How I’ve Reached 700 Days Gamble Free, After 8 Years Trapped in Addiction.

The 5 steps that helped me start the 12 steps.

Photo by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash

This week I hit 700 days gamble-free.

I originally wrote a version of this piece to celebrate Day 600. I’ve made a few edits since then, but the five biggest things that helped me get from rock bottom to here still stand. These are the five steps I took before I even got to the “12 steps” — and they might help someone else too. It took me almost a decade to walk into a recovery room. Here’s what got me through the door.

These steps are not a guide; not recommendations, nor do I have the qualifications to know if they were even the best way for me to have done it all. I would encourage you, the reader, to simply look at them as a commentary on what I did, and how it helped me.

1. Therapy.

Photo by Leuchtturm Entertainment on Unsplash

Therapy, therapy, therapy.

It’s absolutely essential; it’s really the first step into working on your compulsive gambling. Not just any therapy either, I should add, as many Psychologists simply do not seem to be trained to support or…