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hello to you all,
I'm new, My name is Ryan I'm 24 I've been gambling about 5 years now I'm young I know I need this to stop or Im going to ruin my life As I can just see it happening!
I live at home with my parents and work full time they don't take any rent or ask for money so luckily I'm not in debt. I gamble about 90% of wages a week which is horrible for me stops me having a proper social life as I have to reject offers to go out as I don't have any money and it makes me depressed as I should have money to do what I want as I'm at home and I have a decent paying job!
MY WORST ENEMY is the fobt machines in the bookies lose mostly on them and also online roulette or the casino trip and football bets.. Even if intend to spend £10 on a fobt machine if I lose that I lose all the money I have on me and all the money I can get my hands on at that time.. It's quite scary tbh as nothing else matters and the deeper u go there stronger the urge gets until all the money is gone.. I don't lend money to gamble so I guess that's something positive but I could see it happening in the future.
Iv just self excluded myself to all my online accounts and my local casino.. I need to do my local bookies tomorrow and changing my cards to cash only will help a lot I think. But yeah that's my story I know my case isn't that bad compared to others but I can see it going really bad!
and any replys will help, thanks
Hello Ryan and welcome to the forum , My names Alan and like you the Fobt's in the bookies were my downfall , you can never beat them buddy and the longer you play the more there going to suck you in and the more your gonna lose , like all of us Compulsive Gamblers we cannot win because we cannot stop .
You seem to have all the right ideas in place and it's really important that you self exclude from as many bookies as possible and not just the close ones you use , you can also download blocking software which will stop you accesing sites on your laptop or tablet , K9 is a free one but there are others available for a fee , if you get stuck contact the gambcare team who can give you more advice on that . The good news is that your not in any serious debt which many of us on here suffer from and also your still young enough to benefit from stopping right now before things get really bad .
Well done for coming on here and admitting you have a problem , thats always a big step to take , sometimes sharing your burden by telling a parent or someone else close to you can help keep you on the straight and narrow as it makes you more accountable for your actions , if your planning on sticking around there's tons of advice and support on here , we all understand what abad place your in right now but give it acouple of weeks and things start to get a bit clearer and it gets a bit easier to deal with . The biggest thing you need to do is let go of anything youv'e lost , just accept that its a lesson in life and its gone , don't try and chase it just let it go , on top of that it's down to you and your willpower , I've gambled for more years than youv'e been alive but I've now gone 6 months without a bet and if I can do that then so can you , I just wish this site had been around when I was your age !.
Keep posting and let us know how your getting on as its always good to talk on here , you might not get a repl straight away but someone will pick up on your post , you could always gi over to the recovery diarys section and start a diary of your own on there once youv'e found your feet !.
Take care Ryan and welcome to recovery !
Thanks for the reply Alan much appreciated. Im glad you have got through 6 months of no gambling and you have been gambling over 5 times longer than me really gives me much more hope!
Yeah I'm just trying to block everything atm and I might get a couple of counciling sessions just give me that boost, but if I can get through a month with out gambling I know after that I can do 2 months and so on just the first week is going to be hard for me. But il be checking in everyday on here will keep my mind in the right place.
Thanks
Hello southpole
Yes they are very addictive, should be banned but that's not going to happen as they create most of there revenue!
they tried to reduce the stake amount to £2 back in 2015 and it got thrown out that would help slightly. Best way is to self exclude ya self pal
Hi there Bb my son is a similar age to you. He also has decent paying job and should have been able to enjoy himself. Instead he got himself into a vicious circle of working, gambling, pay day loans. I was oblivious to this, when he borrowed money I just thought he was mismanaging his money. I finally found out in November last year. He wasn't too happy at first, had some very difficult days and we didn't like each other at times. Fast forward til today. He slowly got there, we look after his money together now, I have full access to his bank accounts and he has been gamble free for 41 days. He has been able to start saving again, bills paid on time and is a much happier person. You have done well in realising you have a problem and want to overcome it. You have done the right thing in self excluding yourself. Fobts seems to be very addictive, they should be banned!! As you say you're a young lad, you should be enjoying yourself with your mates not enjoying yourself with a machine! You can do this! Claim a gamble free future back for yourself and start enjoying it. Read all the success stories on here, there are some scary stories as well. This addiction is a progressive addiction you don't want to be saying in five years 'I wish I had stopped 5 years ago' keep posting, join the live chat 8-9pm every night. I really wish you well. Wcid
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