hi, I have been a secret gambler for a number of years, I have gambled on online slots and occasionally in arcades. Nobody in my life knows about my addiction to gambling and I darent think about how much money I have lost. After recently watching cleaning up on tv it struck me that I need to tackle my addiction , I have installed Gamban on my iPad. I work nearly seventy hours a week to fund my habit, I seem to gamble more when I am not in a relationship, I suffer now with social anxiety, I shut myself away and don’t really have a social life other than seeing my grandchildren. I can’t talk to any of my friends or family because I am so embarrassed and ashamed. I have borrowed money from family too
Hello Jo381970,
Well done for joining the forum and sharing your story.
It sounds like feelings of shame have inhibited you from using the support of family or friends, so hopefully the anonymity on this forum will help you to talk more freely about your gambling, and sharing peer suppport here can often help people feel less constrained by shame, as the kindness and compassion shared here can help you practise compassion in the way you feel about yourself too.
You've mentioned that you gamble more when you're not in a relationship, and that you have become socially withdrawn. Using our forum could be a way to counter that, you might also like to join our live chatrooms for friendly live chats with a group of forum members. A common recovery method is to schedule your time with activities and companionship that take you away from gambling opportunities and help you to focus your attention away from gambling thoughts, so you might like to look at your plans for the day, week and month and think what else you might like to do instead of gambling.
Well done for putting a GamBan blocker on your iPad. You might also like to register with GamStop, the national self-exclusion scheme for online gambling, on 0800 138 6518 https://www.gamstop.co.uk/contact-us
If you'd like to talk with us we're on the freephone 0808 8020 133 and netline 8am to midnight.
Take care,
Forum admin.
Hi jo381970,
First of all well done for realising you have a probelm and well done for looking for help, and taking the step with the computer software, this i believe has been a great introduction the last few years to help people more, i understand how you feel about friends and family finding out, but they are also the people that can support you the most during this process. you've done the important first step, here is to hoping those small steps continue... all the best
Thank you for your warm messages, I’m more determined now than I’ve ever been to try and kick this awful habit. I can’t keep working the hours that I do to cover my habit cos my health is suffering
It's a long road but at the end of it is the best feeling you can have, personally only thing that helped me is counselling but what I would say is make sure it goes the full way, feeling better after 4 or 5 sessions doesn't mean your there go for the full course if you go down that road.
We are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. You can also contact us for free on 0808 80 20 133. If you would like to find out more about the service before you start, including information on confidentiality, please click below. Call recordings and chat transcripts are saved for 28 days for quality assurance.
