Hi, i am an overachieving 24 year old. Career is already sorted out. Great girlfriend, house and dog. But none of that seems enough when I get myself into my disgusting little world and convince myself that I can win back the £20,000 which I have lost over the past 3 years gambling.
For me it's sports betting. I seem to think I know a lot about sports and can predict the outcome of any football, tennis, basketball match. And if I can't get it right this time then I'll predict the next score - right? Wrong.
The worst part is I know what I'm doing is wrong. My partner knows along with my parents and every time I bet I know I'm letting them down. I just can't help myself and this is the thing that gets to me more than anything, even more so than the losses.
So I've turned to this website and hopefully I can get support from some of you guys to quit the compulsive gambling. My aim is to be able to put a £5 accy on at the weekend without the urge to spend another £500 if it loses. I've still got payday loans and credit card debts racked up, which makes thinking about the losses harder. But I will never win that money back again and even if I did, I know I'd spend it and lose it all over again. You all know the cycle.
On with day 1.. all support welcome. No more excuses for not going out, watching stupid meaningless football matches at 3am or hiding in a room after losing £700 on a dead cert bet. I will beat this.
Hi Tb, welcome to the site 🙂
There's all manner of advice & support here to help you deal with your addiction unfortunately for us compulsive gamblers, there doesn't appear to be any such thing as a controlled gamble 🙁 I was mortified to hear when I 1st came looking for help that the only way to beat it was to quit, looking back now, I guess I only really wanted help to stop losing! We cannot win because we cannot stop. The real success stories on here are from those that have left it all behind...Many of us also wishing we had come to our senses in our early 20's! As an 'overachiever', I'm guessing you 'work' @ a very high intensity & when you peel back the layers, the gambling may be nothing to do with making a quick buck & way more about escaping from your intense world!
Unless you have computers controlling the 'random' outcome on a machine, there is no way of predicting the outcome of a game assuming no-one 'playing' is cheating. People didn't bet on Leicester last year because they thought they would win, they just wanted them to. You don't need me to tell you that!
It's great that your family know, can any of them take control of your finances help you exclude, make you really accountable? Stopping will require effective barriers to break your gambling (Time-Money-Location, remove 1 & you cannot gamble) triangle & help retraining your brain from GA or counselling (GamCare can set you up with sessions @ no cost to you)!
Draw a line under your losses Tb, use your brain to help fix this before that 20k becomes 40 & you lose more than just money!
It can be done - ODAAT
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