Hi am 23 years old and new to the forum.
When I was 16 my brother was killed in a car accident and with this came severe depression.
When I was 18 I discovered gambling and I enjoyed it. It helped me take my mind off things and I only spent a few pound at a time. However with more wins came more urge to spend. Before I knew it I was spending 100’s of pounds on the machines. When really I only wanted to bet on sports that I enjoyed.
My addiction became enourmous to the point of getting into debt with a credit card and not repaying things. I destroyed my relationship with my mum by lying to her. I buried my head in the sand and ignored everything as if it would just disappear. But guess what.... IT DIDNT !
Last year I got clean and kicked the habit, however today I relapsed and I am absolutely gutted. My heart feels broken, I feel like a let down, I’ve let myself down and my girlfriend who stuck by me when I came clean last year about everything.
So I’m reaching out for some help from other people like me !
Thanks again
E
Hi Elliott it's such a shame that your loss has lead to a gambling addiction. There is help out there, you stopped for a while, you can do it again. Maybe call gamcare get some counselling? Or go to GA and get some real life support. Hopefully you can rebuild the relationship with your mum. Also put some blocks in place to make it difficult to gamble, self exclusion, software blocks or handover finance.
Hello Elliott,
Sorry to hear you are again struggling with your addiction. You say you have been gamble free before. What did you do to achieve that? How did you manage to gamble again? I can't begin to imagine what you went through with losing your brother. Maybe counselling can help you with that? It would be very reasonable to think that is the one major factor that lead you down this path.
Blocking gambling is great but recovery is about building ourselves back up to be the people we need to be to support ourselves in a healthy manner. Sometimes this is all too much for us to face alone but there is help. Give Gamcare a call, they are the experts. You are not alone with this. Speak to someone.
With regards to the stopping gambling side of it Mixer made a great post on here that i will link you to below.
http://www.gamcare.org.uk/forum/want-do-something-read
Stay around here and keep talking it out if you find it helps. All the best
Hi guys thanks for your replies.
In regards to the gambling I was away buying a car and I managed to gamble there and spent too much money stupidly. I need to contact self exclusion today as they were shut on the weekend.
I have had counselling before and it helped. But then I stopped cause I felt ok and a few months later I’ve relapsed.
I’ve never had counselling for gambling though.
I’ll gamble when I’m bored or when I am off work due to cold weather to try and make money. It’s so silly because I kicked it for so long.
It’s so easy to open another online platform though, how do you overcome this ?
Thanks
Hi Elliott download software to your computer, pc, iPad, phone. K9, Gamban are some although not the only ones and don't suit all. You could call your internet provider and ask them to block gambling sites. The other way is to order new cards and scratch off 3 digit code (get someone else to do it before you memorise it!).
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