2014 Challenge

Hi Guys

Im new to all this stuff, im only 21 years old but find myself a gambling addict.

This is my 8th day of not gambling, and im ready to commit to this group and not gamble anymore!

Cheers

Jack

Day severn nearly over. It's kept me strong posting on here each day but will prob just check in once or twice a week now

Hi Jack,

Glad to see you followed my advice and joined this challenge. The next step would be to start arecovery diary 🙂

Give us an insight to what your vice is and I'm your you'll get the advice you need.

Best wishes,

Scambling

Hi there,

Just want to say this idea is brilliant, seriously brilliant and its awesome to see such a good number of people taking part in it and doing so well.

I too would like to join in as i feel it will be so helpful in my fight with gambling - I've had a diary in the past, it helped, but to be honest, this seems a lot better as there is constant chat and feedback with one another - Sometimes on your own personal diary's no one will post for a week lets say and here a check in every week will inspire and spur each other on. I truly love what you have got going on here.

A little about me, I've been dealing with a gambling addiction for around 10 years, accruing around £20,000 of debt in the process. My gambling of choice is mainly Football, Horses and Roulette but i will bet on everything and anything to be honest.

I hate what gambling has turned me into, a completely different person, as the addiction has got worse through time (Going from £1 Accumulators to sinking all a months wage in a few days)...

I know i need to stop, ive tried many many times - Succeeding in around 25 days earlier this year, but i believe this system you have here will help that little bit more on my recovery.

As of today (I do nightshift - Hence the time and hence the boredom and time to gamble) I am only on day 2 free of gambling as i was betting this weekend.

Ironically enough i ended up winning this weekend but i know that i didn't win at all really and if i continue ill lose much more than what i picked up this weekend. Usually if i win i want to keep betting, but this time is different and i want to stop for good.

I'm truly ready to leave this lying, cheap, worried, selfish person I've become and be the person i really am.

Thank you for reading and seriously congratulations to you all for doing so amazingly,

Be well,

Drew

Hi Drew,

Well done for posting here, especially after a win. This is a good sign that you are genuine in wanting to stop.

We have a strong group of people here and just remeber you have a responsibilty to all of us in this challenge, as do the rest of us.

I hope this time you can stop for good and surpass that 25 day mark.

Have you thought about putting barriers in place? This really was the key for me in the early stages of recovery.

Best wishes,

Scambling

That's a brilliant post Drew, welcome to the challenge. In the past I have tried and failed to stop. A combination of joining this challenge and letting my mum take control of my finances has helped me to stop for 106 days. Which is the longest time away from gambling in 17 years. I hope the challenge can do as much for you as it has for me.

Short update. Still going strong, but this morning I had strong urges. I know it is these fierce urges that make or break a recovery. Its all well and good when temptation is low, but resistance against the strongest of urges, makes us stronger.

To be honest, I don't really like counting the number of days free, as this to me suggests once you beat a previous "record" you let your gaurd down, and it also feels restrictive.

I prefer the mindset that I have now stopped gambling; something which I can't and won't go back to. Yet, for the nature of this thread I'll of course continue to check in.

Hope you are all well, terrific achievement by all involved.

Big three days for me coming up and I'm sure Saturdays big one will impact on a lot of us. I'm going to take things back to 1998, I was 17, almost 18. The last semblance of my life before the emptiness of gambling kicked in. I had lost most of my friends because since I was 16 I had focussed on spending my life in a bookies. But I still kept in touch with a small group of friends and we were off to Aintree for the National. We met up on Saturday morning and I hadn't seen them in ages, we used to go out clubbing on a Friday and Saturday night before I drifted away and changed as a person. My money was gone in a bookies, and other personal issues meant I didn't really want to go out anyway.

I was deeply in denial about my problems, I knew I had a gambling problem, but aged 17 and with so many issues going through my head I wouldn't admit it. So Saturday morning we meet, I wasn't particularly interested in catching up, I was too focussed on my racing newspaper. As the day goes by my friends focus is on beers, fun, laughs, racing etc.....My pure focus is on gambling, I started badly and I am playing catch up. I can't get a winner at Aintree so I hit the other race meetings in the onsite bookies. A couple of winners and I'm now back in the game. The rest of the day is spent winning, losing. chasing my losses, up and down all afternoon......while my mates have fun.

Its the last race of the day, I am somehow up, but only a bit. Its not enough and I throw my biggest ever bet on the last race. I'm clear and heading for a 900 profit until the last fence. Wallop and my horse is down and deep depression sinks in.

On the train home, feeling rock bottom, whilst my mates have a laugh about the day. One so called mate is laughing at me, he can see I have a problem and finds it really amusing. These mates used to respect me, that's all gone. I sit in silence, in denial of my problems. That was the last time I saw most of these guys! We used to have regular nights out and most of them looked up to me, this was now gone!

I created an empty world for myself, I have pushed everybody away! This day should have been rock bottom for me and I should have used it as leverage to pick myself up and get my life together.....sadly I didn't, I remained in denial and things got worse and worse.

Skip forward to 2014. Its taken a long time, but I have finally got some sort of ***** on reality and I am fighting back. The National may test me, but I will focus on that memory from 1998 and how I felt on the train home. I don't want to go back to those dark days. I have destroyed everything and the only way to get my life back is to continue the fight and keep the days building up. Its day 107 today and I won't let the bookies beat me.

Stay strong fellow 2014 challengers, I am proud to be part of this place and want to meet you all in 2015!

Thank you for your words Scambling and Bornagain,

I feel its interaction with fellow members on here than can help and maintain our battles with Gambling - Its like a big GA community and i am so thankful there is a service like this available with so many experiences, tales and tips.

In answer to your question Scambling, well ive self excluded from every online account i had, it was probably around 15-20 to be honest. But i find new ones popping up all the time, so when my defence gets low, i simply open up a new account at a new betting website. Im seriously going to look at investing K9 i believe its called and then i wont be able to open any accounts - But at the rate i was going, id probably open up an account with every online betting website going! Its actual crazy how many there are - Im seeing this new trend of mobile phone bill deposits happening, where the betting website sends a sort of premium text to your phone, say £10 then you have £10 in your betting account and you just pay your mobile bill at the end of the month and its very much higher than your usual bill. I read on a forum some comrade who racked up like £1000 on his mobile phone bill and i guess its like free money as it goes through a third party being your mobile phone. Shocking new tactics i feel!

I probably could put more barriers in my way - Have you any other suggestions?

Completely agree Bornagain, its a tough week this week (It was Cheltenham that broke my 25 days, so ill need to keep my guard up for sure) It wont really be Saturday thats a problem for me, its the more competitive racing the days before. Its so aggravating though as i love horse racing but the industry is so gambling orientated its impossible to just watch a race without being drawn into odds, form and the gambling world. Its probably the only sport to be honest that is so gambling influenced, shame really for someone that enjoys the sport immensely but is a problem gambler.

Stay strong my friend and all the best to everyone fighting this!

Drew

Morning everyone

Quick post from me - the stability of the gamcare site has prevented the usual evening note from me over the last couple of days - very frustrating.

I'll hopefully get the front page updated tonight and add in the new soldiers.......but for now......

Awesome posts Drew, bornagain, Scambling - that's what this challenge and thread is all about - incredible humility and honesty in there with some real thought provoking pieces shared - superb and thanks.

NotHappy - I have thought a lot about your post and your thinking and agree that mindset is a hugely important factor......maybe it's something as a group we need to think about and possibly change in time.

Until tonight, have a great gamble free day everyone......the usual quiet of a Tuesday and Wednesday on the thread has taken place again.....now is the time to get checking in for midnight on Saturday night. It's all in our hands.

Stay strong soldiers,

Mr B

Hi Drew,

Other things I can suggest are going into your bank and ask to speak to an advisor. If you explain you have a gambling problem they may be able to help by restricing services on your bank card.

I did this and they agreed, I could not use my bank card for any online purchases whatsoever. It also helped reduce my spending on ******* too 😀

You could also hand over your bank card and your ID to someone you trust for safekeeping, this way you cannot even go into your branch saying you have forgot your card and use your ID to withdraw cash.

It seems to me that you obviously need this online blocker ASAP though. Download and intall it while your in this frame of mind. Whilst your doing that call your phone provider and request that all adult content be blocked. This way you'll be unable to visit any gambling sites through your phone.

Hope this helps, but you need to be proactive and get it done. The weight it lifts off your shoulders is greater than anything. Your urges will be less frequent just by knowing you cant access any content... Anywhere!

This will free up your mind so you can focus on more important things.

Best wishes,

Scambling

Oh and a quick hi to MR B 🙂 - Did you receive my email?

Hey Drew I know where you are coming from about watching the races. I love all sports and Cheltenham and Aintree are quite exciting to watch. However for me its an important barrier to totally avoid all racing. If I was to watch it then it would set my mind racing and I would end up in a bookies. At times its hard to avoid everything, but so far I know very little about the three day meeting and that works for me. Stay strong mate, you are doing well, don't let them beat you!

Great post bornagain. I'm in a similar situation to you these be the hardest 3 days for me since starting this challenge. I relapsed after 5 months a few weeks ago during Cheltenham festival

Horses have been my main problem all my life started back when I was in school and I would go to the bookies most Mondays and bet away my weeks lunch money. Then I had the wait to hear how the races went to see if I was going to have the thrill of winning or if I was going to go the week without lunch. Although in reality even when I would win I spent very little of that money on my lunch. I never had money to go out with mates as I was betting it all and when I got to college this got worse as I was placing larger bets.

I got to the stage I was placing bets on anything I thought I could make money on. One my largest bets was €1000 on an accumulator last year on wwe. For those of you who don't know what that is its wrestling (but it's scripted)and think that bet only won my a few hundred so was a high risk punt for low returns but that's the kind of things I did.

I would be lying if I said I wouldn't like to have a bet on the national on Saturday but I'm not going to. I know if I do it will lure me back to my old ways doesn't matter if I would win or lose in the national

Don't relapse again this week Ringerbell. Stay strong and try to fill your time. I like you want a bet, but it will only cause us and others further pain and misery. We can't win because we can't stop so there's no point putting that National bet on.

If I was to put a bet on this week, I would end up having to lie to my mum about what I need money for and eventually get caught out and really hurt her. I would slowly drain my bank account, the lies and deception making me the bad person I used to be with an empty life. I would find the more I chased the big win the worse life became and the harder it became to stop again.

I can't put that first bet on, we all need to be strong and avoid it. Life is miles better for us without gambling. I'm rooting for you to get through the three days Ringerbell.

I won't bornagain I'm determined not to this time. I've to many people helping me this time round if I relapse again I will let them all down. I'm much more determined this time around to succeed and I'm keeping myself bust so I'm not sitting about with nothing to do. It felt great at the weekend to be able to take my mum out at the weekend and book a short trip to London for an Ireland game next week.

I've given control of my money to my parents which can be a pain at times but it's helping me as well. The next time I have a large sum of money in my account will be when I book a trip away for end of the year for another football trip