Anyone can submit a story, we are always looking for people to “anonymously” submit their therapies. A therapy is just a different way of asking someone to talk about their situation and life in regards to the gambler. It is good to be able to identify with other people who may be going through the same problems as you are and to realise you are not the only one.
Below are just some of them, if you would like to send your story, then please email (address to follow)
I WAS MISERABLE
I fought hard against Gamanon. It ‘wasn’t for me’, I saw it as it wasn’t my issue and to be brutally honest, at the time just the mention of anything gambling related- even GA or Gamanon – made my blood boil, I was so angry. My partner had been in GA for 5 years when I realised, I was still angry, bitter, unreasonable and I was miserable. Nearly 4 years ago, I decided I was fed up of being miserable. My gambler stopping gambling wasn’t making me happy or back to the person I once was so I decided Gamanon was the last...
read moreWHAT GAMANON DOES FOR ME
When I arrived at Gamanon, many moons ago, I didn’t even really know what it was. I had decidedthat I needed to find someone or some people who could explain to me why my husband gambled, why he couldn’t stop even though we had 3 young children that I knew he loved (even if I wasn’t sure he still loved me), and what this illness was? I did understand that it was an illness, but that didn’t mean I was coping with it any better than before I understood. I was a bit less angry but just as perplexed, despairing, sad, beaten down and...
read moreSAFE
I have had to put up with gambling for over 40 years, my husband is a compulsive gambler. I felt so alone and unable to talk to anyone. I could not talk to my husband about his gambling addiction or even our children, I was at the end of the road in fact I thought I was going insane. Thankfully, I found Gam-Anon! On entering the Gam-Anon room, I was extremely apprehensive and nervous. I am a stroke survivor and find speaking in front of people very daunting. For a few meetings I listened and slowly but surely, I began to open up. In the room,...
read moreRecovery
I had been married for 24 years during which time I had built, brick by brick, a wall round myself. I built this wall initially with small bricks made from doubt, suspicion and irritation. As time progressed the bricks I used got bigger and bigger. Some were made from lies, some from fear and some from jealousy. As I completed my wall I used my biggest bricks made from debt, self loathing, insecurity, pain, hurt and anger. My wall protected me from reality and as I could not see over my wall I could not see what was happening to my life. No...
read moreMy Story
One night in July 2006 I practically bounced through the door filled with excitement as my husband had promised to take me to a restaurant I had wanted to go to for ages. I came down to earth with a bump when I found him in the lounge in floods of tears telling me that I was going to leave him because of what he had done. And so it was that I found out that my husband who I had been with for over 10 years had a gambling problem, that we had considerable debts and that he had been lying to me for years. It was such a shock, but he was in such a...
read morePhil’s Story
Things came to a head in June 2006. My daughter was due to go to Turkey on her first foreign holiday. She had given her mum her passport application and her fee some months before. She had also given my wife all of her spending money which had all been gambled away. My wife was at rock bottom and she had no option but to be honest with me. The next day she attended her first G.A meeting and our journey began. Seven months went by and I could not deal with the feelings of resentment, anger and paranoia. Every minute, all I could think about was...
read moreOne Day at a Time…
My first experience of Gamblers Anonymous and GamAnon My first experience of Gamblers Anonymous and GamAnon was in June 2004 when my partner and I had been together for nearly 2 years. I took him to that first meeting, just like many others have taken a loved one to a meeting, desperately looking for help for a problem that they know they cannot deal with alone. What brought us to that meeting was that he had finally admitted to me the extent of his gambling problem. Before this, I knew he liked to play fruit machines but I saw this as part of...
read moreWhy I Attend the Group
The other week at our meeting a recent member asked the question, why do people attend the group meetings? I thought fast and then responded. Over six years ago our family was hit with the absolute bombshell of compulsive gambling. Never had we felt so alone and powerless and lacking any understanding of what had just happened. Luckily we were able to search the Internet and find the details of the local group. We turned up on a freezing cold February night, the place was in darkness and we stood with the cold and the despair for an hour...
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