Hello everyone,
Im going to summarise my story as short as I can. Last year I realised I had a gambling addiction. I was massively addicted to online slots, and although not in huge amounts of debt, I gambled away any spare money I had each month. Gambling was my life, and would take up most hours of the day. I decided to sign up to gamstop in September last year. It was such a huge help and I managed to get some savings behind me. Fast forward 6 months and my block was up, I decided to remove it as I believed I was “cured” and could just gamble a little here and there. After the block was removed I gambled over £800 in 2 days and was devastated so signed up to Gamstop again. Again, fast forward 6 months and I decided I was definitely cured and had again managed to save a bit of money and I missed slots so much. Just like before I gambled over £1000 in 2 days and feel absolutely awful. I have added another Gamstop block but i can’t get slots out of my head. I feel lost without being able to play, and genuinely feel depressed.
Does the want/need to play slots ever go away? I feel like I don’t really have any other hobbies, I’m not really interested in doing anything else. I just wish I was “normal” and didn’t have this huge desire to gamble.
Hi Zoe , I totally understand the pull and the addiction and I do feel for you.....but whilst you only self exclude for 6 months you will repeat the cycle again and again. Check the 5 year box and really give yourself a chance to heal . You constantly leave the door ajar, this will get worse if you don't do what you know deep down you should do. You can do this , give it a good shot. Best wishes
It's a horrible feeling I know. Get up and try again. Give the money you want to save to a trusted family member or best friend to look after for you. One day you'll be able to hold onto your savings but the time is not now. You need Gamstop for 5 years, 6 months is no good. You need GA help, speak about things with family and friends who will support you and dive head first into analysing your gambling triggers. Build up your knowledge on gambling addiction and construct a life for yourself which respects the fragility of your addiction because it has the power to ruin your life. Obviously you don't want that. You know the feeling of abstinence which is great. Take it a day at a time and you'll get there. You'll get loads of advice and support on here. Hope you do well, I'm sure you will ❤️
You're not in huge amounts of debt....yet.
If you really want to stop rather than stop losing check the five year box, hand over your finances to someone you trust and sign up to counselling (Gamcare offers it free) to identify and address the root causes of the compulsion. Find a GA meeting online where you'll hear the unvarnished truth about where unaddressed addiction leads and plan to attend for a good long while if not permanently. It's a great tool for keeping any creeping complacency at bay.
Hi Zoe , I totally understand the pull and the addiction and I do feel for you.....but whilst you only self exclude for 6 months you will repeat the cycle again and again. Check the 5 year box and really give yourself a chance to heal . You constantly leave the door ajar, this will get worse if you don't do what you know deep down you should do. You can do this , give it a good shot. Best wishes
Thank you for your reply. I know I 100% should do the 5 year option, but i can never bring myself to do it. It seems like the biggest commitment to not be able to ever gamble for such a long time. It sounds so silly I know!
It's a horrible feeling I know. Get up and try again. Give the money you want to save to a trusted family member or best friend to look after for you. One day you'll be able to hold onto your savings but the time is not now. You need Gamstop for 5 years, 6 months is no good. You need GA help, speak about things with family and friends who will support you and dive head first into analysing your gambling triggers. Build up your knowledge on gambling addiction and construct a life for yourself which respects the fragility of your addiction because it has the power to ruin your life. Obviously you don't want that. You know the feeling of abstinence which is great. Take it a day at a time and you'll get there. You'll get loads of advice and support on here. Hope you do well, I'm sure you will ❤️
Thanks so much. Deep down I know I should pick the 5 year option rather then 6 months, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. I honestly don’t understand why I gamble, I just find it so fun but it totally consumes my life when i do it. Having experienced being gamble free for 6 months, I know it’s so refreshing, but at the same time it’s always in the back of my mind
Only signing up for 6 months means you are counting down to when you can gamble again rather than counting the days gamble free. I used to take a break from sites for a month but couldn't wait for that time to be up so I could gamble again and get deeper in debt. You need to address this now before you get deeper in as all you are doing is probably chasing losses and dreaming of the big jackpot win to put it all right knowing that that is incredibly unlikely to happen.
Ask yourself if you actually won enough to get out of debt would you withdraw it and stop, I know I wouldn't have I would have kept going until I'd lost it all again and more.
It took me a long time to stop but with the blockers in place, Gamstop, Betblocker on my phone and a block on gambling transactions on my bank card plus the support og Gamcare and those closest to me I am now almost 7 months gamble free and don't want to ever gamble again.
You will read stories on here, including mine, of how we reached rock bottom before the reality of how we were ruining our lives hit us.
GET OUT NOW before you reach that rock bottom!
Good luck
Hi zoe when i first used gamstop i too only felt i could with the 6 month..the panicks of what if i change my mind etc. I would have been able to go through eith the longer blocks..its not ideal but without that option i never would have got blocks
But please consider increasing..i renewed my 6 month block in april..but this time gambled and and its not worth it. I thought i would just have a go few sensible gambles before renewing but there was nothing sensible it got out of control. I would encourage ypu to increase it..5 years is the best but for now if you could work towards at least a year block that would be am improvement ? ..it takes courage putting blocks in with an addiction so you did well agreing to 6 month i think you should go for it and increase it x
@zoer91 In my experience the urge never goes, but with the right effort and help the urges get less and less, but also when you do get an urge you have a set of skills and knowledge picked up from others with which to help you.
For help read GA but others have done it their way.
I still get a desire now and again to gamble now after 3 years clean, but I have enough resources to call upon to help me through the moment. It does pass for me and it can for you. The difference might be I have accepted that gambling has me beat. When I signed up to Gamstop a couple of years ago i did it for 5 years. It's taken everything time and time from me and it will not take anything else. The twelve steps of recovery start with step one.
Step one reads that "We admitted we were powerless of gambling, that our lives had become unmanageable".
Once you admit that why would you place that first bet again. If you life became unmanageable and you were powerless over gambling, sign up for 5 years. 6 months is a good start but 5 years is better.
Chris.
If you were an alcoholic would you think it was ok to have a few pints????
You, like me and a lot of others on here are addicted to gambling. You can pack in for a few years and then one small bet will lead you straight back to where you were.
The simple answer to your question is 'no' it never ends. You have to block yourself for 5 years not 6mths and even after that time I would simply renew it as you are an addict. You have already shown yourself that you are an addict.....which means never ever bet again.
It does get easier but we all have our moments of despair...........good luck.
You're addicted. As am I. Choosing the six months option is almost worse because you're just taking a break from it and then going crazy with it all. It's almost a feed for the addiction because you have saved up money almost TO GAMBLE.
I want to ask about your hobbies. You say you don't have any but apart from gambling, there must be something you like doing and then just focus on that. I at guitar and try and play every day, I now find that I play it more because I've stopped gambling. I've only stopped for three days so far and it's difficult. But I know I'm a much better person when not gambling. Sign up for five years and eventually you will realise that you should have done that in the first place.
Good points x-m that is like saving up for 6 months for a binge gamble every 6months totally pointless and dangerous because wouldn't it lead eventually to not enabling gamstop at all. You spend 6 months with the thoughts at the front of your brain instead of pushed to the back, might as well mark it on the calendar !!
You're addicted. As am I. Choosing the six months option is almost worse because you're just taking a break from it and then going crazy with it all. It's almost a feed for the addiction because you have saved up money almost TO GAMBLE.
I want to ask about your hobbies. You say you don't have any but apart from gambling, there must be something you like doing and then just focus on that. I at guitar and try and play every day, I now find that I play it more because I've stopped gambling. I've only stopped for three days so far and it's difficult. But I know I'm a much better person when not gambling. Sign up for five years and eventually you will realise that you should have done that in the first place.
Thank you for your reply. In regards to hobbies, I think it’s just extra difficult right now because of corona virus and lockdown. Normally I work in a very hands on job around 50 hours a week. But I’ve been furloughed since October so I think it’s more the fact that I’m sitting around doing nothing! If I’m honest when I did my first 6 month ban I know I stopped craving gambling after a while, I’m hoping it gets easier again
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