first day

Hi tc2016.

Please get some photographs done and have some days of pride when you go in and self exclude. You dont have to look your best so get to a booth and get the fiver in. It will actually be the best fiver you have ever spent.

They will do it nice and calmly and they are geared up with self exclusion forms to hand. You just say I dont want to be gambling any more and to make sure they have your picture on a prominent display file. So all the staff are aware now and in the future. It cant hurt to tell them you have a problem. Tell them as much as you feel comfortable with. I told them I gambled when stressed and depressed and I was completely out of control. I will never be in control as a gambler so I dont now gamble.

For years I thought I would be embarrassed but it was actually one of the most positive and enlightening things in my life. It was finally drawing a line under a lifelong gambling problem which got dangerously worse in recent years.

It was enough for me because I have the pride and fear of shame not to break these exclusions. Do you? I think its enough because I fear the shame and the fact there is no guarantee they will pay anything (if anything) back. Its more than that...its enough because It really works for me. I told enough of the staff and dont feel welcome in those dens now. With a rapidly healing mind even in the early stages I was not tempted to try and sneak in unnoticed. I would need to feel welcome when gambling...I cant do it otherwise but Im not complacent I just felt a sense of gladness and relief that they had my picture on the self exclusion list

Also its backed up with monitoring by people close to me so I dont want to let them down and would have some explaining to do.

Self exclusion will be a great sense of relief to you. Gambling iis not for us and I have to calmly leave it there or it will eat us up. Ive got better things to do and real ways of earning money.

Best wishes from everyone on the forum

Hi tc and welcome to the forum :)).

It's one thing to close accounts but have you excluded from them or installed blocking software that will stop you accessing new ones when the urges strike , you can download some software K9s free or there's netnanny and betfilter which you pay for , as for the high street you can also self exclude from betting shops by either walking in them and handing over a photo and filling in a form it only takes afew minutes and you can cover about 5 of each firm you visit , theres also a link here on the overcoming problem gambling page that has aphone number to the national self exclusion helpline who can also take care of that for you :)).

Money's another issue so think about limiting your access to funds , you could report your card lost then when the new one arrives scratch the 3 digits off the back ( without writing them down of course ) so you cant then deposit .

Not sure if your famiy know about this but honesty and coming clean are always a good move as it doesn't allow gambling to hide anywhere and as it thrives on secrecy it's not something it likes too much .

All these blocks help but can be got around if you still want too gamble and a lot of it comes down to you and how much you want not to gamble ? Willpower's your biggest friend but if you can't do this alone then contact gamcare who offer free councilling or think about attending a GA meeting near you , there all listed online .

Take a,look at some of the diarys on here and learn as much as you can , maybe tghink of starting adiary on the diarys page to chart your progress , theres also a handy day counter which can spur you on in the early stages .

Youv'e doine the hard bit admitting you have a problem and looking for help so be proud of that fact and build on it .

You can do this if you really want , it's just aquestion of how much you want it ?.

Best wishes Alan

thank you both for your comments i didnt realise the shops have a self exlude also i have started to think why should i earn my money working hard 5 days a week to make the rich people like ***** even richer there the only real winner I have opened up a savings account after speaking with my wife and when I get the urge to deposit and have abet going to deposit it into the savings account and save up for things to make our life better my first goal is to take the family away with the money I would have gambled

Great but do block TC and make sure your wife has control or seriously monitors the finances. I always say that willpower alone is not enough. Your wife needs control of that savings account which is good motivation for you. Its not about treating you like a baby...its about saving any quality of life so gambling doesnt rear its ugly head again

I used to sit down and think I must be sensible with my money now.......must be!.....but it didnt last. Its an addiction that had me crying to my dad that I would never do it again then a month later Ive got the lowest feeling of having to explain to him that I sunk another say £300. It sounds so irrational and crazy when you spell it out in the cold light of day.

At the time it was stress then a "little" gamble which turned into not being able to stop until all my money was gone.

I sorted it with blocks and increased monitoring. Yes Ive lost the real trust but thats actually far better than being in the grip of an addiction.

Best wishes.

thanks guy for your responses I know it's a long road to go down but I have done 24 hours already and counting I have had gambling on my mind but it's not been about placing a bet it's been about how I'm gonna keep myself from gambling I know I have self excluded from all my online accounts but I still have money in my pockets and I'm walking past 2 of their shops all the time and not thinking about going in its only early stages but I'm glad how it's going