Battling yourself

It was nice to wake up this morning and read the post above. Gambling has to stop.

I have been through bank statements and know exactly where I stand with my money.

Welcome only the brave

All the best to you!

Help is but a mouseclick or a phone call away.

Cheers.

Watched the football tonight. All I could think about was the fact that I had been confident that there would be under 2.5 goals scored in the match and that that had been available at Evens. I'm seeing all sport results as potential money won/spent unwisely; through a sort of gambling lens. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, that lens will have ***** off.

The gambling must stop.

Going away today to a relative's. A house in which the clock is set around Sky Sports. I love sport and adore watching it. The temptation to have a wager is going to be intense. Champion's League football and The Barclays Championship is already on my mind.

I'm setting myself a 6 day target. Gambling must stop full stop, but I need to get through the next six days first. No bets. No looking at oddschecker.com. No using my phone to look up past results. No Soccervista.com. No PGATour.com.

No gambling for six days. If I can get to Sunday that will have been 8 in total.

So far so good. I'm happy that I haven't gambled since Sunday.

I realised today that I mentioned odds five times today to the people I am with; telling people what the odds had been on something that's happened recently or that is upcoming. It's strange - you can build a pretty impressive range of knowledge about odds/handicapping/betting yet lose so much in the process. If I had a pound for every strange little fact I know about a racecourse or trainer/jockey win-rate or owners with strike records at different tracks then I definitely wouldn't be in the financial swamp I'm currently wading through (slowly).

After today, it will have been six days. Pay day on Monday. Must keep it up.

Yes you must try not to slip up as it can be a very slippery slope.

Really happy that I haven't had a bet on the golf. Despite really wanting to back Danny Lee at a crazy price, I didn't. I stayed resolute and focussed on my goal of not gambling.

Mario Balotelli told Italian journalists today that he was entering a new stage of his life. He thinks he has behaved like a boy, not a man. I'm not sure exactly what he means, but I must admit I feel similarly. Gambling too much has put me in a poor financial situation. Though I have undoubtedly enjoyed betting, it has resulted in me not being able to travel, or holiday, or take my loved ones out for special days. I'm over that now. I'm sick of it. I need to take control of the trajectory of my life.

In this new phase of my life, there is no room for gambling.

Nice post and great attitude. I feel very similar.

deleted

Hi All

I am a new poster on here, although i was going to G.A meetings for twelve months (this was about 2.5 - 3 years ago). I have relapsed at the start of this year and been going until about 5 days ago. It is really hard for me, im 24 and have been battling the FOBT since i was 18, i have relapsed once before and when my parents found out they were really dissapointed, my father was more understanding but my mother, for want of a better turn of phrase, went nuts! and my then girlfriend at the time did not really understand the whole thing.

I managed to go gamble free for quite some time and was very happy, but at the start of this year i began to go again, betting little amounts but steadily getting higher and worse, until last weekend where i had a massive loss and just felt so totally out of control and with no where to go as coming clean to my parents was just not an option, by all accounts i am not in debt and my losses compared to someother people would be seen as miniscule.

But that is not the point, i hate the bookies, the casino etc, they prey on the weak and feed off the addiction. Not being able to turn to my parents i spoke to my now new partner of 12months, as my emotions were running high and the fact that i think when you do lose big, you start to think about losing other things such as relationships and friends etc, i was so scared about losing her i needed to get it out in the open with her. Im glad i did, she was not happy, which i understand but shes agreed to help me where ever she can and i whatever way she can, and i feel happier for coming clean with her.

So far i havent been since monday, and feel a little more settled in my self and able to fill my free time with more constructive efforts that paying the bookmakers staff wages.

I think when gamblers say that the only people that understand what happens and what they are going through is other gamblers, that is 100% true.

Many thanks for listening

Luke

Hi guys.

I agree and can empathise with a lot of what you have written about. I am a massive avoider. If there was a medal available for avoiding having serious thoughts/taking serious action I would win it hands down. Through much of my twenties I have gone through this repeated process:

Gamble > Win some > lose some > win some > lose some > lose some > deposit more £ > lose it > regret it terribly, feel dreadful > go through a period of taking some sort of remedial/preventative action I.e. Self-exclude from a website > forget how much of a problem gambler I am > start betting again in whatever way, in whatever sport > tell myself that maybe this new system/way of betting might work > try the new system > rediscover all my favourite old bets again > bet more ............

You get it. AND YET... throughout all of those repeated cycles I have known that my gambling is wrong. But I have persevered anyway, concentrating on short-term successes against an increasingly dire background of debt and overdrafts.

I'm done avoiding it. Tonight, I walked past a kid getting out of his '15 plate Honda Civic. I have no idea how much the lad has in his bank account, but I couldn't stop wondering how I could be in a situation where I couldn't afford to do the things that other normal guys can.

I'm done with avoiding. This is the realisation that everything has to change. I need to embrace the problem, stare it down and rip it's ******** throat out.

7 days. No bets.

Itsa horrendous addiction that is probably on par in my eyes as bad as a drug addiction(ive not experienced it myself but have seen/dealt with many people who have) Its all about breaking that you win some/lose some attitude and plan. It seems as though every derelict building they turn into a gambling venue, which seems so wrong and the government alow this to happen

It's been a week.

Bad thoughts regarding previous betting activity hover close to the surface much of the time, but seven days is a start I guess.

It's difficult because having really grasped/embraced fully the depth/size of my problem for the first time, I can't see how I am going to fully pay off the debts incurred through gambling. Imagining that path ahead - of saving and of scrimping just to get back to 0 - makes me feel sick. How can you stuff things up for yourself so badly just by sitting on your backside at your laptop?

Tonight is a low.

THE GAMBLING MUST STOP.