Nine Months

I ran across two articles today on compulsive gambling. The first article tells the story of Whit Criswell in 1984. There are eerie similarities to Mr. Criswell story and mine but the morale (at least to me) is he made it through and now it is 20 years later and life got better. Here is the full story. The second story tells the story of Linda Selymes and her gambling addiction. Mrs. Selymes is a highly educated retiree who found too much time and too little to do so she decided to play blackjack. It took over her life and her finances. Here is the full story on her gambling addiction.

The stories continue each and every day someone somewhere will become addicted to gambling and the disease takes no prisoners it actually makes prisoners of those severely addicted. I know for me the only to control the gambling is to NOT do it. I have learned this the hard way and that is the way it goes for me but those of you on the roller coaster of gambling it is never too late to stop no matter what.

I chose to make my last wager nine months from today and it has been a very interesting nine months. I have been terminated from my job; I have been in prison and I have seen my life get better. How can someone who has lost their job and been incarcerated have their life get better; you may ask. Well, I have stopped the insanity and have honestly looked inside myself. What I did for the past 20 plus years led me to where I was nine months ago by denying my gambling problem. I no long deny; I fully admit I am powerless to gambling and my life has become unmanageable. By saying these words my life became better and continues to get better as each day passes. It is only the beginning of a new life with new meaning and purpose. Life does get better no matter how bad you may think things are there is always hope and with God's guidance each day becomes a blessing.

I blame no one for my addiction other than myself; however; this blame is short lived because any blame is counter productive to my recovery. Blaming provides no purpose it is just an excuse. I make a choice each day when I get up and today as it has been for the last nine months I made the choice NOT to gamble and live the day with an honest purpose. When I go to bed in the evening I thank God for giving me the strength to make it through the day and when I get up tomorrow I will do the same things. I like how the last nine months have worked out so I will continue this routine each day one day at a time.