I guess it all started as a kid in the arcades, putting 2p after 2p into the coin pusher machine. I was hooked at an early age, getting excited after each win and being determined to win more. As with most people, the stakes got higher as I aged and as I moved on to one arm bandits it was the £5 jackpots and the bright lights that got me.
Read other diaries and continue to post and update yourself. Self exclude from all your local haunts and internet and then give yourself time,be patient.
It will all come together and peace of mind will follow with a decent nights sleep thrown.
All the best
Stay strong
hi dave,
good luck with the recovery. i recently joined here and there is lots of support from like minded people on here. maybe think of installing k9 software onto your electrical devices to ban access to online gambling websites. i found this has helped me. if you put barriers in place, this will definitely help. good luck and i look forward to hearing your recovery progress.
ben
I too started off with the 1p pushers, on holidays in the 70s and early 80s. Then gradually moved up through the 2p fruit machines, then 10p, 20p and eventually the £70 jackpot machines offline and online casinos.
I too also had around £15k of debt until I decided enough was enough in 2009.
Here I am today with no debt and savings. It can be done, but only with a lot of willpower and support.
You'll get plenty of support here but also where possible you should look at family and friends for support too. Anything from getting friends to understand and help by not encouraging you to gamble, to someone actually taking charge or assisting with finances such as holding debit cards and money for you.
But anyone who wants to quit, needs to be deadly serious and do whatever it takes, no matter how embarrassing something may be to achieve it.
Good luck and definitely stick around.
Hi all,
Thanks for the replies. Update is that I still haven't had a bet which means that I'm a month gamble free. Feels good but the guilt of losing the money still affects me - this will hopefully get better soon as I continue to not gamble.
Thanks
Well done Dave, you're doing great.
There is nothing that can be done about monies already lost, every gambler has to accept that. It's gone, it's in the past, you have to look forwards.
Every day you don't gamble, you are saving money that would have been going into the bookies pockets.
Here to a second month gamble free.
Yesterday meant 50 gamble free days and it feels great. It still hurts that I lost so much money but the urge to bet is no longer there. The constant gambling adverts during the football make me feel sick knowing that they're allowed to force gambling down our throats every 5 mins but it makes me even more motivated.
Sorry to use this thread as a diary but it feels good to get my thoughts in words.
2 months now and it feels great. I no longer think about gambling and most important now value money and enjoy spending it sensibly. Not sure how much not gambling has contributed but in the past two months I have made new friends, not hated waking up in the morning, and also met and started dating a frantastic girl.
It's really tough at first, but I urge everyone to give quitting a go - after a month of not gambling you will see a huge difference in your life and also your bank account!
Good luck all!
2 months, that's a really great achievement.
Agree when gambling, money has no value, it's just like pieces of paper that go into a machine or online, likely monopoly money.
Glad to hear you are seeing the benefits money wise as well, no more nasty bank statement surprises.
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