Hello

Hi Matty

hope your ok , this forum a great start , emotional triggers are very much much a real threat in a gamblers mind , i quit my last job that i had for 5 years to jump into the unknown at start of summer and even though more money , longer to travel and my anxiety levels very high so i decided to go in bookies and blow about 1k on roulette , leaving my bank account empty , no rent , bills , gf and young baby , i should of been in a happy place , pay rise , new challenge etc but no i f*****ed massively , never learnt , i do feel stronger now but ur not alone loosing your dad was an emptional trigger for u and understandable but i watched a programme last night on BBC which provves that the brain can,t stay in control so we must be careful and as my dad would say and prob urs , you don,t get anything free in this world and gambling make u think u can then f****ks u when u chase your money back , concentrate on ur marriage and hobbies , we all lose money and spend it so draw a line under ur recent losses and focus on a good future , keep posting , im in early days too

joe

Thanks Joe, I agree....I've totally lost site of reality and actually have a well paid job gave me a sense of arrogance that I can pay any debt off, reality is whilst that may be true betting constantly totally distances yourself from your wife and kids. I've been checking a status of a bet whilst reading my son his bedtime story which is wrong on so many levels. I think seeing this impacts so many people, and actually it's not just people who do it because of a desperate need for cash. Joe I hope you get back to focussing on being happy also as even day one without betting has been a weight off my shoulders.

Hi Matty, welcome to the forum 🙂

Good share & yes, this is a great place to have found but it is only the start. The danger of someone bailing you out is you have funds again so you need to make sure that you either hand your finances over to a loved one or give them complete transparency! I'm sorry to hear about your dad, nothing anyone can say can bring a loved one back but gambling doesn't take away the pain, it just masks it. You have to find a healthier way to deal with your grief & it's definitely worth giving the helpline a call as they can help with free counselling services.

It took me a very long time to accept that compulsive gambling has very little to do with money & a whole lot to do with addiction so you are already streets ahead of me as you embrace your future - ODAAT

Thanks for the message, agree I will speak to someone as the next step. Yeah I let my mum pay the debt directly and lock me out of my betting account. But agree easy to set up a new one so I'm not deluded in thinking everything has been solved. However, I started because of my dad and continued due to chasing debt. My mum had no idea how much I was struggling with the loss of my dad and we don't talk about him enough which we have agreed to change. Next step is finding the courage and timing to tell my wife as will be impossible to hide payments back to my mum forever.