Looking for help

Hiya, okay so look at the positives first, you saved the money! That was great, you did well, but then okay you lost it. Money can be re saved, but I think telling your family would be the best thing, it's the best thing I've done, I was terrified, making myself sick at the thought but afterwoods i realised I didn't have to be terrified, they are your family, the closest people you will ever have and they love you. They might be angry, shout and not understand but let them vent, don't talk over them let them finish and then explain. Are you going to put and blocks in place and seek outside help ( counseling ect)? as i think if you show them you are getting help it shall show them you are serious about making a change.

Hi Stewatty 1 and welcome to the Forum :))

I know you said you started gambling at 18 but I'm not sure how old you are now and how long youv'e been gambling for but to be honest it doesn't really matter because gambling doesn't care who , what or how old you are , it will still take everything from you the longer you carry on .

Simple advice is to stop completely , if things have got bad then you need to change your lifestyle and ways so that gambling's not a part of it anymore , I don't know wht type of gambling you do , Online or Bookies or both but you need to think about self exclusions and blocks to help you stop .

If it's online then you can buy and download blocking software such as , Netnanny or gamblock or there is a free one called k9 or if you go into the bookies then self exclude , you can just walk in and ask behind the counter , take a couple of passport photos and it only takes a few minutes to do .

I know its not something you really want to do but I'd advise you to tell your family or just the ones that need to know , its not an easy thing to admit but gambling loves all the secrecy stuff and if people who you love know it makes it that much easier to break free than keeping it a secret .

The main bit of advice I would give you is to just let go of all youv'e lost , don't try chasing it because it'll just drag you back in to gambling more and more and you'll end up in a far worse position than you are now , theres only one way gambling takes you and that's down my friend , so put the brakes on now and get your life back on track , you'll never beat the bookies or gambling sites so stop trying ,

Be strong and take the early days one day at a time and you'll be just fine and don't be to hard on yourself , we all make mistakes becase were human but the good news is we can learn from them .

Phew young man, you have to know this can be a progressive illness, because you can see winnings from gambling happening, you think a win can always happen, I have had many. However you begin to believe you can never lose ( I won 48 visits on the bounce to the bookies on the fotb's nothing major always between £10.00 - £300. over 6 weeks ) I thought I could always win a losing position back - the reality is you are just borrowing the money to give it back. This is very serious Stewart, you sound young enough to beat this problem, read on here a lot, the diaries and posts will tell you what blocks to put in place to stop this happening again, you need to listen to the advice on this site. You could end up like many on here almost broke, in debt, mental and physical heath issues occuring. I was a rich man (monetary terms) once, I lost so much I can hardly function from day to day.Every single penny I spend to the day I die will have to be a careful spenny spent. Do you want to be in that position? I think you should tell someone, but don't expect an arm around your shoulder, people on here who have suffered through gambling and counsellors are the few people in the world who understand the issue, most people think we are mad for throwing hard earned money away. Good luck and take the issue seriously.

P.S- So you understand how bad this can get, two weeks ago I had £K30 funds more than I have tonight, my fridge was full, tonight I have in the fridge some mouldy cheese and a pint of milk. STOP NOW !