Hi All

We never learn..how many times do we hurt ourselves..heal..repeat repeat repeat..cause ourselves to want to kill ourselves to escape the hell that is gambling.
I can only echo half lifes comments above..take away the cash(cards acess) and the weapons are gone...u cant cause destruction without weapons.
Sorry for the rant...i have no right..im only 5 days clean..but im like u...its caused me grief also and i wanna stop

Welcome to the forum and well done for being here.

Self exclude from all bookies in your town by phoning 08002942060. One 15 minute call can save your life.

Realise that you're a compulsive gambler and you can never win. Let's face it we bet, we win, we return, we lose our winnings then everything we have until we run out of money. I've come to realise we can never win. And never chase. Let's face it. The money we win is more than likely to be some other poor sods rent money or food allowance for the month.

The GA rooms are very special places and well worth a visit. After 24 years of constantly doing my b******s every month, I've seen the light. Only 8 weeks in and I'm already seeing the benefits. Life is clearer. Life the weight from your shoulders.

Enjoy a beautiful gamble free day, I wish you well

Hello Stupidity23

Welcome to the forum.

Your story is very reminiscent of the way I gamble.

Keeping busy is crucial. This site can be good to spend your time productively learning about addiction and how others deal with it.

Take the good advice posted above - keep busy, posting, learning and changing.

Best wishes

Glint

Thanks for the replies. I have always gambled, starting on fruit machines and then it progressed in the bookies. I thought it had always been manageable but looking back, I'm just kidding myself. My gf of 8 years left me for a guy at work, house sold and I moved back with parents. The last year has seen my gambling ramp up to ridiculous levels so much so that from 100 pound on online roulette I reached 6500 pounds. Felt good and vowed this was a new start as 6500 was a good start to paying off my debts. Forward to 6 hours later and I'm gambling it at 1am and have to be up for work at 5am! I'm on an incredible streak and reach 20k. I know have a deposit as well as debts paid off. Cue 3 hours later and it's all gone! 500 pound spins and it went like water through my fingers. And progressively it becomes 'get paid, s***k all my wages'. I've never been the best with money but it's now spiralling out of control. I've self excluded myself from the usual betting sites and I've now called to self exclude myself from all shops within the area. Next is counselling although I'm sceptical as I've had counselling for depression and found it made it worse rather then better, but maybe I was looking for a solution to my problems. It's not like I even get a thrill of gambling anymore, just an escape and pie in the sky dreams. Hopefully this is the start as life can't continue in this way.

Hi Stupidity23,

Reading your last post. I can relate so much with that post and my $h!te year of 2015, when my gambling "ramped" and finally concluded in Feb216 when I placed my last bet. I was hurt, I know I had hit rock bottom.

I joined this forum, spent hours reading and crying about the damage gambling does to peoples lifes, not only the CG. Then I joined GA and attend meetings which have been the backbone of my recovery. I let the pain from pre Feb2016 remind me how $h!t I was making my life and the effect it was having on my innocent loving family. You know I don't want this pain to heal, maybe it will, maybe it won't. This was the rock-bottom in my life and until I feel something worse than I did those days I don't think it will.

With gambling comes depression. Take away the gambling and you will feel better in youself believe me.

Wishing you all the best.

Hi S

As a parent of a gambler please do the following asap - tell your parents now or anyone you trust and ring the counsellors on here today. Hand your wages to your parents as soon as you get them and let them have access to all your accounts an d let them issue money to you that is only necessary for every day living, hand over cards etc. Once the secret is out you will feel a huge weight come off your shoulders. If you have debts ask gamcare about the debt management side and about self exclusion. If you had inteests before the gambling try and get them back - if not get new ones - plenty out there if you make the effort. I can see you have now hit rock bottom and this is your chance to sort yourself out - it is hard work to do this but please just try. Believe me if you carry on the debts will mount and where is the pleasure in that - you can only ever be on a losing streak at the end of the day. Well done for coming on here - that is your first step to recovery and a brighter life, good luck wit the rest of the steps.

Thank you for all your replies, it means a lot.

I have spoke to GamCare and they are getting someone from Aquarius to call me about counselling. I'm not looking forward to telling my family, I need to borrow money now for a month until I get paid and I know how disappointed with me they will be. A lot of them don't understand my depression, this is no excuse but since being on my own, my social life is non existent when everyone else is married, having kids etc and my solace has been gambling when I'm bored (which is a hell of a lot). The depression doesn't help because it gets worse when I lose or give me a temporary high when I win. That and I seem to do it more when I drink too.

I always try to turn it around and start saving, paying off debts, moving into my own place etc but then when I'm bored, bam it's so easy. I know people will say do something to occupy myself, but since the split, my confidence is shot unless I've had a drink.

I must break this cycle, I must.

Wishing you more success with the GamCare counselling and telling the family.

It isn't easy and you're going to have to make changes along the way, be honest and do things that you find uncomfortable.

Doing good so far.

Hi again,

Coming clean and telling the whole truth to close family is difficult, emotional but well worth it. You will feel better in yourself too, although it may take a while for it to sink in and register with non-gambling loved ones. It sets a great foundation for all. Admit your addiction, come clean with ALL the debts and tell them you seek help. That's what I did! My help came from GA meetings, where I found it so easily to relate, listen and speak about what we all had in common, being gambling addicts. That's how I started the road to recovery anyway......

Thanks.

S

You are doing well - heading in the right direction to recovery. Alcohol was very much a trigger in our case and this was the first thng that was said when it all came out in the open - the alcohol was not helping the depression side either. Nobody is saying not to have a drink at all but monitor how much you have before it makes you feel like gambling and try not to drink just to cheer yourself up. There are ways of going out and making new friends, i.e. gym, or being sociable with workmates etc or even do stuff with your family - just try not to spend too much time on your own. When you tell your parents tell them about this site and that you have talked to other people and parents on here and it shows you have started the ball rolling with recovery - it will be emotional for all of you but it really is the best thing. It is not a good idea for people to start bailing you out but If you want parents to help you financially for just this month then insist they have your wages and they hang on to any money they want to lend you and just issue you what is necessesary i.e. direct debits. The worst thing they can do is just give you a wad of money to handle yourself which may tempt you again and you wont have to ask them again. . And let them have access to your accounts. This is a hard thing to do but it really does help . Good luck.