New here. Scared and depressed

Welcome to the Forum Benyboy98,

Thank you for your first post, we understand how hard it can be to talk about this publicly and in doing so today you have taken a big step forward. There will be many forum users who will be able to relate to your experience and provide advice that has helped them on their recovery journey.

We would also love to be able to support you further, to ensure you don’t feel alone or scared about your future.  If you haven’t done so already I would recommend that you give one of our Advisers a call on either our HelpLine on 0808 8020 133 or our NetLine. We would welcome the opportunity to talk through with you other support, strategies and treatment that may be of benefit to you. 

Kind regards

Forum Admin

 Hi benyboy98 and welcome to the forum.

Thanks for your story and its good to pour it all out. That will be your saviour...openness and honesty for there is no shame in admitting to a gambling addiction.

The power of this addiction will take a born again moment to fight it away. A born again moment of reaching out for all the help. 

You will need to tell people close to you so please get the words out. They need to know as secrets are no good for you.

Gambling is not an income scheme as you always knew really. The addiction takes over your sensible thoughts for its own drug fix

You have a journey of recovery to do. Its not all that hard when you know you are ready. You will feel a serenity and relief to be getting help.

Are you ready now because that help will mean you are on a sandwich allowance and your gadget access is fully monitored. You will not be in control of the household finances as your mind heals.

The trust is a price you will gladly pay and you can never be complacent again for the rest of your life. The trust is a small price compared to what a gambling addiction had lined up for you...believe me you don't want trust for the forseeable future if ever as this addiction has split your mind.

I have the serenity and peace of mind to know that I dont want full trust ever again from the people I hurt...its for my own good

Humble yourself! Try a GA meeting because you are them and they are you with this addiction. You must be humble to the sheer power of the strongest addiction I know about

It is a drug addiction and mental illness as you will learn about in time. You must have no fear of words like this which speak the truth.

Its nothing to do with willpower alone. You will need help and lots of it.

It can be done. Ive done it and my life is way better gamble free..well its a different life I am in control of

Best wishes from everyone on the forum

Posted by: benyboy98

Hello everyone. First time me speaking about this publically but I have a gambling addiction. I'm 22 years old, I have a wonderful gf and little boy and amazing parents and brothers. But I'm slowly destroying every relationship because I'm chasing money gambling. It started off when I was 18. I'm a big football fan, well not as much anymore. Fallen out of love for the game due to my gambling addiction.

When I was a student it started off as a few quid on a Saturday In the pub with friends. That's when it was fun. As a student I never had a lot of money. So I thought gambling could be a way of getting that extra cash for the weekend nights out or to treat myself. I started gambling on weekdays with random league football that no one watches. I joined Twitter and got very attached to inplay challenges. For people who dont know, Twitter has hundreds of pages that post their own bets using a small amount of money at small odds and building it up overtime. This became a problem as I was always on my phone, following these people to make money. This never worked. 

Then football turned to tennis, ice hockey and literally any sport or league you could find on betting sites. I'd signed up to as many online offers as I could, got into debt with loans, borrowing money and student overdrafts. This then got worse with the roulette. I've been very good to stop the urge of walking into a bookmakers or casinos and placing bets or going on the machines. It would all be online whenever I was bored

This has no ruined my life and I'm here now to start a journey or recovery. These are suppose to be the best years of my life and I'm ruining them with my lies to my family and it has to stop now. I've realised I have a problem and I'm here to stop gambling

Thanks for listening. Feels alot better to get it out in the open. If anyone has any tips that helped then start off that would be great thanks

Can relate to some of this. Theres always lots of challenges on twitter and it's easy to follow a few and get carried away. I've unfollowed and blocked every single thing to do with betting on social media. I'm new here too so hopefully we both can get through this. Definitely feels good to speak about it.

Thank you for the replies. I have used gamstop and I'm getting emails from all the online sites that I'm being banned which is good. I've also found a GA meeting close to me one day a week. I'm nervous to go but I need to face reality that I need to do this. I will post frequently about my journey as I'm feeling confident talking about it on here already. I feel this will be good for me as well

Welcome.

You will find lots of support here as you can see. First steps are to use the tools at your disposal so that you can get some distance. Gamstop/Gamban etc are great online tools for you not to access casinos online. Use them and be thankful that they exist. They have saved a lot of people.  Remember it is man-made so if you got yourself in you absolutely can get out of it. It is a question of taking responsibility and getting in the right mind frame for it. We all love gambling etc but I have been preaching the opposite lately. Why on earth should we love it?  It stopped being fun ages ago? It is not your friend so make it your enemy.  The chat rooms and admins are great and will help you with all the info you need. Rest of us are right here if you have more questions.

Good luck with your recovery

Hi - Just my tuppence worth:  you are 22 so now is the time to stop if you are genuinely looking to do so.  There should be no half-measures; even a tiny break in your armour could lead you back to the same path.

I think I probably have an addictive personality and so gambling was perhaps an easy fix to get hooked on.   I've had a smoke, enjoy a beer and wine, even tried marijuana and none of those have developed further - but did go through a time where shopping, for gadgets or clothes, took on addictive traits.  

But through it all keeping my thoughts inside meant I never elucidated these feelings so became normalised - as with the gambling where, even though I could tell it wasnt good for me or those around me, not telling anyone meant there was no counter-balance.

You are doing the right thing in opening up - I've been to some GA meetings and while they may not be for everyone the face-to-face aspect gave the feeling that I was telling someone my inner-most feelings and that helped.

Good luck and keep in-touch.

Posted by: benyboy98

Hello everyone. First time me speaking about this publically but I have a gambling addiction. I'm 22 years old, I have a wonderful gf and little boy and amazing parents and brothers. But I'm slowly destroying every relationship because I'm chasing money gambling. It started off when I was 18. I'm a big football fan, well not as much anymore. Fallen out of love for the game due to my gambling addiction.

When I was a student it started off as a few quid on a Saturday In the pub with friends. That's when it was fun. As a student I never had a lot of money. So I thought gambling could be a way of getting that extra cash for the weekend nights out or to treat myself. I started gambling on weekdays with random league football that no one watches. I joined Twitter and got very attached to inplay challenges. For people who dont know, Twitter has hundreds of pages that post their own bets using a small amount of money at small odds and building it up overtime. This became a problem as I was always on my phone, following these people to make money. This never worked. 

Then football turned to tennis, ice hockey and literally any sport or league you could find on betting sites. I'd signed up to as many online offers as I could, got into debt with loans, borrowing money and student overdrafts. This then got worse with the roulette. I've been very good to stop the urge of walking into a bookmakers or casinos and placing bets or going on the machines. It would all be online whenever I was bored

This has no ruined my life and I'm here now to start a journey or recovery. These are suppose to be the best years of my life and I'm ruining them with my lies to my family and it has to stop now. I've realised I have a problem and I'm here to stop gambling

Thanks for listening. Feels alot better to get it out in the open. If anyone has any tips that helped then start off that would be great thanks

Well done for making the first step, you have time on your side being so young, and the decision that you’ve made is very mature, be proud of that!

There are so many tools that you can use to prevent yourself from gambling, and there can never be too many measures in place, it will seem hard making that step to set them up, but boy do you feel the weight lift off of your shoulders once you do it!

confessing what you are to your loved ones is a massive help too, and yes it is hard to say it, but as with the preventative measures mentioned above, you feel the weight lifted off of your shoulders.

the GamCare community is literally fantastic, don’t be afraid to join the group chats, we are a lovely bunch and no judgements are made.

i wish you all the best in your recovery