Hi,
I joined this forum years ago but have now decided I need to stick to posting to ensure that I finally put a stop to the gambling as support helps.
Yesterday I pledged to never gamble again as I had another relapse and lost ВЈ4000 within an hour by betting on greyhound and horse racing which is ridiculous. Not to mention the other relapses of losing ВЈ300, ВЈ3000 and £5000. All occuring since the age of 18 and I'm now 25.
Yesterday I took a huge step forward by calling the self exclusion helpline and banning myself from all bookmakers and possible online accounts. I also arranged counseling for early next week and installed blocking software on all devices which my partner controls.
It all started off when I turned 18 and I would go to the betting shop with £2 and place a lucky 15 bet on the horses but as time went on the stakes increased. My father and uncle are both heavy gamblers and have no positivity in their lives as everything revolves around gambling and I don't want my life turning out like theirs.
I managed to not gamble for over a year until recently when I stupidly thought I might be "lucky" and win money which has obviously turned out a idiotic decision.
Yesterday was a weird experience, yes I lost a lot of money BUT I somehow stopped myself still having £5000 left in savings which may have also saved my relationship as we're both saving for a deposit on a house.
My girlfriend has been very supportive through all this and I've asked her to call the national gambling helpline so that she will get a better understanding of what I'm going through as I also suffer from stress and depression at times which doesn't help.
Life can only get better from here and I hope to have the savings for a house by the end of the year as I've worked hard to get the job I currently have and want a successful career and life.
Good luck all.
Welcome back ! I’m quite new here but definitely not new to gambling and wanting to stop . My advice and I am sure you are doing it is to read some diaries on here and other posts . You know you can stop you have proven that already . Learn from last time but make your blocks more robust . My wife when I stopped gambling for a while assumed I was cured and that the problem If you didn’t talk about it had simply gone away . Try and make your blocks as robust as possible. Having been on this forum for almost a month and reading every new entry , I can 100% say that no one has come on here , won a lot of money and then decided it’s time to stop . That in itself should tell you all you need to know . We can’t win as we don’t have an inbuilt collect button . No win is ever enough no loss is ever enough . I’m so pleased that you haven’t spent all of the savings (yet!). If you don’t do something proactive now then believe me these will be swallowed up and also a hell of a lot more . Good luck and well done for coming back . Give up the gambling but don’t give up on yourself
Vulture wrote:
Welcome back ! I’m quite new here but definitely not new to gambling and wanting to stop . My advice and I am sure you are doing it is to read some diaries on here and other posts . You know you can stop you have proven that already . Learn from last time but make your blocks more robust . My wife when I stopped gambling for a while assumed I was cured and that the problem If you didn’t talk about it had simply gone away . Try and make your blocks as robust as possible. Having been on this forum for almost a month and reading every new entry , I can 100% say that no one has come on here , won a lot of money and then decided it’s time to stop . That in itself should tell you all you need to know . We can’t win as we don’t have an inbuilt collect button . No win is ever enough no loss is ever enough . I’m so pleased that you haven’t spent all of the savings (yet!). If you don’t do something proactive now then believe me these will be swallowed up and also a hell of a lot more . Good luck and well done for coming back . Give up the gambling but don’t give up on yourself
Thanks for the reply. I've decided to buy a decent laptop to post on here as I'd rather invest money in something useful for the time being. I'm also going to set up a spreadsheet to calculate spendings for each month then I know how much I can set aside to save towards the house.
Hope your recovery is going well, don't give up and don't let them get the better of you.
We will never beat the bookmakers, the only way we'll win is by keeping the money in our pockets.
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