Depression and anxiety

Hello Peter8689

Welcome to the forum. I am sorry to hear you are having a difficult time. Problem gambling can negatively affect different areas of a person’s life such as relationships with friends please see here for further information and support. http://www.gamcare.org.uk/get-support/yourself

Gamcare has a helpline they are open 8am-midnight everyday if you would like to talk with an adviser about your concerns. The contact number is Freephone 0808 8020 133. You can also speak with an adviser through the gamcare net line.

http://www.gamcare.org.uk/support-and-counselling/frontline-services/netline

There is also counselling is available free for up to 12 sessions and services are the UK advisers can help you with this process if you would like to use counselling support. It may also be helpful to talk with your GP about how you are feeling.

Keep posting we are here to support you

Take care

Forum admin

Hi Peter

Please consider the forum admin advice above.

To answer your question. You sound just like me a few years ago. I became a complete recluse avoided people and it got so bad I did not know how to interact with people anymore. Relationships of any kind scared me and this added fuel to my gambling addiction. It took me a long time to open up about my inability to interact with others and I eventually became so lonely and I had no one to talk to. In a desperate state I spoke to an online advisor who reffered me to counselling. It was the best thing I ever did and even though I had a relapse. I can now honestly say that this is the longest period of non gambling I have had. Going back to college interacting with others and realising my potential has been very liberating. I thought I could do it all in my own, but I was most mistaken. The great thing about counselling was that I did not feel judged. It was great solving my problems and I have a better understanding of my triggers to gambling which has enabled me to keep free of gambling. Life still has its ups and downs however, it can be happier and the depression can ease in time. To reiterate initially you can't do it on your own get some help and start talking this will help towards your recovery.

Take care and all the best

Hi mate
You have no idea how much I can relate to you.
To the point what you are going through now has taken years away from me, it is brutally painful and crippling, my best advice is this, firstly the anxiety will take you over if you let it and it will ruin everything, i would suggest CBT cognitive behavioural therapy. It really works. Please do not let the anxiety and depression consume you, I have the scars to prove how soul destroying it can become.
PLEASE IF YOU NEED TO ASK ANYTHING,YOU CAN ASK ME ANYTIME

Hi all, thanks for responding and sharing your stories. I've taken the advice and actually phoned Gamcare earlier. I should receive a call within a few days from the local RCA trust ( I think) to get the ball rolling and get the professional help needed. Hopefully that will be the key to bringing back the old me, and it'll help deal with my gambling addiction as wel as depression.

We can only hope, thanks again all.

The whole lot goes hand in hand and vice versa.

For me it's the opposite, but still similar as I gambled because of my anxiety and depression problems.

I had a gambling problem for more years than I can remember. The reason I gambled so much was because of my anxiety problems.

You can imagine the isolation that comes with depression and anxiety. It's horrible and for quite a few years I was unable to do anything about it because doctors didn't listen to me. When I was at my lowest because of what I was missing out on in life due to being unwell, gambling was there to give me some happiness and the buzz out of life I wasn't able to get due to being unwell.

I used gambling too much though and became heavily addicted.

I had my on and off periods of gambling. You see, as I was addicted, when I gambled once, another slip would follow, and another, and another. It would be the same cycle, do well with not gambling, save some money up and then eventually have a slip and within weeks lose the lot.

The turning point came when finally, after suffering with depression and anxiety for 10 years, I found a doctor that listened to me and promised me all sorts of help. That alone gave me hope. It actually deterred me from gambling knowing that someone understood, was going to get me help and soon I won't be isolated because of illness.

What got me back into gambling was as I had been finally medically diagnosed as unwell, I had been trying to claim sickness benefits as I am unable to work. The problem as everyone knows is often at assessments, people unfit to work are wrongly diagnosed as fit to work.

Being near enough skint already due to gambling debts, I was worried that if my money was stopped, I would likely lose my home, so more recently, I fell back into gambling with nowhere else to turn to try and raise money so I can afford to pay bills during the time when I would appeal.

You guessed it, it did nothing but cause more debt and now I am royally in the dog's mess. I'm quite sure that had I won, I would have cashed something out. Since I didn't though, the gambling addict in me came through and I chased losses.

Hi Peter. I suffer from anxiety and depression too. It's all a viscious cycle - it's hard to know whether gambling causes the depression or depression causes you to gamble. In the end it doesn't really matter - the only solution is to stop and over time depression and anxiety will get better. I also suffered from severe agrophobia where I couldn't go out for 3 or 4 months.

Have you seen a doctor ? They might be able to advise better. After many years, I feel I'm on the right medication to help me, and am feeling much more positive. Best of luck with the gambling problems, depression / anxiety.

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Good afternoon all. The RCA trust gotnun touch with me yesterday, and they are going to get a local councillor to contact me in the next few days. The sense of relief was instant that finally I'm doing something to rid myself of a few demons. I woke up today and felt different. Maybe as I've hit 1 week gamble free today, maybe I've got that Friday feeling I was so used to having, who knows. Ok it took me a while to tell myself to go and get a haircut lol, but that's it the point. Let's hope the change continues and it's not just a one off.

I have suffered from depression and anxiety all of my knowing life.

The crucial point is that I didnt realise just how much it affected me especially in my early life. Ive had some happy times but they are in all honesty few and far between.

I often used to walk home from school in a depressed state. I couldnt handle the pressure of exams, what was expected of me and being in a building with 1600 other people.

I was an anxious nervous youngster who could have happy days when the conditions were right for me. Out of my comfort zone I couldnt really cope and most of my jobs were out of my comfort zone because they were ill chosen and I had bosses and colleagues who just rubbed it in.

Ive realised at my later age that I wasnt coping, with choices of jobs, relationships or any sort of outlook and ambition for a fullsome life. I just wasnt coping which is why my working career has been a bit of a trainwreck. Ive never had any remote idea what I wanted to get good at or do with my life

Indeed depression and anxiety have always led directly to escaping from life. Stress or bad news lead to gambling on machines. I Didnt have to talk to people or get anxious around shops. For some reason the machines were some sort of replacment feeling or even a stress reliever for a very short time. What they really do is replace anxiety with other emotions and feelings which could leave me just as drained. It put me in a trance where all sorts of chemical feelings were flowing through me.

Its also linked to a form of self harm in a complex way to punish me for not coping with life outside that door. I was in a strange city and I realised I just couldnt face shopping and didnt know what to do. I was lost lonely, overwhelmed and the emotions flooded me...walking into an arcade was something I understood and it was almost soothing if you can relate to that.

Only as you all know it damaged me financially and emotionally. That is the hard thing to understand.

Some doctors I saw were useless to be honest. I can sometimes come over as lucid and reasonably confident more through nerves and some embarrassment of being in the room. I dont actually think they believed me regarding depression and anxiety. I dont know if they are told to watch for people trying to sign off but I feel its a bit disgraceful that I got treated like there wasnt anything wrong

Other doctors have been much better and referred me for the counselling which I need

The lesson there is dont accept a judgement without talking it through or change doctors for a second opinion

So I feel its definately linked with compulsive gambling and many other gamblers have issues like this

Best wishes to everyone on the forum

Hi,

I suffer with depression and anxiety and gambling doesnt help.

I have gambled from an early age and spent thousands lost 2 wives and 4 kids on the way.today I have made up my mind im stopping gambling for good and look forward to the change it will make to my life.Bookies your having no more of our money im determined