Hello, I'm Lucie and today is the day that I have shamefully accepted I'm a compulsive gambler. For the past 5 years I have blasted my wages on online slots. but the past 6 months I have been out of control. The more I'm up the more debt I end up in, I've got to a point where I don't feel anything even when I've lost my last pound. I've now closed all my accounts, deleted apps and cleared my emails-need to avoid temptation, I'm considering getting rid of my smartphone and having a basic phone-it's just to easy to blow £50 in a matter on minutes! Once I get that urge it's so hard to resist, how do I make it stop before I really lose everything?
Morning lucie,
You can't make the urge go away, that is the whole point of it being an addiction, you have put the right barriers up to start on your life gamble free, if you gamble on your phone then get rid of it, you should put a blocker on your computer, iPad, phone etc, I recently downloaded k9 and it seems to work well. If you have someone you can confid in then maybe ask them to look after your finances for a while. One thing and you may find this hard is to tell the people close to you, once it is out in the open you will feel a great weight lifted, they will hopefully be there and support you, but be prepared they may not understand the concept of being addicted to slots and why you can't just walk away. This has happened to me recently my husband found out I had been gambling and lost all our savings, although initially he wouldn't speak to me we are now occasionally talking, he really can't get his head round how you can get an addiction to it, he gambles his self and does not have a problem with it so I can understand why he would feel like that.
This is day one for you, don't look back you can't change it, sit down and work out what you need to do to get yourself back on track then one day at a time do something positive.
There are a lot of people on here who give a lot of good advice, listen to it and maybe ring the help line if you need to talk, there is also a chat room that is open most days if you want to chat to fellow gamblers, all is a great help and the advice and support is priceless.
I wish you the best of luck and stay strong
Heather x
Morning Lucie,
Well done for coming here, that is a huge step and welcome to the forum. Heather has given you some good advice up there, reading around is very important as you will see a lot of stories echoing your own.
The urge........well it's different for a lot of people. There are some on here who find it difficult to stop the urge and those who haven't had an urge since starting recovery. I am one of the latter and haven't had a single urge since. For me, I had hit my own personal rock bottom. It's different for everyone, but mine was simply losing money I didn't have. Others will lose their family, home, job etc so I suppose I was fairly easy to break. I realised that basically I could never win and it would cost me a lot of money to find out. So I just don't gamble. I read a lot into gambling, especially legislation in this country and find the thing very bizarre. I can't stand the industry, but I don't blame them. It's reactive not preventative support they give. For many a harmless flutter is not a problem. For the few it's destructive to the point of suicide.
So being armed with this knowledge, and wanting a better life, future, prospects I stopped and never looked back. That was 8 months ago. Gambling debt was laid off very quickly, life is amazing now. Gambling made me review my life and made me change for the better. So as for the urge.......there is no urge!
Good luck in recovery. Accept loses are gone, draw a line, use blockers to the max and don't give gambling a chance! Break all three of the time, money, location triangle and welcome to a gamble free future!
Take care!
Great words above from Areturnto... I'm 8 months gamble free and could have written those words. Everyone's recovery is different, we are all different, the human brain is an amazing piece of engineering. However this forum and GA bring together a lot of pieces from all different jig saws that all belong in the box of puzzles about compulsive gambling and the road to recovery.
Great words.
Wow thankyou for all this advise and support, it took a lot for me to come back to this page and face what I have done.woke up this morning feeling so ashamed, having read other posts I know I'm not alone with this addiction. I'm not ready to broach this subject with my husband and not sure I ever will be, I have opened up to a friend but i don't feel better - just appalled at how much money I've wasted. I think this is gonna be a hard week facing up to the reality of my consequences.
Hi lucie you have been given some great advice by the others so just a welcome from me
Welcome Lucie..
Take some time to read around on here love...none of us planned to end up here as compulsive gamblers. ...but where here...so take a deep breath and take it all one day at a time...
Take a look at my dairy if you fancy...like you my addiction to the slots lead me to arrive here a broken lady with the world on my shoulders.....give the helpline a call when you can love. ...nobody judge's you here....x
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