[thegamblersgauntlet]

Hi everyone. I am on my second and hopefully final relapse in compulsive gambling. It started in college when I played online poker. I lost what a college student would consider a lot of money. Lied to my parents for about a year, and finally came clean to them. They were upset and angry but still extremely supportive. Fast forward 4 years, I start playing online blackjack. This eventually spirals out of control until I am almost out of money. I come clean to my parents again, they are frustrated, angry, sad, upset, you name it. I tell them I need help so I immediately start GA.

GA is a great resource. Unfortunately, I didn’t take it seriously enough during my first relapse. I thought I was cured after a few months and stopped going. Fast forward 10 years to last year. I am now married with two kids. During this 10 year period, I didn’t do any “binge” gambling. I bought the occasional lottery ticket, did some fantasy football, and office pools, but not binging. In hindsight this led to my second major relapse. When sports betting was legalized in my state, I started out slow, thinking I had the strategy to win this time. Of course the compulsive gambler never wins in the long run. My wife eventually got wind of it, and I had to come clean to her and my parents and her parents. I created a mountain of debt for us. I’m not sure she will ever forgive me, but so far she hasn’t divorced me and is being as supportive as she can.

So what’s changed this time:

1) I started therapy
2) I go to GA meetings ever week (I take them seriously and am genuinely excited to go!)
3) My mindset. I know I can bever be “cured”, but I can recover and overcome. I need to work on this daily and can’t ever even enter a pool or buy a lottery ticket
4) I started writing. Never thought of myself as a writer, but journaling and blogging has helped me so much

• This topic was modified 2 years, 12 months ago by Dunc.
• This topic was modified 2 years, 12 months ago by Dunc.

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