Hi,
I'm new to this whole process of it all. Have tried multiple ways of stopping in the past and have done so for 9 months twice, 6 months and also more recently a 3 month period of doing so. Have been to my local GA on and off for the last 2 years, been reading gambling addiction books, self excluded myself online and in bookies too and also given my fianances to my partner but even after all this have found ways round and managed to gamble again.
As it says in the subject i have been gambling on and off for 6 years since i was 18 and old enough to do so. Firstly with the normal small bets football accas. Then like most it was that first big win(mine being £750 from a £5 acca) that was the first time of luring me in at first just being with higher staked accas or just stupid football bets such as betting on the next corner or next person to score a goal those sort.
But that all changed when roulette came into mind and play. Now that is a different kettle of fish completely such a quick way to win but ultimately in so many cases the quickest way to lose too. So many minutes, hours, days and months were spent passing through money and time into these machines with 37 possible outcomes and a whole more bigger chance of losing than winning constantly these were the killers for me. Ranging from betting on the colour to betting on the number of what time it was at the time that's the craziness of this addiction that so many of us are going through right now.
This insidious addiction so many of us had let me to paths i thought i would never even dare to dream yet aloud cross. But i did. This addiction drove me to stealing from a job i worked in back in 2016 stealing on a daily basis for around 3-4 months just to fund this habit of mine. Which after this wasn't the only thing i had done, i had also committed fraud by using my own nan's debit card taking a picture of it front and back and then using her card details on online gambling for a couple of weeks worth and £1,000 of her well earned and retired money/pension. I felt sick but not during doing this but after for months and years and have only now for the last couple of months been in contact with her for again. To cut a long story short i ended up luckily with a 18 month suspended sentence and 150 community service hours which was light to what i should of got in reality.
I won't go on in too much more detail with it all as know long reads can be a long winded process but just thought id get part of my story out there and would like to eventually see if anyone else can maybe come up with any other solutions they've found that has helped.
2 days gamble free again now and the long road has begun for the fourth and hopefully now last time.
Hello Stollers5,
Welcome to the forum.
Reading your post makes me ask 1 big question that sounds crazy. Do you want to stop gambling?
Saying you have found ways around blocks means 2 things; 1) the blocks aren't good enough and 2) you still see gambling as your way out and haven't yet been willing to admit defeat to this addiction.
I've been there thinking the only way out is to keep going. That the only thing i have in my like is gambling. Its not the safe place you think it is and we all see that after we have blown another huge hole in our finances. You need to accept you need help. Ask people around you for that help. Be honest with yourself and put REAL blocks in place that will stop you, you know what loop holes you're leaving open that give you the option to go back to it, close them. The biggest factor in all of this is you wanting to do what you have to do to stop, because if you don't it'll carry on and get worse.
The help is out there, use it and give everything to recovery and you can turn your life around. You are still young but time will soon tick by if you carry on. You need to find out WHY you turn to gambling. What void does it fill? Get some counselling, talk it through and work on yourself.
All the best.
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