Chatty Tuesday - Join us Tuesdays!

[BrittV (facilitator)]

Hey all!

Happy Chatty Tuesday


How's everyones weeks? You may like to talk about gambling problems, or something off topic. Jump in any time :) Everyone's welcome, the more the merrier.

Simply say hey, and you may like to
1 - Tell us about your week, and
2 - Perhaps bring a question or topic you'd like to chat about.

[BrittV (facilitator)]

Hey guys, anyone around tonight for Chatty Tuesday?
I thought this week we could talk about concerns and tips around finances at Christmas time.

To start us off I found a nifty app called Santa's bag. It's free, and you put in your budget for presents, who you need to buy for, and it helps you allocate budgets! Could be helpful for some?

If the theme doesn't work for you and you'd rather just say hi, then by all means :)




Just going to tag our newest posters incase you'd like to join us tonight @minnie89 @zackawadz @Mmmm2019 @trappnz @WashedUp @isarah @Carl

[gypsygemin9]

Hi I'm new. 30 days no pokies but worried I could relapse I drive past enough pubs on my way home from work could easily stop and drop in $ s but I don't trust myself

[gzy3]

Welcome to this forum @gypsygemin9 !

I am one of the moderators on this forum.
I hope you will learn some useful tips and insights from other members and also share your experiences.

Congratulations on 30 day gambling free. That is a great achievement.

It seems you feel an urge to gamble. What exactly are you feeling right now?
What do you think you would like to get out of gambling and also what would be possible negative outcome when you gamble again?
Urges are often just temporary and fade away eventually. Meanwhile what can you do to distract your urge?

Thinking about these above may be helpful when experiencing an urge.

Keep us posted and again welcome to this forum.
A Happy New Year to you.

[BrittV (facilitator)]

Hey everyone, last few weeks Chatty tuesday has kind of dropped off with the time of year but let’s bring it back to life!

How’s the start of everyone’s year been?

[gypsygemin9]

Hi well this week has been good so far. Trying to be positive and keep busy work, gardening, cooking, I'm trying to work on what triggers me to play the pokies but I feel it's more connected to feelings for me sad, down, loneliness, boedome to much time on my hands too 4 days off in a row. I used to play sundays arvos. That was my me time.not sure how to fill that time. I enquired about volunteering but nothing as yet.

[matty rutho 92]

Well done all I can say is keep it up,
I feel like I understand you, that the triggers are all feelings as for me it is the same.
I just spent $500 in the pokies within 3 hours - I hate myself and I don't want to cause disappoint my wife because it is $500 that we didn't really need but we didn't have to spend.
How did you start, when the feeling comes on ?

have a great day.

[BrittV (facilitator)]

Heya gypsygemin9 & matty rutho 92, thanks for your posts.

gypsygemin9 it's great to hear that your week is starting well! you're doing great things for yourself at the moment and you should be proud :) Feelings can be triggers no doubt, and this is something I feel like a lot of people can relate to, so it's great that you've identified that. Also great about the volunteering, this is something i know the amazing @Mona58 recommends to have helped them in their gamble free life, so look forward to hearing how that goes for you. Are there other things that you can do to pass time? Perhaps even movies, books, simple home things can be really helpful, and work with those feelings you were talking about as well.

matty welcome to the community! I'm sorry to hear how you're feeling, but coming here is a great first step towards change!
There are many here who understand exactly what you're feeling, it's a really lovely understanding place so I hope it's helpful for you now and moving forward.
I'm not quite sure what you're asking sorry, are you asking gypsygemin9 how they started stopping their gambling?

[matty rutho 92]

Thank you for the warm welcome.

I was asking in general - how did you start to get away from the urge to gamble or even to start to think about not gambling ?

Thank you

[BrittV (facilitator)]

Thanks for clarifying :)

Great question, and not something with a singular answer - it can be really challenging of course (as you're experiencing), and different for everyone.
There's some great info on our site's Understanding urges page and also in the second half of the tools for quitting page. I encourage you to have a look around the other pages as well though. Let me know if you find them helpful!

I'm sure there are others in the community who will have some tried & tested tips for you as well.

I recommend starting a thread in the Change makers section for yourself - that way you can ask questions and get support from others who've been where you are now, and also keep it as a kind of diary to track your journey.