Hello, I have suffered the full effects of gambling for years now. As I've been off work on the sick my wage has been minimal, so as you can imagine I've been trying to gamble to increase that. To cut a long story short, I started off with £400.. Over the past few days I've managed to get that up to £810.. However I was drunk last night and I came in and stupidly gambled £60 and lost it. I currently have no money in my bank therefore currently overdrawn £60, so am currently waiting for the £750 winnings to go back in. For some reason I just can't get out my head I've lost that £60 and I need to get it back, I even rang the bank to set up £100 overdraft so that I could use the £100 to get back the £60 which sitting here typing now seems ridiculous, however the bank looking at transactions on the account refused. Can someone please talk me out of or give me general advice as to why I'm not happy with that £750 I have for the month which is plenty to cover me till payday, and why in my head I have to have that £60 back?? No matter what the cost? all advice and help would be appreciated,
with thanks,
lifelesson1.
It sounds like you are hitting rock bottom with the problem now and something sensible in your head has told you to come on here to get help. I am the parent of someone like you and I would hate to see you getting in any deeper emotionally and on the financial side. First of all you are questioning "Why are you worrying about the £60?" - you need to talk/ring to the professional counsellors on here who will talk you through all sorts of things and self-excluding from gambling sites. If you have close friends or family take the brave plunge and tell them about the problem and ask them to help you moniter your finances which is a deterrent for you overspending. It is hard to try and tackle this on your own and secrecy is the worst thing for this The banks know if your spending is erratic and they will limit your overdraft but that is for your own good. However, they can also be really helpful if you explain you are having trouble managing your finances and can help you with a budget plan. Once you start opening up to people you may feel a bit better in yourself. If you read posts on here you will see there are so many young people like you coming on here now and my wish is that you all end up with bright and happy gamble-free futures. This is a great site to start you off on your road to recovery.
Good luck.
Gambling is not about the money! I'm not an expert but from the thousands of posts I have read, it is about staying in the action! We cannot win because we cannot stop & only when we find the strength to turn our back on gambling do we realise that no win is ever enough because all we want to do is play more!
Phone the helpline, get to a GA meeting, stay away from alcohol & get your barriers as high as you can because if you don't every single bit of your brain is going to be talking you into gambling again once your money becomes available & only the house wins! You're not gambling for money, you're gambling because of some sort of stress & no amount of money is enough to fix our addicted minds...You have to figure out another way!
Please get help, don't do what I did - turned £300 that I didn't think was enough to get through the month into £0! Whilst you can still afford to eat, choose recovery - ODAAT
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