Evening all
i am writing this in the hope to make connections who can understand what its like to live with a relentless addiction. I am 34 and have been gambling what feels like everything I have ever since the age of 14 and I cannot get away from this horrible addiction!!
In the last month I have put an estimates £5,000 through the fobts machines! Money that I had saved for the last few years toward a house deposit. I havent gambled online for some 5+ years and have app blocks in place but always find myself travelling outside my self exclusion zone to play the machines - to then add the venues to my exclusion zone and then repeating when I find my next nearest shop!!
I am thankful that currently, I am in no gambling debt at the time of writing. But I have been in the past in thousands of pounds worth of debt and on management plans alongside £10,000 in debt to parents in the past. I managed to clear all of that over these last few years but I can feel this addiction getting a grip in a way that feels firmer than i’ve ever felt before.
Today I will add the latest premises to my exclusion and hope that I can reset the timer of aiming for gamble free abstinence one last time.
Hi Tony
Very similar, started at 12 and stopped last year aged 56. 241 days without a bet now. Takes a lot of work every day and with your current form of poison it's difficult at the moment to cover a big enough area. I heard of someone in the States who drove to all casinos within a ten hour drive and self excluded in person which took a month. Following month she drove 11 hours to play.
i couldn't get off the elevator until Lower ground 2. I was utterly broken mentally and realised I had spent a solid 14 years actually gambling. That didn't include the years thinking about it ,planning it and funding it. This addiction won't stop until it takes everything. I can't get the money back, the time back but I can come out the other end I better version of me than ever before
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