First day off recovery

Get to a GA gamblers anonymous meeting, which should help you on you're road to recovery. It took me 6 years to get to 1 year off gambling but if you keep on this site and go to meetings you can beat this and better yourself.

Good luck 

Dave101

Hello Loo,

I am sorry to hear you are struggling with this horrible compulsion. I too won massively in the beginning of my gambling addiction and have to say that win was the worst thing that could ever have happened. I have struggled for years to become gamble free and realised I only ever wanted to stop when I had lost all of my money and had that gut wrenching feeling after suffering those losses. I am only 21 days into my recovery but there is a difference to how I am feeling now as opposed to earlier attempts. There is so much support out there now and tools to put in place to act as barriers to stop gambling. One thing I did which may help you, is to reflect on a day when you have access to money and ask yourself do you really want to stop gambling, I realised myself in the past I didn’t have the full and committed desire to stop. If you desperately want to stop and never have to feel the loss and burden of financial distress again put those barriers in place to help you. Contact GAMCARE support to get GAMBAN installed (not just on your phone but on every single device in your house that has access to the internet) believe me just asking one or two sites to block you doesn’t work it has to be a global ban. Register with GAMSTOP, show your commitment to yourself and set the register for 5 years, the longer the gap between being able to gamble and actually gambling helps decrease those urges. There are other lists provided by members (Adam) on here to help you put more barriers in place. Write down what you think your triggers are and when you are able to recognise what triggers you to gambling distract yourself or if you can avoid that trigger, one example I can share with you is payday is one of my and probably a lot of peoples triggers, I now turn all devices off 2 hours before bedtime and will go to bed by 11pm, that way whether I’m asleep or not my wages will go into my bank and all direct debits paid out before I am awake the following morning. I did hand over all my financial control to my OH but because of other barriers put in place I want to be able to trust myself and have some control of money, it may or may not work for everyone as I know it will be suggested to you to hand over all your finances to someone you trust. This is not a quick fix solution, there is alot of support to help understand what your triggers are and what strategies you can use to overcome those urges. GAMCARE admin will help you and signpost you to other services. Take one day at a time, set small targets to start with and be kind to yourself. 
Best wishes Daffodil x

@dave101 thankyou dave I will think about it

@tuc5nbpql4 thankyou I already have the blocks in place but unfortunately I go on the casinos that are rouge and not on gamban that is what I have been using for the last year. I have gambling blocks on my bank but they put them through as different things so they pass through the blocks so there is no way to stop me going on them ???

@tuc5nbpql4 thankyou dafoldil...I have the blocks in place and I'm going to hand over my finances to my partner when I get paid tomorrow... I'm on day 2 now and the guilt and shame is still very strong...I know it will take time... been reading your posts well done on 22 days!! You must feel very proud ?  xx