Hello,
It seems like I am a CG and it's not easy to stay like this for 10 years now. However, I had a period of 2 months when I did not play 1 dollar on tennis games (my addiction). I closed all my accounts and so on.. then all of a sudden I started watching Barclays Finals in London and got 2 matches right (without staking anything). After "hitting" 2 big ODDS right I thought I should go for it as I feel confident. I lost 500$ and now I am really upset because I knew what would happen when I feel "lucky" and "confident".
However, please tell me how long do I have to pause in order to be considered "cured" as I am really tired of this. I have a wife and a daughter and they do not know anything, except my wife knows there has been "a long period" since I last gambled, which is not really true. I win about 4000 EUR/month from a small business and this gives me some kind of financial security when playing - this is also why I lost at about 100.000 EUR in 10 years (I know many of you have lost much more, however for me it's like a big fortune all the loss).
Please suggest and feel free to advise.
God bless us all!
Work it your way and don't worry about others. Its your responsibility to yourself and your recovery.
Have you sought any counselling or group support during this time?
Hello pikkapikka,
You mention dollars and the Euro in your post, so I wonder if this means that you're based outside of Britain. If so, you might like to look at our 'Links' page which has contact details of agencies that offer local support in different parts of the world, for example on continental Europe:
http://www.gamcare.org.uk/about-us/links-other-support-agencies#.VlXBonbhC5s
There is also another website called 'Gambling therapy' that might interest you, if you're resident outside of Britain:
https://www.gamblingtherapy.org/
You've described how your wife is unaware of your recent gambling. It could support your recovery if you allow your wife to have oversight of your finances, so she can pick up on any gambling, and this type of supervision might increase inhibition on your gambling. Some of our forum Users go a lot further than this, in allowing their partner to have control of their finances, as a way to limit the forum User's access to money, in order to reduce the risk and temptation to gamble. Our forum members also self-exclude from their gambling accounts and put in place additional barriers like blocking filters or parental controls so that they cannot access gambling sites on the devices that they use to go online.
http://www.gamcare.org.uk/get-advice/what-can-you-do/blocking-software#.VlXJwHbhC5s
You've spent a lot of money on gambling over the last decade, and it continues to create unhappiness for you. As triangle has suggested in his reply to your post, using support closer to home, like counselling or a GA group, could be a way for you to have a regular meeting that is dedicated to supporting your recovery, so you can find ways of living without resorting to gambling.
Take care,
Adam.
Hi Adam,
Fortunately I stopped again (since the last failure), but however I would like to know how to be a part of a grup or receive counselling. And yes, I live outside GBR. I hope this will not make it more difficult than it already is, my English is at a very high level, at least that's what others say abut it :))
What would you suggest to do as a next step in my full recovery?
Looking forward to hearing from you and thanks a lot for responding, means a lot to me!
Pikka
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