Long time gambler and need help

Hi @lastchance,

Welcome to the GamCare forum. Well done for reaching out and sharing with us what is happening to you. You’re going through a lot right now and it’s clear gambling has caused you a lot of harm including the cycle of gambling causing depression and gambling to ease those feelings of panic, anxiety and depression. And being homeless must cause a great deal of stress for you. Despite this you’ve done so much towards your recovery already: Banned yourself from places, made an appointment with your GP and reached out to the GamCare forum. It’s clear you very much want to change what is happening. Consider for your next steps reaching out to the National Gambling Helpline, 0808 8020 133, there is so much help and support waiting for you, and they can talk you through what is available and you can make your choices as to what you’d like to tap into. The type of things available are chatrooms and forums, peer support, , self help online course all of which can be found here:  Recovery toolkit - GamCare  . Also 1-2-1 support sessions with a practitioner   Find local support - GamCare   .Ride the momentum you’re building and have a chat with the helpline to talk about your options. All the best and keep us posted

Best Wishes

Jane

Hi @pi4vfg1bqk 

I can so relate to your pain right now. I’m 43 this year. Been gambling since very young, started in arcades on holiday, the lights reeled me in. Then on pub fruit machines with Dad etc. Hit 18 then could access bingo halls. Again many machines that take your money there, then moved to online bingo, then the slots online, then roulette online, back to slots online. I’ve spent millions over the years it’s sickening. I’ve been in debt my whole life with defaults etc. I’ve only just got debt free, 20 days ago I accumulated slot winnings. My husband does not know I’m still gambling so I had all those winnings and couldn’t even spend it so I continued to used it as playing money. Which didn’t matter when it was just gambling money. But now it’s all gone wrong …again.

right now I now have £200 on my credit card and £100 in my acc until payday on Wednesday,  I owe my brother 2k. 

I banned myself on GamStop in Dec 2019 

The problem is you get into a habit. Gambling through the night, even whilst at work, just for fun but then it goes through an unlucky stint and you end up chasing because there are no highs from winning anymore.

I still feel like I need to chase that high even though I’ve done this all before more than twice and know exactly where it ends up.

Ive tried distracting myself with other things but my issue is I enjoy this very much. Even the losing doesn’t seem to put me off, it almost makes me more determined to keep trying to win.

only ever holding the exciting thoughts of winning in my head and not the deep scary ones when you are suddenly struggling for money again.

I would really like someone that can relate to this and when I get the urge I can message them at what ever time and off load this urge feeling instead of going through with the urge and making my life more difficult.

I have no interests in anything other than this and I don’t know how to feel interested in other things 

Thanks for reading.

Hi

I had gambled a very long time and yet by attending the recovery program was able to heal from my pains.

Sadly pains in my life caused fears in me that I did not understand.

Sadly pains in my life caused me to loose confidence in my self.

By going to the recovery program I learned that how ever confused I was that Gambling was very unhealthy for me.

By going to the recovery program I learned how to abstain from Gambling.

By going to the recovery program I learned how much pain I was causing my self and other.

By going to the recovery program I was able to abstain from gambling.

By going to the recovery program I was able to be less afraid and was able to become more productive with our time.

Just for today I do not want or need to gamble.

The very last thing I want to do with my life is gamble.

Sadly when I gamble I make things much worse in my life.

Dave L

Posted by: @pz4khru5yj

↑

Hi @pi4vfg1bqk 

 

I can so relate to your pain right now. I’m 43 this year. Been gambling since very young, started in arcades on holiday, the lights reeled me in. Then on pub fruit machines with Dad etc. Hit 18 then could access bingo halls. Again many machines that take your money there, then moved to online bingo, then the slots online, then roulette online, back to slots online. I’ve spent millions over the years it’s sickening. I’ve been in debt my whole life with defaults etc. I’ve only just got debt free, 20 days ago I accumulated slot winnings. My husband does not know I’m still gambling so I had all those winnings and couldn’t even spend it so I continued to used it as playing money. Which didn’t matter when it was just gambling money. But now it’s all gone wrong …again.

right now I now have £200 on my credit card and £100 in my acc until payday on Wednesday,  I owe my brother 2k. 

I banned myself on GamStop in Dec 2019 

The problem is you get into a habit. Gambling through the night, even whilst at work, just for fun but then it goes through an unlucky stint and you end up chasing because there are no highs from winning anymore.

I still feel like I need to chase that high even though I’ve done this all before more than twice and know exactly where it ends up.

 

Ive tried distracting myself with other things but my issue is I enjoy this very much. Even the losing doesn’t seem to put me off, it almost makes me more determined to keep trying to win.

 

only ever holding the exciting thoughts of winning in my head and not the deep scary ones when you are suddenly struggling for money again.

I would really like someone that can relate to this and when I get the urge I can message them at what ever time and off load this urge feeling instead of going through with the urge and making my life more difficult.

 

I have no interests in anything other than this and I don’t know how to feel interested in other things 

Thanks for reading.

 

 

Hi every one thank you for your replies I have managed to make it 3 days with out gambling very difficult for me as I'm basically locking my self away from every think and it's better than gambling but I can not live my life locked away so hopefully in time I hope it gets easier for me 

Last chance 

well done for taking the step to reach out in the forum. I can relate to your story I have gambles since 18 and has got progressively worse until completely ruining my life. I am early in my recovery but am seeing the glimmers of hope and improvement in my life. The best advice I can give to you is get as much support as possible - go to GA meetings, get free therapy through GamCare. The more people that you have to support you the more resilient you can be in recovery. Drop your pride and ask for help when you need it - this is something I have learned the hard way. 

keep going