3 days and Counting

Hi Dr Dan

Well done for joining the Forum and posting. I’m glad to hear that you feel reading the posts are helping.

It sounds like you’ve recognised a problem and acted quickly to resolve it.

If you need any further advice or feel you’d like to talk to someone, please phone the HelpLine on 0808 8020 133 or chat to us on the Netline. We’re here every day between 8am and midnight.

Wishing you every success, keep posting!

Ed

Forum Admin

Thanks for message. Still bet free 5 days now, not been tempted, feel much better now, still upset I lost the money, but know it’s gone. But feel good in the fact that I know I’m not throwing good money in the bin.

I also thought about the positives too. If it never escalated I probably would have lost between £1000 and £2000 a year. Which over the next 20 years would have been £20000 to £40000. So I may have taken a £6500 hit in one go. But over the rest of my life it’s saved me money.

Lets just hope I do stay on the wagon.

Dr Dan

Well after 6 months bet free, fell of the wagon last night and lost £2500.

At least I stopped at that point, feel a disappointed and disgusted with myself.

But determined that this is only a minor setback on the long road

sorry to hear that Dan, hope you get back on track, dont dwell on to it.. I relapsed as well, 3 months ago, after being gamble free for 1 year.. now I am gamble free for 3 months

Hi Dan,

How did you gamble? have you done self exclusions? Have you opened up to people close to you about this so they are aware of it? Have you checked out GA meetings to get support? Unless there is change we eventually go back to gambling.

Thanks Joe and the dude, for you replies.

I opened up a bit to so friends before, but didn’t really talk about the underlying issues with them, I have this time, and feel a lot better already, (a lot quicker than I did last time) Hopefully facing up to the underlying issue will help. And my good friend and work colleague has said if ever you get the urge again, I can ring her anytime day or night.

I never self excluded, but I did limit to £10 a month as I’ve never become addicted to football betting and I like doing a silly £2 accumulator on the football each weekend.

But I think I might have to do that, and stop doing the silly £2 bet.

I obviously, stupidly downloaded a different app for Blackjack that I hadn’t used before.

And good luck to you both, and thanks again for your replies

Dr Dan

Hi Dan,

I was very similar to yourself, I was in denial of the reality regarding my problem. I knew it was slots and roulette that were causing me to lose control so thought I could just keep my weekend flutter on football and the odd horse race I would be fine. I would be diciplined for long spells but I would always end back betting more and more and then going back to roulette, blackjack or slots as they results were instant.

Unfortunalty it was not until I hit rock bottom that I went to get help and really opened up about it, I had councelling before but just told the councellor what they needed to hear. This time I went to my local GA meeting, they people there all knew what I was going through. It was a huge help and still is as recovery is not a switch to turn off, its a life long battle. But if we take it one day at a time and make recovery part of our lives we can overcome this addiction.

Look up your nearest GA meeting, go there and open up about your gambling. Be completley honest and you will be well on the way to tackling this issue.