morning all,
I am married with 2 kids and up until around 2 years ago, hated losint £5 on a football bet.
However, a few years ago I began betting via my mobile. It began with horses which Was fairly comtrolled. I then moved onto inplay footy betting and started to lose £100/£200 pm. I switched back to horses last year and in the last 2 months slipped back to inplay footy.
As usual, I started off winning and was generall in control (ish). However, I started chasing money and last weds, I lost over £500 in a matter of hours. However, i was determined to win it back and not ready to give up. Then on Friday I mamaged to lose over £400 with one shameful bet of £100 on beach footy - all the try and recoup losses.
This was the final straw. As of yesterday, I deleted my app and am determined not to have this feeling again. I find the pain of losing is 100 times worse than the joy of winning.
Despite this step, I cannot stop feeling guilty and anxiety about the losses. I could have done so much with the money amnd am now deep into an overdraft. Any tips to d al with these feelings of guikt?
Hi there and welcome. If you stop right now and don't go back to gambling and chasing then look at it as an expensive life lesson. It doesn't sound like you are in too much debt but believe me if you continue on that dark path you soon will be. There is so much more to this addiction than the inability to 'control' our gambling i.e. character defects, broken/poor relationships etc. Read around the forum to see what i mean.
As for dealing with the guilt don't worry it passes. I look at it like this - all decisions and actions I made in the past have made me the man I am today. I can't change the past, only learn from it and use the experience to improve a person. I can't change anyone but myself. Life is full of lessons and opportunities.
GA has helped guide me in the right direction in life in general not just abstaining from a bet. I'd recommend you try it too.
All the best
If the money is really bothering you than surely must be a way of getting extra money. Overtime, maybe give up drinking for a while, smoking, make sandwiches for work etc. Some find they go back to gambling because they have a fixed ammount in their head they want to win back. This is dangerous because you'll take higher risks to acheive this, meaning you'll lose more. Ideally great if you could just forget it, but save a few quid here and there to make up the difference.
Brilliant advice guys. I am going to look at ways to pull back the money and stopping drinking as much will def help. Lets be honest, just stopping gambling should see some gains.
I am 7 days free of gambling today and feel MUCH better about life. The forums have helped me so much.
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