Hello All,
Please do not just skip another thread and please give me your advice and comments.
I am 23 years old male who has been gambling since around 18 years old. Started off mainly on football accumulators but then I found the roulette machines. Well, what can I say they have had a hold over me for well over 4 years. In the time I have been playing these machines I have lost a lot of money, some people will say one amount is not a lot but another higher amount is a lot. I have not added the amount I have lost but lets just say I have been loosing my weekly salary every week since I started.
Obviously I am a gambling addict, I like many others have thought that gambling is way to make money and have always gone back thinking that if only I can make X amount then I will walk but this does not happen.
Even when I win I still go back and play again until I loose it all and more.
I don't understand my physiological thinking, sometimes I play even though I know I am going to loose.
I have lost 5,000 in one day on the online roulette games.
I am not embarrassed to say that I have turned into a nasty piece of work.
I am in debt around 30,000.
I am struggling to get my head around how I am going to stop gambling.
I cannot forsee me stopping gambling at all even though I want to.
Help Please
Thanks
Sam.
Hi Sam like yourself i have a problem with the roulette. i realized when i spent 6g in one sitting online. i was up by a thousand at one point but i could not win coz i could not stop. My advice to you is to confide in someone close to you and/or talk to gamcare the number is free. i haven't got round to counselling yet but a lot of people on this forum swear by the meetings. The biggest burden for me is now the debt which will take years to repay, but the emotional damage is already getting better everyday
Talk to someone let it all out i felt so much better when i did.
Good luck
Hi Sam,
I have just read your thread and am glad that you have realised you need help for this awful addicitive behaviour that we all have on this site.
You are right you are a compulsive gambler and compulsive gamblers never win. You have admitted you are powerless over gambling and it has you licked.
This illness is evil and if we allow it to consume our lives it will eventually lead to a life of destruction, pain, misery, heartache, physical illness, isolation and rejection. The illness can take us to places lower than the gutter if we allow it. But, if we are sincerely determined to recover from it there are systems and places we can access to help us stop and lead a life of normality allowing us to have a healthy mind and body and total peace of mind.
First thing you must do is to exclude yourself from any establishment that you access to gamble i.e. betting shops/casinos etc, this is hard but you will get a great sense of satisfaction once you have done that. If you have access to on-line betting then you need to install gambling blocking software. K9 is free and you need to allow someone who knows about your habit access to a password so that you cant change the settings. Get along to a GA meeting asap, if there is one in your area go tonight. GA is remarkable in helping people of all ages, professions, gender etc to stop gambling. GA saved my life literally, if you read my dairy and others like it you will see the destructive nature of this illness. You are young now Sam, please do not let this illness/desire to gamble corrupt your life any more. We can never win when we gamble, each day we dont gamble we win.
You say you dont understand your thinking, none of us do, we have an illness called compulsive gambling but the 12 step programme in GA teaches us how to rewire our thought processes and lead us to a gamble free life. You say you have become a nasty piece of work, CG changes everything about our behaviour and personalities, we lie, we are dishonest and deceiptful, we steal time and money to gamble. You will hear so many people say this is not me really, well find the real you again and start to living again. It is a long journey of recovery but you will get there eventually.
I wish you great success on your journey to becoming you again. Start a diary on this site, it will inspire you when you see how well you do on your recovery.
Best wishes
Hope x
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