Hi all,
I have gambled almost every day the past 15 years other than a two year break after my second child. I managed to get my debt cleared and credit score up and buy a house for my wife and now 3 children.Â
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After moving in, a few additional bills came in and I didn't have the money to pay. Instead of just asking for help, I decided to get a £5000 loan to pay them off and have a bit left over for other things. As soon as I got the cash, I placed a couple of large bets to try and cover the bills and then pay back the loan (stupid I know). Obviously I ended up losing, and continuing to lose the full £5000. I got out another £10,000 loan to do the same thing and pay off the £5000 loan. Obviously the same thing happened again. I was now in a position where I did not want to admit this stupidity to anyone, continued to take out credit cards until I racked up £60,000 debt within 2 months. I struggled to keep up with the payments until my wife eventually found out.Â
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Shes kicked me out the house, I am now staying with my parents until I can work things out with my wife or if she wont take me back ill have to find another place to live. I have told my friends, family and friends at work everything and been open about it and its a massive sense of relief.Â
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I am now looking to find a way to kick this habit once and for all, to find a way to stop myself from relapsing and going through this nightmare again. I've set up all the self exclusion blocks, blocked gambling transactions through my banks and downloaded bet blocker for my phone. I've set up a debt management plan and now all my money gets paid out, anything left over I give to my mum to keep safe.
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I feel like I am doing all the right things to stop gambling but I feel like I need to do more. I have tried meetings before but I didn't really like them. I was hoping chatrooms and forums might help.
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Any advice or suggestions are welcome.
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Cheers
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It really stops when you decide it stops many compulsive gamblers don't really want to stop gambling they just want to stop losing money and the consequences that come with losing moneyÂ
When you realise and finally accept its all a scam and a massive waste of time and money you will knock it on the head until you reach that point you will always be susceptible to thinking you can beat the house
Your story is unfortunately very common around these parts
@3y9voe5ub8 this is true an extent if it was this easy relapse rate would be nonexistant however i do agree with your point u have to want to stop after admitting you have problem the issue is alot of people want to stop after reaching a certain point however they are not willing to stick to a program some people after certain point slack off and thats when a relapse is more likely i have learnt this the hard way i am on 820 days bet free and i am a regular attendee on here i honestly believe coming here regularly i still have this addiction and always will if i keep continue coming here i can remain bet free the moment i stop coming chance of relapse are going to be higher as am honest i their pointless having a relapse and then blaming it on addiction when i could have prevented the least i can do is continue on doing what am doing as it sure is working
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