Desperate

Hi Sanctury and welcome to the forum , your right about " It not being about the winning " the winning if we get any, just provides us with more gambling tokens to stay in the game and keep the buzz and cycle going , as Compulsive gamblers " We cannot win because we cannot stop " . We can't control it and quickly lose all sense or value of money , just as long as we can keep chasing it doesn't matter where the funds come from .

I'm just off to work but I'm sure I'll catch up with you soon , any advice needed just ask the guys on here who I'm sure will be along later , I look forward to hearing more of your story when your ready to share .

Best wishes and welcome to recovery my friend !

Thanks Alan. I just feel so utterly useless that I am unable to control my gambling. I just don't understand why, why me ..... If I take £50 pot of a cash point I think great - a nice meal out or a new pair of shoes but online it's like Monopoly money. It makes me feel so weak and defenceless.

Money means nothing when were in the " Zone " bookies machines were my downfall and I'd happily do £ 100 spins every 20 seconds or so , how crazy's that ? , your not on your own and we all understand

Hi Sanctuary,

Welcome to the Forum, and thanks for your post.

From your story, it seems like you’re really struggling with your gambling problem. Much as you’re aware of the possibility of losing all your money, you still find it difficult to stop yourself from gambling.

Perhaps, it would be helpful to you to learn from others experiences by reading similar stories from the Chatroom/ Forum. You’ll learn that others in your shoes have managed or, are managing to cope with their urges, and overcome their problematic gambling by following the advice that we offer, and therefore, there’s hope for you too to do same.

I suggest that you contact our free phone Helpline on: 0808 8020 133 for more help and support. There’s a lot we can offer you in terms of advice on strategies to enable you to control and eventually overcome your gambling problem. We can also refer you to 12 sessions of free counselling, and nearest to where you live, if that would help you to stop gambling.

I suggest that you hand over your bank cards to a trusted family member/ friend, or partner to manage your finances for you. It seems like handling cash as at now doesn’t help you in any way. Have you also thought about Self Exclusion?

Pls. feel free to contact us anytime between 8.00am to midnight. Try and keep us the good work by staying in touch.

Best wishes,

Beatrice

7 days in and feeling pretty good. I have managed to curb the urges so far. I'm simply enjoying not having to check my bank account every hour to see just how much more money I have wasted. There have been urges but I have been able to log in here and read posts which is helping enormously. Going to try to keep on keeping on

Big well done, on being a week gamble free.

I spent many years avoiding looking at bank statements etc...It is a wonderful feeling when you no longer need to do that.

Urges unfortunately will come, but thankfully they do go. Think of when you have them and why, then think of what you are going to do, to curb them. If you still have avenues to gamble, then you need to block them, accounts need to be closed down, money needs to be out of harms way, you may need to find other new ways to keep away boredom.

Hi Steve

Thanks for your reply. I have self excluded from just about everywhere and spent a couple of hours last night registering and excluding from new sites. That is the weird thing, I don't really get bored because my job occupies most of my waking hours. I think I use gambling as a form of escape and as a stress buster - ironic really when considering the amount of stress gambling has caused! Just taking it one day at a time. I have reduced my ridiculously high credit limits on my cards down to the minimum so not so much cash available and any spare cash is going into a joint savings account. I'm keeping on 🙂

Well done again Sanctuary, you are definitely on the right path.

Was the same for me, I work long hours, including weekends and night shifts, but it never stopped me finding time to gamble.

Great to hear you have a savings account. Again something I sweared by, during my gamble free journey. Getting all that money out of harms way into an account, I knew I just couldn't take money out of, without consquences.

If you have balances on credit cards, you could look at getting a balance transfer card, so you have upto 3 years or more, not paying interest. Got one for 16 months near the beginning of my journey and the goal to have it cleared before then, again helped keep me focussed.