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.
From time to time when I see the slogan "There, but for the Grace of God Go I," I remember how I used to mouth those words when I saw others whose gambling addiction had brought them to what I considered a "hopeless and helpless" state. The slogan had long been a cop-out for me, reinforcing my denial of my own addiction by enabling me to point to others seemingly worse off than I . "If I ever get like that , I'll quit gambling," was my often-repeated refrain. Today, instead,There, but for the Grace ofGod Go I has become my prayer of thankfulness, reminding me to be grateful to my Higher Power for my recovery, my life, and the way of life I've found in the Gamblers Anonymous Program.
Was anyone ever more "helpless and hopeless" than I?
Today I Pray
May I know that, but for the grace of God, I could be dead or insane by now, because there have been others who started on the path of addictive gambling when I did who are no longer here. May that same grace of God help those who are still caught in the downward spin, who are heading for disaster as sure as gravity.
Today I Will Remember
I have seen God's amazing grace.
OCTOBER 27 Reflection for the Day
The Gamblers Anonymous Program's Fourth Step suggests that we make a fearless moral and financial inventory of ourselves. For many of us, especially newcomers, the task seems impossible. Each time we take pencil in hand and try to look inward, Pride says scoffingly, "You don't have to bother to look." And Fear cautions, "You'd better not look! " Eventually we find that pride and fear are mere wisps of smoke, the cloudy strands from which were woven the mythology of our old ideas. When we push pride and fear aside and finally make a fearless inventory, we experience relief and a new sense of confidence beyond description.
Have I made an inventory? Have I shared its rewards so as to encourage others?
Today I Pray
May I not be stalled by my inhibitions when it comes to making a moral inventory of myself. May I not get to the Fourth Step and then screech to a stop because the task seems overwhelming. May I know that my inventory today, even though I try to make it "thorough" and honest, may not be as complete as it will be if I repeat it again, for the process of self-discovery goes on and on.
Today I Will Remember
Praise God for progress.
I never cease to be amazed at how appropriate the topic at meetings I attend seems to be in relation to my life at that particular time. We can only become students in the presence of a teacher - and when a student becomes ready, a teacher will appear. We can only learn if we are being taught, and we can only teach after we learn. I have come to realize that, although God is the greatest teacher of them all, most often we learn from others He has taught.
Do I learn when I listen? Do I share what I learn?
Today I Pray
May I not forget those all-important lessons learned in Gamblers Anonymous. In GA we are all students, and we are all teachers. May I know that if I do not continue to learn, it may be because I'm not willing to be a student. If I am not sharing, it may be that I need to be open to more learning.
Today I Will Remember
If I remain teachable, I will continue to find teachers.
Virtually all of us suffered the defect of pride when we sought help through the Program, the Twelve Steps, and the Fellowship of recovering compulsive gamblers who truly understood what we felt and where we had been. We learned about our shortcomings - and of pride in particular - and began to replace self-satisfaction with gratitude for the miracle of our recovery, gratitude for the privilege of working with others, and gratitude for God's gift, which enabled us to turn catastrophe into growth and good fortune.
Have I begun to realize that "pride is to character as the attic is to the house - the highest part, and generally the most empty"?
Today I Pray
God, please tell me if I am banging my shins on my own pride. Luckily for me, the Gamblers Anonymous Program has its own built-in check for flaws like this - the clear-eyed vision of the group, which sees in me what I sometimes cannot see myself. May I know that any kind of success has always gone straight to my head, and be watching for it as I begin to reconstruct my confidence.
Today I Will Remember
Smug "success" can become a setback.
When I'm motivated by pride - by bondage of self - I become partly or even wholly blind to my liabilities and shortcomings. At that point, the last thing I need is comfort. Instead I need an understanding friend in the Gamblers Anonymous Program - a friend who'll unhesitatingly chop a hole through the wall my ego has built so that the light of reason can once again shine through.
Do I take time to review my progress, to spot-check myself on a daily basis, and to promptly try to remedy my wrongs?
Today I Pray
I pray that the group - or just one friend - will be honest enough to see my slippery manifestations of pride and brave enough to tell me about them. My self-esteem was starved for so long that, with my first successes in the GA Program, it may swell to the gross proportions of self-satisfaction. May a view from outside myself give me a true picture of how I am handling the triumph of my abstinence - with grateful humility or with pride.
Today I Will Remember
Self-esteem or self-satisfaction?
The mystery of ego: painful when inflated and painful to deflate, often keeping me from wholeheartedly working the Gamblers Anonymous Program. Even armed with the truth, I too often fall back on the old, familiar ideas that led me to the edge of despair. It takes such work to shrink the ego, and sometimes it inflates without my knowing it. I always thought my gambling systems would work; they never did. I doubted GA would work; and it has one day at a time.
Am I willing, just for today, to release those old ideas and count on the GA way?
Today I Pray
May I know that a puffed-up ego is inappropriate for me as a recovering compulsive gambler. It hides my faults from me. It turns people off and gets in the way of my helping others. It halts my progress because it makes me think Ive done enough self-searching and Im cured. I pray to my Higher Power that I may be realistic enough to accept my success in the GA Program without giving in to pride.
Today I Will Remember
Pride can halt progress.
Those whom I most respect in the Gamblers Anonymous Program and, in turn, those from whom Ive learned the most seem convinced that pride is, as one person put it, the root-sin. In moral theology, pride is the first of the seven deadly sins. It is also considered the most serious, standing apart from the rest by virtue of its unique quality. Pride gets right into our spiritual victories. It insinuates itself into all our successes and accomplishments, even when we attribute them to God.
Do I struggle against pride by working the Tenth Step regularly, facing myself freshly and making things right where theyve gone wrong?
Today I Pray
May I be on guard constantly against the sneakiness of pride, which can creep into every achievement, every triumph, every reciprocated affection. May I know that whenever things are going well for me, my pride will be on the spot ready to take credit. May I watch for it.
Today I Will Remember
Put pride in its place.
The more self-searching we do, the more we realize how often we react negatively because our pride has been hurt. Pride is at the root of most of my personal problems. When my pride is hurt, for example, I almost invariably experience resentment and anger sometimes to the point where Im unable to talk or think rationally. When Im in that sort of emotional swamp, I must remind myself that my pride and nothing but my pride has been injured. I have to pause and try to cool off until such time as I can evaluate the problem realistically.
When my pride is injured or threatened, will I pray for humility so that I can rise above myself?
Today I Pray
May I know that if my pride is hurt, the rest of me may not be injured at all. May I know that my pride can take a battering and still come back for more, stronger than ever. May I know that every time my pride takes a blow, it is liable to get more defensive, nastier, more unreasonable, more feisty. May I learn to keep my upstart pride in another place, where it will not be so easily hurt or so willing to take credit.
Today I will Remember
Humility is the only authority over pride.
The Gamblers Anonymous Red Book says: The word spiritual can be said to describe those characteristics of the human mind that represent the highest and finest qualities, such as kindness, generosity, honesty, and humility. Inasmuch as the Gamblers Anonymous Fellowship advocates consideration of these principles as a way of life, it is said that ours is a spiritual fellowship." I have begun to understand that my spirituality has to do with my wholeness the healthy congruency of truths, as I now perceive them, and my inner self.
Do I continue to strive for qualities that will bring me the greatest long-term happiness?
Today I Pray
May I work toward taking into myself those highest and finest qualities that define my spiritual being. May I know the joys that come through living the GA way, until all life becomes a celebration shared especially with others who, like me, are trying to live up to these God-inspired principles.
Today I will Remember
From spiritual holes to spiritually whole.
In the words of Teilhard de Chardin, We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. Even though we acknowledge in theory that we are spiritual beings, most compulsive gamblers had to experience some sort of spiritual awakening before we were willing to turn our lives over to a Higher Power. It was then that we could finally say we were spiritual beings. For some of us, it was as though we had experienced spirituality for the first time in our lives. But, no matter what our spiritual base had been previously, once we discovered this new sense of spirituality, it became an experience and a feeling we would not soon be willing to leave behind.
Am I grateful for the awakening that has put me in touch with my Higher Power and with my own spiritual essence?
Today I Pray
May I not forget how my outlook towards life, myself, friends, loved ones, and God had deteriorated prior to coming to Gamblers Anonymous. May I do whatever it takes to keep my spiritual life from hitting bottom again. May I keep growing spiritually a day at a time.
Today I will Remember.
Let my spirituality guide my humility.
November 5 Reflection of the Day
For many months after I came to gamblers Anonymous, I paid little attention to the Eleventh Step, to the practice of serious meditation and prayer. I felt that it might help me meet an emergency such as sudden craving to return to gambling but it remained among the lowest level on my list of priorities. In those early days, I equate prayer and medication with mystery and even hypocrisy. Ive since found that the results of prayer and medication are more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. For me today, the harvest is increasingly bountiful, and I continue to gain peace of mind and strength far beyond my human limitations.
Is my former pain being replaced by tranquility?
Today I Pray
May I find my own best way to God, my own best technique of meditation whether I use an oriental mantra or the name of Jesus Christ, or just allow the spirit of God, as I understand Him, to settle into me and give me peace. By whatever means I reach my God, may I learn to know Him well and feel His presence not only in these quiet times, but in everything I do.
Today I will Remember.
Meditation is opening myself to the spirit of God.
November 6 Reflection of the Day
There are no boundaries to meditation. It has neither width, depth, nor height, which means that it can always be further developed without limitation of any sort. Meditation is an individual matter: few of us meditate in the same way, and in that sense, it is truly a personal adventure. For all of us who practice meditation seriously, however the purpose is the same: to improve our conscious contact with God. despite its lack of specific dimensions and despite its intangibility, meditation is, in reality, the most intensely practical thing that we can do. One of its first rewards, for example, its emotional balance. What could be more practical than that?
Am I broadening and deepening the channel between me and God?
Today I Pray
As I seek God through daily prayer and meditation, may I find the peace that passes understanding, that balance that gives perspective to the whole of life. May I center myself in God.
Today I will Remember.
My balance comes from God.
November 7 Reflection of the Day
There are those in the Gamblers Anonymous Program who, at the beginning, shun meditation and prayer as they would avoid a pit full of rattlesnakes. When they do finally take the first tentative and experimental step, however, and unexpected things begin to take place, they begin to feel different. Invariably, such tentative beginnings lead to true belief, to the extent that those who one belittled prayer and meditation often become walking advertisements for its rewards. We hear in the GA Programme that almost the only scoffers at prayer are those who never really tried it.
Is there an obstinate part of me that still scoffs?
Today I Pray
May I learn, however irreverent I have been, that prayer is not to be mocked; I see the power of prayer effecting miracles around me, and I wonder. If I have refused to pray, may I look to see if pride is in my way that old pride that insists on doing things on it own. Now that I have found a place for prayer in my life, may I reserve that place religiously.
Today I will Remember.
Whoever learns to pray keeps on praying.
November 8 Reflection of the Day
My conscious contact with God depends entirely on me and on my desire for it. Gods power is available for me to use at all times; whether I decide to use it or not is my choice. It has been said that God is present in all His creatures, but all are not equally aware of His presence. Ill try to remind myself every day of how much depends on my awareness of Gods influence in my life. And Ill try to accept His help in everything I do.
Will I remember that God knows how to help me, that He can help me, and that He wants to help me?
Today I Pray
May I be aware always that Gods power and peace are a bottomless well within me. I can draw bucket after bucket from it to refresh and purify my life. All I need to supply are the buckets and the rope. The water is mine free, fresh, healing, and unpolluted.
Today I will Remember.
The well is Gods; I bring the buckets.