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.
I considered myself a "loner" in the days when I was gambling. Although I was often with other people - saw them, heard them, touched them - most of my important dialogues were with my inner self. I was certain that nobody else would ever understand. Considering my former opinion of myself, it's likely that I didn't want anybody to understand. I smiled through gritted teeth even as I was dying on the inside.
Have my insides begun to match my outside since I've been in the Gamblers Anonymous Program?
Today I Pray
May my physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual selves become one, a whole person again. I thank my Higher Power for showing me how to match my outside to my inside, to laugh when I feel like laughing, to cry when I feel sad, to recognize my own anger or fear or guilt. I pray for wholeness.
Today I Will Remember
I am becoming whole.
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us,"wrote Oliver Wendell Holmes.I was never able to look at what was within me until I came to Gamblers Anonymous and I heard my story told.Then I no longer had my "uniqueness" to hide behind.What was more,the person seemed a lot happier telling it than I was hearing it.I was jealous of a winner - always had been - so I began,ever so slowly to tell my own story.
Am I surprised today that all that was within me could possibly have been kept secret so long from the outside world.
Today I Pray
Regardless of what lies ahead or behind me,may I remember that I must have God within me to guide me through difficult situations.When I am not in a difficult situation,may I thank God - and know that He is the reason I am where I am today.
Today I Will Remember
To make room for God within me.
Compulsive gambling is a lonely disease;although it may have seemed that we were part of the lights-and-action crowd,we were often tortured by loneliness.Even before the end of our gambling days - before the debts and the guilt showed us how unmanageable our lives had become - nearly all of us felt that we didn't quite belong.Either we were basically shy,or we were noisy good fellows craving attention and approval,but rarely getting it.Though we sought through the seeming sociability of gambling to overcome our loneliness,reckless risk was always lonely.Finally,even the Game itself betrayed us;we were struck down and left in terrified isolation.
Have I begun to achieve an inner calm?
Today I Pray
May I know the tenderness of an intimate relationship with God and the calm I feel when I touch God's spirit.May I translate this tenderness and calm to my relationship with others.May God deliver me from my lifelong feeling of loneliness and show me how to be a friend.
Today I Will Remember
God can teach me to be a friend.
May 21 Reflection for the Day
"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.
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.
We've all had times when we felt alienated, when it seemed we had nowhere to turn and no one to turn to. When we don't know which way to turn, when there seems to be no one to help us, even then we're not alone or without help; the presence of God is always with us. When we need strength or courage or comfort, God is there with us as the help we need. Even before we turn to God, His love reaches out to us; His loving Spirit in us hears our cry and answers us.
Do I truly believe that I no longer need to be alone?
Today I Pray
May I never be alone, even in a place by myself, if I take time to talk to my Higher Power. May God be my companion, my joy, my ever-present help in trouble. May the knowledge of that constant presence fill me with calm, so that I will not fear either the solitude of my own room or alienation in a roomful of people.
Today I Will Remember
Listen for the presence of God.
When we first reached Gamblers Anonymous and for the first time in our lives stood among people who seemed to understand, the sense of belonging was exhilarating. We felt that the problem of isolation had been solved. We soon discovered however, that while we weren't alone anymore in a social sense, we still suffered many of the old pangs of anxious apartness. Until we had talked with complete candor of our conflicts and had listened to someone else do the same thing, we still didn't belong. Step Five was the answer.
Have I found though my Fifth Step the beginning of true kinship with my fellows and God?
Today I Pray
May God help me learn to share myself, my attributes and my failings, not just as I take the Fifth Step but in a continuing give-and-take process with my friends. May I cultivate an attitude of openness and honesty with others, now that I have begun to be honest with myself. May I remember who I used to be - the child in a game of hide-and-seek, who hid so well that nobody could find her or him and everyone gave up trying and went home.
Today I Will Remember
I will be open to friendship.
Since I've been in Gamblers Anonymous, I've learned to redefine love. I've come to understand, for example, that sometimes it's necessary to place love ahead of indiscriminate "factual honesty." No longer, under the guise of "perfect honesty," can I cruelly and unnecessarily hurt others. Today, I must always ask myself, "What's the best and most loving thing I can do?"
Have I begun to sow the seeds of love in my daily living?
Today I Pray
May God's love show me how to be loving. May I first sense the feelings of love and caring within me and then find ways to show those feelings. May I remember how many times I cut myself off from relationships because I did not know how either to let myself feel love or to show what I did feel.
Today I Will Remember
When I feel love, I will be loving.
Giving love is a fulfillment in itself. It must not matter whether love is returned or not. If I give love only to get a response on my terms, my love is canceled out by my motives. If I have the capacity to give love, then any return I get for it is a special bonus. It is through giving love, freely and without expectation of return, that we find ourselves and build ourselves spiritually.
Have I begun to believe, in the words of Goethe, that "Love does not dominate; it cultivates..."?
Today I Pray
May I, the inveterate people-pleaser and approval-seeker, know that the only real love does not ask for love back. May God be patient as I try to practice this principle. May I rid myself of pride that throws itself in the way of love. May I discard my silly cat-and-mouse games that have no place in real love.
Today I Will Remember
I will not give love to get love.
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.