First post

Hello Matt and welcome to the forum :)) 

Not too sure why nobody's replied yet so unfortunately your lumbered with me for now :(( . 

Firstly well done on taking that huge first step of coming here and admitting you've a problem , I know that's not an easy thing to do . 

So I'm assuming your about 28 now going by your post ? and if I'm right then you've got the rest of your life live gamble free and that's something that's achievable and certainly worth the effort of doing . 

I'm not sure what you gamble on or where ? but there's plenty of help on this site as regards to putting blocks in place and self exclusion from sites and shops , maybe take  a look at mixers thread at the top of the page as it's full of great advice when you turn up here . 

Your story is the same as most of us on here , I gambled initially for fun but then had a few wins and thought I could retire and just gamble or at least like yourself top up my income for bills and a few treats for the family ? .

Our gambling brains keep us thinking that when we gamble we are actually doing it for those we love ( sound familiar ) ?  extras for the family , holiday's or day's out and even maybe home improvement's but in reality that's just addiction whispering in our ear " You have a bet if you want " , in all my time gambling (many yrs) I've had some big wins but if you asked me to come up with maybe 4 thing's I used my winning's on I could probably think of one ? the only thing I spent my winning's on was more gambling and that's because us gamblers live by the mantra of "  I cannot win because I cannot stop " , we don't have an off switch buddy that tell's us to flip the switch and stop > 

The good news is that you can beat this mate but you have to want to more than you want to place another bet .

I came here over 3 yrs ago after a lifetime of gambling , a fair bit of debt and not much else but with the help of this forum of wonderful misfit's  I've not had a bet since  .

I had to be honest with my partner for the first time in yrs and thankfully she stuck by me , your's has done the same for now but she won't if you keep at it for any longer , then you risk losing far more than a few quid ? .

Be honest mate , do what you need to do in order to stop yourself getting hold of money to gamble or a place to gamble , then just take it one day at a time for now . 

Keep posting on here and maybe think of starting a diary in the recovery section , you'll get more posts there and hopefully more replies :)) 

Got to dash but if you need to know anything just ask :))

Talk to you soon buddy 

Alan  

Hi Matt,

Blocking is the key. Do that first and you begin to take back control. Have a read around the site and look at a few posts that'll give you hope and strength.

You've took a brave decision to confront your demons by being here.  Use everything in your power to make this work and advice from this forum (in my opinion) is critical to help you along the way.  You'll find many others like you on a daily basis and lots of new people joining.  Maybe you can be as successful as @alan-135 and be here to help others too?