Well back posting. A bit late as my iPad charger fell down the toilet yesterday and have had to concoct a makeshift charger from the phone charger which is a bit slow to charge but works, hurray!
It was a very good programme in a lovely venue with 13 very normal ladies whose lives had been damaged by problem gambling . Some stories were moving and even worse than mine! I think a few will become new members of the forum and I see that one has already listed.
The venue is lovely and in the middle of nowhere, 40 minutes by taxi from Hereford station. The food was excellent vegetarian food and is really like going on retreat that you would normally lay a lot of money for, for a few days. The programme gives us the tools to remain gambling free. I shared a room with a very nice lady. The programme will be followed by six weeks of 1 to one counselling, then get together again for three days, followed by further week,y counselling. We hand in our mobile phones and have them for a few hours in the evening. I did not miss mine at all and did not even retrieve it it’s evenings. This is the best and most intensive programme I have seen let alone the only programme for women, and also one which is not based in the sackcloth and ashes GA programme, which I really don’t like and is so wrong for women. It was good, only hampered by the fact that I was unwell on the way there and missed the last half day. I won’t go into detail about that as it woulddetract from what was a very helpful 4 days. Suffice to say I have now done the test that I was unable to do prior to going. My son rang me yesterday and sId he would help with the cost of a definitive test and some probiotics. So grateful for that as it will help enormously wth diagnosing this thing I have had now for five months and is progressively getting worse.
Well. A good friend who stopped same time as me relapsed and lost a lot of money and I was very sad to read about that. It tilled her over the edge. In the programme, we learn about our cues and triggers and have work to do at home in between counselling sessions. My friends triggers was just the long haul in debt repayments and Being refused a loan.
Gambling has destroyed many things in my life and I never want to return to it, one day at a time. Good to be back on the forum with my good friends.
