newbie: my journey so far, and the start of my new one

[Discountbabytah]

Hello everyone. My name is Ashley, and I am a compulsive gambler. I have had a problem with gambling for the past 2 years, but have not gambled for the past 5 or 6 weeks. I found it provided an escape from the problems I was facing at the time, it provided something to look forward when I was on the up but also had its trials and tribulations when the downtimes came. I found when I lost that I had to make up for it right away, and turned to taking out multiple payday loans and maxing out my overdraft. And when I still failed, and had nowhere left to turn and unable to gamble, I was at a dead end. At the end of the first two cycles of doing this, and everyone finding out, my parents bailed me out, which I appreciated greatly, and both times I said I'd get the help I needed to get clean. I did not. And both times, it was not enough to extinguish my need to gamble. I am currently at the end of my third cycle of doing this, and this time I am dealing with the debt side myself, as rightly so, my parents would not bail me out this time. Though they are still supporting me, which has been wonderful. I feel like that is the push I needed to really deal with the debts and the gambling side of it. I had sort of a "rock bottom" moment, where I felt like nothing could get any worse than things were at that moment. The next day, I got in touch with a credit counselling service, and they talked me through what I needed to do to deal with my creditors and helped me put together a plan to deal with my debts. I also went to the doctor to see what was available to deal with the other aspects of my problems, and he pointed me in the GA direction. Even though he said there were no meetings in my immediate area, I could come online and talk to people. So here I am, looking for your thoughts and advice on what I can do to avoid the temptations and what I can do to distract myself from feeling the need to gamble again, because I really can't afford to fall for the addictive charms of gambling again. I would also be interested in commenting on other peoples stories and helping in anyway I can. I am also very interested in the weekly online meeting, as I work nights and the start time looks ideal at 8pm. Anyway, I'm rambling now, hope to hear from you all soon <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->