recurring loneliness.May I know that the openness that warms me in this group will not suddenly close up and leave me up.May I be patient with my fear,which is swollen with past disappoints and losses.May I know that the fellowship of the group will,in time,convince me that loneliness is never incurable.
Today I Will Remember
Loneliness is curable.
Getting over years of suspicion and other self-protective mechanisms can hardly be an overnight process.We've become thoroughly conditioned to feeling and acting misunderstood and unloved-whether we really were or not.Some of us may need time and practice to break out of our shell and the seemingly comfortable familiarity of solitude.Even though we begin to believe and know we are no longer alone,we tend to sometimes feel and act in old ways.
Am I taking it easy? Am I learning to wear the Gamblers Anonymous Program and life like a loose garment?
Today I Pray
May I expect no sudden total reversal of all my old traits.My abstinence from gambling is just a beginning.May I realize that the symptoms of my compulsion will wear off gradually.If I slip back,now and then,into my old self-pity bag or my grandiosity,may I not be discouraged,but grateful.At last,I can face myself honestly and not let my delusions get the best of me.
Today I Will Remember
Easy does it.
When we're new in Gamblers Anonymous, we're novices at reaching out for friendship - or even accepting it when it's offered. Sometimes we're not quite sure how to do it or, indeed, whether it will actually work. Gradually, however, we become restored; we become teachable. We learn, for example, as Moliere wrote, "The more we love our friends, the less we flatter them."
Just for today, will I reach out if I need a friend?
Today I Pray
May God help me to discover what true friendship is. In my new relationships, I pray that I may not be so eager for approval that I will let myself be dishonest - through flattery, half-truths, false cheeriness, protective white lies.
Today I Will Remember
A friend is honest.
I know today that I no longer have to proceed on my own. I've learned that it's safer, more sensible, and surer to move forward with friends who are going in the same direction as I. None of us need feel shame at using help, since we all help each other. It's no more a sign of weakness to use help in recovering from my addiction than it is to use a crutch if I have a broken leg. To those who need it, and to those who see its usefulness, a crutch is a beautiful thing.
Do I sometimes still refuse to accept easily obtained assistance?
Today I Pray
God make me see that it is not a sign of weakness to ask for help, that the camaraderie of the group is what makes it work for each of us. Like a vaccine for diphtheria or polio, the Gamblers Anonymous Program and the strength of the group have proved themselves as preventives for slips and backsliding. Praise God for the tools of recovery.
Today I Will Remember
Help is as near as my telephone.
05/26/14 2:07am
Here, GF this holiday again. First Things First. Getting things done. Continuing recovery and catching up with chores around the "ranch " another good GA meeting today, I plan on using the phone list should I begin to "bug out" because I have tomorrow off from work...
carry a phone list of others in recovery and even more importrant
is that you use the list when struggling.
God Bless
Ken L YBIR
So I most likely won't be sending out daily emails.
Please keep me and my family in your thoughts and prayers.
MAY 27 Reflection for the Day
When I have only myself to talk to, the conversation gets sort of one-sided. Trying to talk myself out of a "small wager" or "just a hand" is like trying self-hypnosis. It simply doesn't work; most of the time, it's about as effective as trying to talk myself out of a case of flu. When my heart is heavy and my resistance low, I can always find some comfort in sharing with a true and understanding friend in the Gamblers Anonymous Program.
Do I know who my friends are?
Today I Pray May
I be convinced that, as part of God's master plan, we were put here to help each other. May I be as open about asking for help as I am ready to give it, no matter how long I have been in the Program. May the experiences of countless others be enough to prove to me that "talking myself out of it" seldom works, that the mutual bolstering that comes from sharing with a friend usually does.
Today I Will Remember
When I ask for help, I am helping.
Sorry to hear about the tragedy- you and yours are in my thoughts and prayers.
As always (and I don't say this often enough), thank you for posting from the blue book. The past several days' readings really hit the essence of the program.
Jay
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.
Moving forward but don't think my days will ever be normal again.
Will always be something some place someone that will remind me
of my beautiful caring son. God bless his Soul.
June 1 Reflection for the Day
Slowly, but surely, I'm becoming able to accept other people's faults as well as their virtues. The Gamblers Anonymous Program is teaching me to "always love the best in others - and never fear their worst." This is hardly an easy transition from my old way of thinking, but I'm beginning to see that all people - including me - are to some extent emotionally ill as well as frequently wrong.
Am I approaching true tolerance? Am I beginning to see what real love actually means?
Today I Pray
May God give me tolerance for any shortcomings or sick symptoms or insensitivities of others, so that I can love the qualities that are good in them. May God instruct me in the truest meaning of love - which must also include patience. May I not overlook the faults of those I love, but may I try to understand them.
Today I Will Remember
Love is understanding.
June 2 Reflection for the Day
In the process of learning to love myself and, in turn,to love others freely with no strings attached,I've begun to understand these words of St. Augustine:"Love slays what we have been,that we may be what we were not."More and more,I feel the enormous power of such love in the Gamblers Anonymous Program;for me,the words "we care" also mean "we love."
Just for today,will I try to be loving in every thought and action?
Today I Pray
I pray that I may feel the enormity and the power of love I find in Gamblers Anonymous.May my own caring be added to that great energy of love that belongs to all of us.May I care with my whole heart that my fellow members maintain their abstinence from gambling and are learning to live with it comfortably and creatively.May I never doubt that they care the same way about me.
Today I Will Remember
Caring makes it happen.
June 3 Reflection for the Day
"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves,and not to twist them to fit our own image,"wrote Thomas Merton."Otherwise,we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them."As I place my self-destructive addiction with a healthy dependence on the Gamblers Anonymous Program and its Twelve Steps,I'm finding that the barriers of silence ad hatred are melting away.By accepting each other as we are,we have learnt again to love.
Do I care enough about others in the GA to continue working with them as long as necessary?
Today I Pray
May I be selfless enough to love people as they are,
not as I want them to be, as they mirror my image or feed my ego.May I slow down in my eagerness to love - now that I am capable of feeling love again - and ask myself if I really love someone or only that someone's idea of me.May I remove the "self" from my loving.
Today I Will Remember
Love is unconditional.
Acceptance is a key. Too often I was unable to accept who I was, and therefore it was impossible to accept others. Before coming to Gamblers Anonymous, I hid from the truth because I was afraid of it. Now with the help of my GA brothers and sisters, I can walk through it. Today I actually find comfort in knowing the truth. I'm trying to go in the right directionand that's enough for me.
Do I accept who I was, with all my shortcomings, and who I am trying to be?
Today I Pray
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change - past with its miseries and restlessness, and the burdens that are left over from my gambling days. May my acceptance of things past be a basis for building a new life - a life I not only accept, but celebrate.
Today I Will Remember
Acceptance is a key to recovery.