Its time to sort myself out

The night is early but so far I havent wasted my last £50. Thankyou to the people I have spoken to tonight...Some useful tips and its good to talk about things

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Thankyou. Yesterday I told my dad I have joined this forum. Ok it took alcohol to get the words out but they did manage to come out. I do feel better for it. I havent told him about everything as I didnt want to worry him. He was supportive and he will keep a check on it.

I have resigned myself to having lost the money I have lost. I have a lot of family things coming up like wedding/stag do in spain and other trips etc... I need all this months pay for it all. So blowing it is not an option despite doing it the other day. Thankfully that is on its way back to me and the real test will be not to blow it again when it is in my account... I am going to give it to my brother i think

Well day 2 and still no gamble.... I play a horse racing thing on facebook too... ive decided no gambling on that either, even tho its not real money!... Feeling up beat.... the real test will be in a few days when paddy gives my wages back... I will keep you in formed whether good news or bad!

Hi jonny, thanks for sharing your story, it's been driving me on! I think we are the same number of days in, for me this is day 3 and similar to yourself I have found my life completely controlled by this addiction, to the point where I don't recognise the 'non-gambling' me anymore. Good luck today, I'm finding it best to take every single day at a time. All the best. Let me know how you get on. James

Hi Jonny, just wanted to see how you are getting on. Managed to get myself to day 5 today, hopefully you are there as well, but either way be good to hear.

Good lad james! I am pleased you are keeping it up... I am doing well... I got my money back from paddy yesterday and put some of it in savings account and some in my bros account for things i need to use it for.....Kept myself enough to live on and enough to treat myself to a curry one night.

BIG BIG BIG question.... I went on paddy 5 mins ago to keep myself out of it in future (cant remember what the word is lol)...... They have gave me a free £50 bet for my loyalty!! Ironic or what!

Do I use free bet?

If I use it and lose I dont know how I will feel... I dont want to be tempted into that road again!

If I win with it, will I be able to withdraw it and that will be that or will I just gamble it again and lose it all and maybe make a deposit!

If I dont use it, I will see something and say to myself, I would have backed that!.. I wish i used the free bet now etc etc

They dont half make it awkward dont they!

The feeling I have is to go for a good price... if it wins get 500 and run.. if it loses then its not my loss, once settled then close paddy

What is peoples personal opinion... I have a month to use the free bet, I would just like to know peoples thoughts

I didnt see yesterdays message sorry james. Went for family meal in a secluded country pub for my parents anniversary..It was nice to stay away from the computer for the night ... I work 6am-3pm .. keep in touch on here and im sure we can sort ourselves out.

Not sure if I did the right thing or not! Decided I wanted out of paddy asap so clicked on next race and put the £50 free bet on the outsider 20/1 in 5 horse race (didnt study card or look at any info, just went for outsider). Went and had my dinner.

Came back and horse didnt win. Could have came 2nd by a nose for all I know, could have fell at the first. I didnt want to watch.

I have now self excluded!

I am glad I have done it. Having the free bet was annoying me and I thought If I hold on to it, I might rely on it winning and be alot more disappointed when it lost!

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Great to hear from you Johnny, and bery interesting points around the free bet. I have had the same situation before and ironically a few weeks ago when I self excluded an account online for a 30 day period they sent me an email saying exactly the same thing. It means it will be sat in my account next week when it re-opens. Unsure as yet what I will do.

I haven't found myself thinking about betting to much, more trying to sort out the mess which it has left. Few sleepless nights over that, but still an overall feeling of being 'free' is incredible.

Forget about the free bet and move on with life without. I find the more I think about my past 5 years the more my anger builds towards the bookmakers, and policies like that free bet offer are really pretty disgusting.

Keep Strong, day 6!

Hi Jonny

Sometimes during relapse we learn far more about ourselves, the bookies are there to make money and they will do anything to entice us in (including free bets), I can only speak through experience, I went 4 months GF and put a small bet on thinking what's the worst that can happen, well I won nearly 3k, before I put the bet on I did not think, what happens if I win and I ask you the same question, of your 50 free bet at 20/1 had won that's £1000 do you think you would have withdrawn it!it? Surely there would have been some catch where you couldnt, then they reel you back in. With me I went on to lose a further 10k Over 3 months
You have to live in the hear and now, learn from what you have done and make sure you don't do.it again, so if you get an email about a free bet, delete it.

Have you heard about the triangle (time, money,location) remove one of thes and you cannot gamble, I suggest you think about ways you can do this. I have limited funds and keep my bank cards at home, then even if the urges of gambling come on you can't anyway.

Wish you all the best in your recovery 😉

Thanks for the messages guys. As Joydiveder said, keep talking about it... it has seems to help...... its ironic how talking about gambling, takes away your time to actually gamble!.... About the triangle, knowone has really mentioned it to me but I have seen it mentioned in other threads.

Time - a bit of an issue after work.. I work 6-3 so i have roughly 3-11 to kill... its quite a long time... I play a lot of football manager and a horse racing game called starters orders (i dont bet (virtual money)on the game now)... I am reluctant to stop playing it cos i enjoy it and it kills time...Now actually take more notice of the soaps on the tv. I have no Mrs which is something I am always working on, as you do!!

Money - I have made positive changes as previously mentioned, although there would be nothing stopping me from putting a cheeky couple of quid on something in local shop.... I dont go in it often though as the staff are usually miserable as sin....thankfully

Location - Most of my betting has always been online... now self excluded/ing.

James - really they should not be sending you anything while your excluded. ... other than that I am very glad we are both on the right track.

Dazz - there was no catch to it...... I could have backed something 1/5 and won a 10er and withdrew the 10er or carried on betting trying to win more ..thinking about it... most free bets have to be on evens or better but same applies.... for me personally I feel made the right choice. If I didnt use it I would have always been thinking "I could have used a free bet on this cos I knew that would win".... I am glad its done with anyway..... If shock of all shocks it did win, I had it in my head I would withdraw it all and then self exclude once its in my bank.....but I do accept that what idea i had in my head could have turned out different in reality.

Thanks for your support guys

Hard time this weekend will be! Horrible climax to my first week without gambling (not including free bet)

Big greyhound racing, FA CUP and my fave racecourse Haydock is on.

I have decided to work for first part of the day.... normally I walk my dog for an hour but i think tomorrow I might be out for about 5hours!