Hi im new and under the dark clouds of gambling

I still bet....but no longer in excess.....all I do now is go out with a few quid in my pocket and NO DEBIT/CREDIT CARD !!! - It's what it used to be now....a bit of fun and if I lose £20 quid that is no big deal..

Hi Mark and welcome to the forum :))

In answer to your first question , " No it's definately never too late " I've gambled for nearly 40 yrs and came here 13 months ago and haven't had a bet since that day , I just wished I had come to my senses earlier like you have now as it would have spared a lot of heartache , not to mention the lost time with my family and the thousands of pounds thrown away ! .

Thje urge to gamble will come and go especially in the early stages of stopping as it did for me , all I can say is just deal with it in anyway that takes your mind off of it , Go for a walk , clean the car or the house and even coming on here and reading other peoples diarys helps , others on here have found watching box sets a good way of distracting yourself and there's plenty of those out there .

My main vice was the Fobt machines in the bookies but I would also back Dogs and Horses , I found it better not to watch any horse racing for a while as it brought back a few feelings of wanting to have a punt again especially if it was a horse running that I'd followed for a while , I was almost afraid of missing the one time it would win ! , as time's gone on I really don't get many urges these days as the longer you go without a bet it seems to get easier and I can now watch the racing on C4 and not worry about it but to be honest I seem to have lost all interest in it which must be a good sign right ? .

I'd just give it all a wide birth initially and see how you feel in a few months , everyones different and only you will know how your feeling in time .

I don't know if youv'e put anything in between you and gambling ( blocks ) we call em , such as exclusions from the bookies or diownloading blocking software if you gamble online ? K9's a free one but there's also netnanny and betfilter which are avilable at a cost , self exclusions can be done by going in the bookies you frequent with a passport photo , fill in a form which takes a few minutes and your done really or there's a national self exclusion helpline 08002942060 which can almost do it for you ? .

All these blocks we call the Time , money, location triangle and if you remove one you can't gamble , it works but like all good things it really just gives you time to think instead of rushing out to gamble when your guard drops , the biggest thing you have is your willpower and how much you really want to stop gambling .

My best advice is just to accept that gambling has won , it's beat you and that your willing to have let win , let go of all the money youv'e lost in the past , it's gone and your not going to chase it anymore , that way youv'e no reason to go back and keep taking it on .

Were Compulsive Gamblers and it's no longer about winning for us , it's gione beyond that , all we need is the buzz and excitment it gives , we cannot win because we cannot stop and you will only start winning for real when you do stop :))

I hope this helps you a bit Mark , if your gonna stick around then maybe think of starting a diary in the recovery diarys section , just scroll to the bottom of that page and click on new topic and from there you can start a diary to chart your progress and watch your gamble free days grow , mines on 398 and I can remember my day one very well indeed I came here a total wreck and on the verge of ending it all , a year on everythings pretty good again , just like it will be for you again if you take the opportunity you have in front of you :)) .

Best wishes for now Mark and I'm sure I'll catch up with you soon buddy .

Welcome to recovery !!

Alan

Thanks everyone for your kind words. Much appreciated by everyone, I have phoned the national self exclusion and I am banned from almost all bookmakers in my city, I will take all your advice on head and won't watch the horse racing for a while just to control the urge. I'm not very fit so I was considering joining a gym for a couple of reasons 1 is to get fit and the second is to stop myself from betting. I also want to say well done to everyone and I hope I can go 398 days without gambling to well done Alan.

Thank you all for your kind words and thank you all for accepting me and helping me