Hi everyone I’m new here but I feel I need to share my hectic life at the moment with people who don’t know me as I find it hard to talk to people close to me about my issues as i fear the feeling of guilt and embarrassment, I’ve always sort of gambled even as a kid I used to be addicted to arcades when I was about 7 I loved the thrill/thought of winning something in exchange for money and with adhd you can imagine what being in an arcade felt like,then the through my teens I didn’t really think about gambling until the age of 22 my mate won £XX on slots and that’s what triggered this mess I’m in now, also started using drugs from a young age of 15 started off just weed and party drugs which as I got older I don’t really use party drugs anymore but I’ve ended up with a bad C*****e and weed and gambling habit which keeps happening in which seems like an never ended cycle the past 4 years or so keep repeating itself I get clean and out of debt for about 6 months and then towards end of the year I end up banging loads of gear and getting into debt by taking out lots of payday loans which I can afford as I earn around 43k a year but I spend every penny of that year in year out and I don’t know how to stop this I only get the urge to gamble when I take coke as you don’t think about how stupid it is when your sober cause your chasing a rush, I’m spending around £400 a week on coke then I end up losing all of it too gamble I once got from £XX up to £XX and managed to withdraw but the devil took over and In over a week it was all gone and I can’t keep doing this I’m supposed to be buying a house soon with my brother  but I can’t in this state, and I can’t bare to tell him this mess I’m in.Â
MasÂ
welcome to the forum. It sounds as though you know what you need to do and that is address your drug addiction. If you are spending that amount on gear, it must be triggering gambling an awful lot. There are things that you can do to reduce your access to gambling like self exclusion and getting a bank account that blocks gambling transactions. They will help but the trigger will still be there and we all know that we are capable of finding new ways of gambling in the moment. If you haven’t already, talk to a GamCare advisor. They will be able to talk you through some specific strategies for your problem. I wish you well.Â
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