Hi all,
I'm looking for any advice, help, or support. I'm 25 and have been a gambling addict for around 4 1/2 years. After many failed attempts at quitting in the last 2-3 years, on 30th October last year I had my last ever bet and have now gone 80 days without a bet. It's taken a lot of hard work, many counselling sessions, handing all control of my money to my mum! (Embarrassing at 25 but had to be done), self excluding from all gambling websites, and above all what I found the most helpful was buying the book 'Allen Carrs easy way to stop gambling'. I recommend this book to every addict trying to quit! No exaggeration but the last 80 days have been the happiest 80 days of my life and although there have been temptations to slip back into the gambling hell I used to live in, no temptation has been strong enough to quit my new happy non gambling life. However.... Recently temptations are becoming more frequent and harder to resist. All because the cheltenham festival is on the horizon! As a gambler I'd bet on anything! But my two favourate things were football and horse racing, and as you'll probly know cheltenham is the biggest week of the year for any horse racing fan. So as the festival comes ever closer I find myself checking odds for the races on almost a daily basis, looking at multiples and seeing what the winnings would be, reading all race previews available and I can see I'm slipping back into my old life in every sense apart from actully placing the bet. Once that bet is placed I know I'm back into my old life straight away! I know while I'm writing this if I can get through the festival without betting it would be such a personal achievement and Id be so happy to have come out at the end of the week as still being a happy non gambler! But as each day passes I think the liklyhood of that is becoming less and less. Anyway that's my story and I felt like this is the place to come for any help or advice. I must admit I've been a member of this site for 3 months, read through all the forums and never have any input! Today that stops and I'm willing to help anyone who needs it because that's why were all on this site at the end of the day! It's a hard struggle alone. So any input would be helpful.
Adam (happy non gambler hoping to stay that way)
Hi adam eddy,
My poison was horse racing and football. Cheltenham is a difficult period for a lot of former gamblers. I've no intention of returning to betting at all. I visit this forum daily now and offer advice where I can. It helps me greatly and seems to keep my mind off gambling.
The advice I can give is to block gambling sites/Racing media sites with K9 (free) and get someone else to set the password and keep it secret. Do this with all your devices. Self exclude from all the betting shops you know. Keep your available cash to an absolute minimum. Do not buy newspapers as you'll end up reading the racing pages.
If you can go to a GA meeting quick. If you can't maybe Gamcare online can give you the phone number of someone who contributes to this site and you can discuss with them.
Join the 2015 challenge on here. It's helped me greatly. I check in at the end of each week and have gone nearly 30 days without gambling.
You could also visit this site often and post advice for other people and read up on advice offered to people.
Keep busy with hobbies and exercise. It seems to help me and my mind off racing etc.
Hope some of this helps.
Take Care
dont give in to temptation...you gamble...you win...its a loan it will be lost, you gamble you lose...whats the point...each and every gamble free pound is worth alot more than each pound we lose, each pound represents a choice, so if you have a 100, then you have made 100 great choices!
Hi Adam,
First of all well done for perservering with that book. It does eventually have some good points in there, but after the first 50 pages of it just saying "I will help you!" I wonder how many people simply put the book down and give up.
It certainly isn't for everyone, but if it worked for you over the last 80 days it may be worth giving the book another read?
I can see why getting through Cheltenham is such a hurdle for you (excuse the pun), but this should be the perfect motivation.. If you can fight those urges from now until the end of Cheltenham, you know you are strong enough to beat this addiction.
If you MUST watch the meeting (I probably wouldn't advise it), use the Cheltenham roar before the first race to reinforce your motivation and commitment - Remember how you are advised to smile at your urges in that book?
Nobody is roaring but the bookmakers by the weekend. You know this. You can get through this!
Ryan
Keep thinking how the last 80 days have been so good and think about how amazing you'll feel if you can get past Cheltenham. The biggest win you can get during Cheltenham week will be beating this addiction. Maybe plan a treat for yourself which you will buy after Cheltenham? Or go on holiday that week to reduce the temptation? You could ask your Mum to check your online banking every day that week? Keep going, its great you've given up. Long may it continue
do you have a tv hard drive recorder or video recorder ? if you must watch the races, think about recording the whole meeting & then not watching any of it until *after* the meeting is over; it's very easy to get swept away by the whole reckless 'vibe' with Cheltenham & to fall into the trap of thinking 'other people are gambling, why can't I ?' so if you watch it after it's all over you won't be able to bet on it or risk getting swept away by the reckless abandon which surrounds the Cheltenham meeting.
We are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. You can also contact us for free on 0808 80 20 133. If you would like to find out more about the service before you start, including information on confidentiality, please click below. Call recordings and chat transcripts are saved for 28 days for quality assurance.
