First post...i need help.

Hi loopyla84, welcome to recovery 🙂

Are you even aware that there is blocking software for this online stuff? K9 is free, I'm told, but Gamcare can point you in the right direction for advice. I would thoroughly recommend coming clean (Mr Brightside's exit post in the 2014 challenge explains why) & then handing over financial control to someone to break your Time-Money-Location triangle!

You have done brilliantly & I'm no expert but it sounds to me like you tackled the debt but not the reason for gambling (apparently we all have them & it's not always greed) and you may need to explore this further with counselling or GA?

This is a great place to have come with lots of experience & support between the forum walls which you can read & finetune for yourself. You have to arrest this now before money for bills & food starts disappearing too as it no doubt did before! It is also a perfect place to ride out urges & you can just ramble instead of gamble or you can pop around offering support to others walking this same bumpy road.

You have a lot to fight for - ODAAT

Hi Loopyla and welcome!

ODAAT's post really is spot on. There are so many options out there for software blockers and support channels so use them all as much as you need. I found just reading through posts really helped me when I first came here looking to stop. Touch wood it's going well so far. You could do a lot worse than read ODAAT's posts on other threads, her advice is always absolutely brilliant.

Well done for being honest with yourself and facing up to the fact you have a problem. The world may feel pretty bleak now but it's amazing how quickly things can change.

Keep posting and all the best in your recovery.

You are not alone...debt is crippling though and it would be great to hear if anyone has any tips to mentally deal with debt and forget about the debt..in 14k of debt myself and hard to see a light when i think about how many years it will take me to pay it back..when i think of the time it will take to pay it back, i get the urge to gamble

I imagine the best way to stop on a computer is to block the software, my problem is doing it on my phone, I can be anywhere with anyone and nobody would know. I haven't heard of any software for phones but if anybody has please let me know.

It is good to hear you have your debts managed so just think about if you gamble you will only add to them, that it what is in my mind right now. My problem is when I win a lot of money back (at 1 point I had £10,000 in my account) I made a withdrawal, that withdrawal then takes days to be approved so you can cancel it, If once you had made the withdrawal it was final then I would have had time to realise I had won half the amount back and to try and stop there.

Thanks everyone. I had a small victory in that I complained to a casino that I had self excluded from and then reopened an account and the site let me, they have refunded my £350 deposit, so that's gone straight into my savings that I owe my parents. I only seem to gamble when I'm home alone so I need to make sure I keep active and have companY. Xx

Maybe you need to bin the computer to take away the temptation also get out of the house more often when you are home alone by visiting friends and family or by joining a club or finding a hobby that keeps your mind off gambling

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Well the £300 that I got back from the casino has been gambled away 🙁 I managed a whole week 🙁

Ok. You have had a relapse. You must take stock of why and how and put triggers in place so it doesn't happen again.

I presume the £300 you lost was gambled online (if not I apologise) but if it was I go back to previous comments about getting rid of the computer all together for a while at least.

You can do this. Keep posting, keep reading and keep learning. It is tough but we have all been there at some stage.

It ain't easy but sending you good luck and best wishes

Thankyou. I feel sick as now have no money until pay day. I was so happy to have saved £300 as well. So angry with myself right now. I can stop using the laptop but I tend to gamble on my phone and I need that for work so can't get rid of it x

Not sure if there is any software blocking for phones but hoping someone on here will know.

Take care x

Hi,just joined site today. Hate the person I've become, hate the gambling. Started on bingo sites quite innocently and it all just escalated ; have lost thousands. Today I decided I nee to stop. Want to get back the person I once was, just don't know how to do it. My gambling is always online so I'm going to exclude but to be honest I've done that before and gone back. Have numerous accounts - thinking of changing debit card to a basic bank card but can't do this as own some loans that come off the card so need to pay this off first. Nobody knows that I gamble - my children see me online on bingo sites and slots but don't know the true extent. I took today of work to give me a day to view help sites and came across gamcare. Any advice/useful tools would be greatly appreciated.

Hello.I'm just new myself but if u navigate through the site there's loads of links and advice about software downloads and links that help with self exclusion. Plus there's loads of great advice on most threads dealing with different folks varying problems. Good luck

Thanks and good luck too

Hi,

re self exclusion from on line sites, can I suggest old fashioned snail mail? Get someone else to look on the sites that you use for a postal address - do not do that bit yourself.

Write to each head office or help desk quoting your full name, all recent postal and email addresses, any passwords and your date of birth. Say that you have a gambling addiction and that you want to permanently self exclude from their website, use the word "permanent". Say that except for confirming the exclusion to you, they should not contact you again at all by any method whatsoever for marketing or for any other purpose.

That will protect you against a weak moment for those websites...up to you whether or not you actually do it.

Good luck,

CW