Hi, gambling has ruined my life. I'm a walking cliche, and have gone through everything from winning £1000 off my first ever bet (a 50p accumulator), to being arrested whilst in a shop I worked in full of people I knew. I'm 25 and in £30,000 worth of debt, and I lost another £2000 today after going a week without gambling. I had my first counselling meeting a couple of weeks ago but I haven't received any further email or information regarding counselling despite the counsellor telling me 1-to-1 counselling would be helpful. I'm basically just fed up of gambling, and I want to put down a deposit for a house with my girlfriend in the next few years, but that seems impossible with my ridiculous levels of debt. I already live with her and my family, and most of my debt is with my family, so I physically cannot borrow any more to help pay off my high interest payday loans I have. I'd love to be able to one day just chuck a fiver a week on football accumulators and it not lead to me losing 2k on the horses.
are you seriously on 30,000 debt mate?? f*****g sickening that i thought mine was bad £4000 heart goes out to ya mate
Hi Ryan,
As hard as it may seem, you have to forget about the money, yes it's a lot but you're young and have got plenty of time to earn more. Right now you need to concentrate on your recovery from this addiction and, in time, the money will take care of itself.
Whilst you're feeling like this, use the pain of the loss as motivation to get solid blocks in place. Self-exclude from physical shops and get some blocking software installed on your devices.
Like me, you're struggling with the idea that you can't have a 'casual bet', unfortunately though it really isn't possible for compulsive gamblers as we're hard-wired to chase losses. The good news is that the feeling does fade in time and betting actually becomes less appealing as you find pleasure in other things.
It's not an easy recovery but it's worth it.
All the best.
Phil
P.S - Alexs, welcome to the forum and well done on posting here. I will echo what I said above, the numbers are completely irrelevant. Whether you are £1k or £1m in the hole isn't important as gambling, being a progressive addiction, will take everything you have and can get your hands on (and the biggest losses aren't the financial ones!)
alexs100 wrote: Yup, I've been up a similar amount too, which makes it even worse. Just found it so impossible to control. Cheers pal
are you seriously on 30,000 debt mate?? f*****g sickening that i thought mine was bad £4000 heart goes out to ya mate
Phil83 wrote: Thanks Phil, hopefully I'll be taking more steps forward than backwards from now on.
Hi Ryan,
As hard as it may seem, you have to forget about the money, yes it's a lot but you're young and have got plenty of time to earn more. Right now you need to concentrate on your recovery from this addiction and, in time, the money will take care of itself.
Whilst you're feeling like this, use the pain of the loss as motivation to get solid blocks in place. Self-exclude from physical shops and get some blocking software installed on your devices.
Like me, you're struggling with the idea that you can't have a 'casual bet', unfortunately though it really isn't possible for compulsive gamblers as we're hard-wired to chase losses. The good news is that the feeling does fade in time and betting actually becomes less appealing as you find pleasure in other things.
It's not an easy recovery but it's worth it.
All the best.
Phil
P.S - Alexs, welcome to the forum and well done on posting here. I will echo what I said above, the numbers are completely irrelevant. Whether you are £1k or £1m in the hole isn't important as gambling, being a progressive addiction, will take everything you have and can get your hands on (and the biggest losses aren't the financial ones!)
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.
