Hi everyone, never posted on one of these before but have read a few stories and can relate to alot of them in some ways. Well, where to start, a friend of a friend introduced me to gambling when I was 18 (I'm 25 now) and this was my first time in a bookies, I saw him winning doing his big bets (£100 a spin on fobt roulette if I remember correctly) and winning a fair bit of money. As you can imagine this seemed like easy money to make so I decided to have a go, only £1 spins on Red or Black to begin with, I manager to get £5 to £20 and walked away, not bad I thought! As time went on this started to get worse, £10, £20, £30... just trying to win some money as at the time I had no job. At this point I don't think I was addicted to gambling but it wasn't long before the signs I know about now actually hit me back then (gambling until every bit of money I had on me was gone etc.). After a while I found that I could play roulette online and used to blow all my jsa on there, I won a few times but you know how it goes... You win then you lose it all. Over the years I don;t even know how much money I've lost through gambling but my life would have been so much better by now if I hadn't bothered with it. I have quite a bit of debt, payday loans etc. Many times I've tried to stop but it didn't last long, but last week was the last straw I have to go to court due to rent arrears soon all down to gambling! I gambled £180 last week (23rd January) and decided this time enough is enough, I want to do this alone because I think deep down I can do this without going to a meeting (Fingers crossed). Nobody knows about this problem of mine and I have struggled to come up with stories lately and can't lie to my family anymore I'm scared I will lose them if I tell them the truth, and to be honest I would feel ashamed and don't think they would understand. Hopefully this gives you a little insight to my story and I look forward to interacting with you guys. Thanks!
Hi 25WestMids & welcome to recovery 🙂 Here you will find many tools to help you beat this addiction. Most important for you at the moment is breaking the Time-Money-Location triangle as taking away one will stop you from being able to gamble. I know you say you started on the bookies it it sounds like the most recent damage has been done online & that means you need to get a blocker for whatever you are using. I have not done my damage this way but K9 appears to be free although I think you may need help with a password or use cut & paste!
You are young with your whole life ahead of you & I agree that you can do this alone but it's not going to be easy! You should read through some of the diarys to get hints & tips & take each day as it arrives! Be strong - ODAAT
Hi West Mids
I joined in Friday after losing all my months salary on 2 horrible hours also on roulette. I am still at the waking up feeling sick and trying to get money together for the bills, rent etc.
There is help around for rent arrears. Try first to speak to your housing provider and negotiate an agreement without going to Court. I only joined 2 days ago but everyone on the site seems to be helpful and caring and I think it is a good idea to keep reading the posts and checking the site. There is a lot if useful info. Like me you have made the first steps and there is a way out. I want to change my user name from Down and Out but at the moment I am still at rock bottom. But with all this support I hope I can move slowly up...It is clear from reading all the posts that our gambling affects everything and we cannot have meaningful lives as compulsives. So really try this time and take advantage of all this support. Good luck, you can do it.
I can't add anything to what ODAAT has posted.
Except to offer my Best Wishes.
You can beat this addiction.
Quick update, I still haven't gambled which is good! I feel a lot better in myself at the moment and don't really miss gambling much. Still have to go to court next week but fingers crossed they will give me another chance and set up a repayment arrangement. Hope everyone is doing well anyway!
Hi again 24 WestMids,
Glad you are feeling better.
I'm on day 23 and the urges do seem to diminish as time goes on.
Stay Strong.
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