Any ideas to stop thinking about gambling

I have had a similar thought process many times, thinking if I can just win ‘this amount’ then it will help me to something but I am finally starting to learn that is this will do will cause me to highly likely lose money and then I will be in an even worse position than I originally was. 

Hi

I am a non religious person yet I do understand what is healthy I needed to stop going against my own cosncience which is spirtual based.

It was not enough for me to stop gambling and sit on hands and do nothing.

The gambling and obsessions were very unhealthy habits.

In my recovery I would exchange every unhealthy habit and exchange them in to healthy habit.

So by giving up one unhealthy habit I needed to replace it with a healthy habit.

I use to get stressed out Saturdays and one Saturday morning which use to be the start of my gambling day when my wife asked me how I was feeling I was honest I told her I felt very vulnerable emotionally.

My wife asked me to get my jacket on ad go out, I asked where she said ti did not matter just get out.

We drove out and found a bowling alley and we went and played there.

After that Saturday we went to that ten bowling alley it was much cheaper than gambling and we had lots of fun.

No one stressed me out, I stressed my self out.

In time I would understand that the gambling addiction and my obsessions was just the symptoms that I was emotionally vulnerable, the emotional triggers indicated that I was vulnerable and reacted in some very unhealthy ways.

In my recovery I got to understand my emotional triggers, pains I could not heal, fears I could not face, frustrations due to my unreasonable expectations of people life and situations, loneliness, and boredom.

I got to understand my anger was an unhealthy reaction to pains I could not heal, fears I could not face, frustrations due to my unreasonable expectations of people life and situations.

When do you start to peel back the onion and expose the hurt inner child in you?

Facing and reducing my fears I no longer have to escape my feelings and my emotions.

The pains of my hurt inner child will always be there, yet today there is more healing of those pains. 

Love healing and peace to every one.

Dave L

AKA Dave Of Beckenham UK

I stopped watching television because I had noticed that a bingo advertisement appeared every 15 minutes, which is upsetting and a mental trigger for anyone trying to cut back on gambling. In addition, life skills training facilities should take the place of betting shops in every town so that people's lives might be improved rather than their hard-earned money stolen. In 2009, while at school studying on my laptop, I played online Mecca bingo slots (£10 spent, £1,000 won; this was both my indoctrination into gambling and my demise). I stopped in 2017, but I recently succumbed to the scratch card advertisements that are always in my face in stores. I want to stop seeing this advertisement because it ruins people's lives.

How do you expect to stop having gambling thoughts if you are still gambling?

If you are a problem gambler then you will find it very difficult to control your gambling. If you could control it you wouldn’t be here, and your £20 wouldn’t turn into £100. The more you do it the worse your gambling will get. 
Some treatment centres or counsellors will ask if you want to control and/or cut down your gambling but once you are at a certain point in the addiction it’s just not possible for the likes of us.

Whether you want to hear it now or not, the only way to stop thinking about gambling is to stop gambling. Totally. It will take time and you will probably need some help with it but it is possible to watch tv or sport and not notice or care about the adverts. It takes time though, and if that means not watching tv or not watching sport for a while, that’s what you have to do.

I’m a believer in Gambler’s Anonymous but you have to want to stop. You can find your nearest meeting online.

Chris.

Hi

You're on this forum as like all of us we can't control our gambling. I really don't get why you say you can't stop thinking about it, you are doing it . I remember i would say the same i would just do £20-£30 for interest on the football on a saturday, this is impossible to do as we are gambling addicts .

My suggestion is to stop altogether and get some healthy hobbies, i am 150 days gambling free and i have so much free time now to do things that are interesting. As Chris said if sport on tv is a trigger don't watch it , watch some series movies or go for a walk. I personally enjoy watching football more now as i can enjoy the game i love rather than the aneixty of getting over 2.5 goals.

Posted by: @mrvarnz

I made a promise to myself I would have £20 for football betting this month but already spent over £100 on the slots, I have put deposit limits on my accounts but try win more because my wages or not good enough so I think If i can win like £100 then I have more things I can do, I don't want to restrict myself as that for me makes it worse? Any other ideas

This stategy doesnt work! I speak from years of experience. Win, you think you cant lose...until you lose and then chase. Lose, and your chasing straight away.

Moral of the story. Lose, lose.