Enough

Hi  Newjen, 

Welcome to the forum and thank you for sharing your story. I am sure you will get some excellent advice and support from our great forum users. 

I would encourage you to contact the helpline on 0808 8020 133 or via our live chat available from the website https://www.gamcare.org.uk/get-support/talk-to-us-now/ both of which are open seven days a week, 24 hours a day and where one of our advisers will be able to talk, for as long as you need, and look at all the support available to you.

Wishing you all the very best,

John

Forum Admin

Thank you,

I spoke to someone on live chat I’m the early hours of this morning, they were who advised me to join here, although I don’t know what I doing properly yet.

My partner has informed me that he’s leaving me this morning after me telling him about my most recent gambling. I’m just tired of telling lies all the time so decided to just tell him and face the music so now I’ll have to.

Hi Newjen, well done for coming here, we are all in the same situation one way or another and there will be no judgement from people because we all want the same, to rid our live of this addiction and feel normal again.

What I would say is have you put blockers in place to remove the temptations. Like you, my downfall was online slots and I was eventually found out. I didn't tell my wife which made it worse when my secret came out. Straight away I registered with Gamstop and put Betblocker on my phone both for 5 years. She now has full control of our finances and I feel so much better in myself as there is no urge to chase the losses anymore to put back what I lost before being found out.

As a result of this I am today 71 days gamble free and looking forward to the future.

I would recommend contacting Gamcare and arranging some counselling,I have now had 4 phone sessions and it's really good to just talk about my feelings with someone else.

Hope this gives you some food for thought, there is no right or wrong way to deal with this just whatever works for you

Good luck, stay strong and gamble free ??

Well done!

You have identified the repeat behaviour gambling is. We use machines to trance us into another place for a while and it is by now I guess hard to remember why you got into this to start with. You are replicating that emotion by still gambling though and if you can find that feeling you can work to fix what you have been doing or at least make it better.

Look , we have been conditioned by society for a very long time. They keep lying to us and tell us that it is just a bit of fun but fail to mention that falling into a gambling addiction has one of the highest suicide rates attached to it so stop watching TV on the breaks turn it off and walk away for a few minutes while the ads play. Realise that you may have a depression that you also need to sort out but don't let that depression get addictive to because it can. Find strength in listening to people here because they have been where you are going and last but not least be kinder to yourself. Yes, you can be angry and bitter but you can also be full of hope for what is to come.

A beautiful and great future because you decided to do something else and better with your time.

Best

C

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I’m just waiting to hear back from gamstop as I had previously registered with them before but only did it for 6 or 12 months and then just started again.

Its an awful thing really, I have two daughters, one at 19 and one at 7 and when I’m gambling that’s all I care about, I’ve no desire to do anything except watch them bloody slots spinning and when I think about that I constantly feel full of guilt. 

I am however hopeful this time as for some reason, this time feels different and it’s reassuring to know that I’m not alone! Feel better than I did a couple of hours ago already.

Thanks again

Also, I spoke to someone last night, well early hours of this morning, and she’s registered me for the counselling.

Hi c43h,

You’ll have to bear with me because I’ve never done this and when I click reply I don’t know who I’m replying to ?

I completely agree, I’ve pointed this out several times, it’s every other advert and makes it so hard!

I’ve had counselling in the past and hey be mentioned depression etc and there normally being an underlying reason but as far as I’m concerned, I’m generally a very happy person, I put it down to the simple fact that I like it, I get a buzz that I don’t get from anything else, and not necessarily when I win, because most of the time I don’t keep it, it’s when I’ve nearly lost and then I win it back, strange I know but that’s the best way I can explain it.

Maybe I’ll start to understand it more as time goes on?

Hello Newjen, 

Your story was just like mine and if I can help you in anyway I will try. I was never one for sharing my addiction purely for the fact that my family also thought I was mad when I told them. So yeah I just bottled it up and carried on gambling until it got to the point that I could not sleep either. Its a horrible addiction but you have made the first steps so well done! 

The only real way I was able to get hold of my addition was to self exclude with gamstop for 5 years . Yes it hurt a lot and yes I did try to break the exclusion on a number of occasions. Once you have put all the restrictions in place anytime you get the urge to gamble just log into this site and start typing. It helped me a lot and even if you are not interacting all the time just have a little read on the forums.

Make gamstop your number 1 priority and exclude for the longest period you can. Good luck things will get better 🙂

Take care 

George