Hi everyone.
It’s really about time I joined you all. I’ve been a gambler for 20 years and I’ve completely had enough. I have lost an a hefty amount of money and have wanted to stop for years. Finally something in me has decided that this can’t go on in this way any longer. The awful feelings of secrecy, desperation and the horrible empty feeling of chucking away loads of hard earned money because I simply can’t stop is no way to live. So I’m joining up, chucking all the gambling sites in the bin and moving into a new part of life that will hopefully have no room for that totally soul destroying activity. Like many people on here I started gambling because I was fascinated by it, the possibility of winning money without working. Also like most on here, it didn’t work out and now I’m left to pick over the ruins of what I had and start to rebuild. The last few months have been the worst I’ve ever experienced in terms of losing money, perfect losing streaks, unpunctated by any wins. All the while telling myself to stop. I will do a recovery diary and I anticipate it taking me 3/5 years to put this behind me. Looking forward to meeting some of you on here along the way.
Absolutely great advice. Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. I totally agree with what you write. To be honest I’m actually looking forward to a life where gambling / betting has no place in it.
I like that this site counts the days of gambling abstinence. It will be so pleasing to pass a few benchmarks, a week, two, a month, a year.
Many thanks again for your reply.
Hi, great advice by bluescreen, if you think about the losses it will torture you as you will never get them back and we all know what happens when you try and chase losses. Draw a line under the losses and devise a plan to move forward, how do you plan on stopping? as willpower alone is not enough as you have been gambling for 20 years. It will be a tough habit to break.
Do you have someone you can confide in about your problem, if you do, then they can take control of your finances immediately, I handed my partner every credit card and debit card I had and we also signed up to the credit reference agencies, so she could check that I had no secret loans or other cards I was hiding from her. Sounds harsh but as a gambler I was secretive and dishonest, I still tell my partner that I cannot be trusted with money and we check weekly that I am not applying for further credit. It may sound over the top but I feel discipline is required to beat this evil problem.
You will be amazed how quickly your money builds back up when you are not gambling, I have saved so much money in the last 6 months, which has proved just how much I was gambling, I never had anything for all the years I have worked which is pathetic.
My problem was the roulette machines in the bookies, feel free to read my story, maybe it can help you.
All the best
Thank you for taking the time to respond Greenflash. One thing you quickly realise on here is just how brilliantly people communicate. I agree about willpower alone not being enough. I have however put a bunch of things (blocking software / maximum and broad self exclusions etc) in place to make it extremely difficult for myself to start again. For me the main difference this time is that I am completely committed to stopping. I think that in the past I allowed the part of me that said, “just a little go won’t hurt” to persuade me, but now I’ve truly accepted the fact that it’s game over. However I’ll certainly think about handing the keys of my finances over because as you say, willpower is all well and good, but if it was enough we all would have stopped when we first wanted to.
All best.
We are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. You can also contact us for free on 0808 80 20 133. If you would like to find out more about the service before you start, including information on confidentiality, please click below. Call recordings and chat transcripts are saved for 28 days for quality assurance.
