Thursday, November 16, 2017


Post 100

Giving-Thanks Screen: Model # 2

Six years ago, I came up with a Giving-Thanks Screen for the GRM Blog’s November 2011 Post.  There was very positive feedback from the recovering community.  Recently, it has crossed my mind that being thankful as well as proactively looking for reasons to be thankful provide very effective antidotes for maintaining recovery-strength and serenity. 
As indicated originally, it is significant for persons in recovery to make note of mile markers that chart progress being made.  Screening tools such as GA’s and Gam-Anon’s sets of Twenty Questions, the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), and the DSM V Diagnostic Criteria prompted me to put together the 2011 model - in keeping with the season of thanks-giving.  Now, with Thanksgiving Day rapidly approaching, I offer a second Giving-Thanks Screen.  This time, the inspiration for such a model comes from the Gamblers Anonymous pamphlet Suggestions for Coping with Urges to Gamble (Gamblers Anonymous, www.gamblersanonymous.org ).  Once again, the following items are in the form of thankfulness questions.  Prayerfully, each will not only provide progress-assessments but also measurable reasons for giving thanks, notably in preventing urges from occurring!    

1.      Are you relieved and thankful that your mind is now comfortable with and has accepted the fact that you cannot gamble safely?

2.      Do you give thanks for those persons you can – and do – call for support when the urges to gamble come?

3.      Thankfully, do you leave cash, credit cards, and checks, etc., to go and meet with someone?

4.      Is your mindset throughout the waking hours thankful to be free of dwelling on any urges that may be coming?

5.      Do you feel thankful to be – proactively – of help to others?
6.  Are you grateful that you can now play the tape forward and see how any attempts at
          gambling can lead to uncontrolled devastation – rather than visioning, as before, big wins?

 7.   Do you give thanks for having multiple choices as to how you will spend your free time, instead of feeling compelled to gamble?

  8.   Are you thankful to know that you know that the individual urges to gamble will fade within minutes – and that you are able to wait out these times?

  9.  Are you grateful that you can meditate and experience the blessings of a quiet mind that will be able to dissipate and expel a gambling urge?

10.  Do you give thanks for the wisdom and strength offered through the words of The Serenity   Prayer?  (Reinhold Niebuhr)
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

 courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference ...

Amen!
Happy and abundant  THANKS – GIVINGS!

Blessings,
            Rev. Janet Jacobs, CCGSO
            Founding Director
            Gambling Recovery Ministries
            www.grmumc.org

For more information on problem gambling and recovery issues, visit:                                                                                                                                                      
  www.indianaproblemgambling.org










 
 



   
 

No comments:

Post a Comment