During our days of active addiction, many of us displayed almost dazzlingly fertile powers of imagination. In no time at all, we could dream up more reasons—or excuses—for pursuing our addiction than most people use for all other purposes in their entire lives. When we first come to Gamblers Anonymous, our once-imaginative minds seem to become …
Fear may have originally brought some of us to Gamblers Anonymous. In the beginning, fear alone may help some of us stay away from the game and that insidious about-to-be-lucky feeling (even when we knew that gambling always turned against us in the end). But a fearful state is hardly conducive to comfort and happiness—not …
I’ve learned in the Gamblers Anonymous Program that the trick, for me, is not stopping gambling, but staying stopped and learning how not to start again. God knows, I tried to stop plenty of times, by lecturing myself on how it was affecting not only my life, but all aspects of my behavior. Gambling was …
Once we surrendered and came to the Gamblers Anonymous Program, many of us wondered what we would do with all that time on our hands. All the hours we’d previously spent planning, hiding, alibiing, losing our shirts, borrowing, juggling accounts—and all the rest—threatened to turn into empty chunks of time that somehow had to be …
Almost daily, I hear of seemingly mysterious coincidences in the lives of my friends in Gamblers Anonymous. From time to time, I’ve experienced such coincidences myself: showing up at the right place at exactly the right time; phoning a friend who, unbeknownst to me, desperately needed that particular phone call at that precise moment; hearing my story at an …
Little by little, I’m getting over my tendency to procrastinate. I always used to put things off till tomorrow, and, of course, they never got done. Instead of Do it now, my motto was Tomorrow’s another day. When I was in action, I had grandiose plans; when I came down from my high, I was too busy getting over …
How many of us would presume to announce, Well, I’m on my way to licking the gambling habit. What more can I want, or do? I’m fine just the way I am. Experience has taught us that the price of such smug complacency—or, more politely, self-satisfaction—is an inevitable backslide, punctuated sooner or later by a very rude …
If ever I come to the complacent conclusion that I don’t need the Gamblers Anonymous Program any longer, let me quickly remind myself that it can do far more than carry me through the anguish of living in the bondage of addiction. Let me further remind myself that I can make even greater strides in …
The primary purpose of the Gamblers Anonymous Program is freedom from compulsive gambling; without that freedom we have nothing. But that doesn’t mean I can say, for example, Compulsive gambling is my only concern. Except for that, I’m really a super person, so give me freedom from gambling, and I’ve got it made. If I delude myself …
Complacency is my enemy, easy to recognize in others, but difficult to identify and accept in myself. Complacency simply means being sure we’re right—taking it for granted that we couldn’t possibly be wrong. It means, moreover, judging others by what we think is right. It blocks out understanding and kindness, and seems to justify qualities …