You are going to be fine!!

That’s right you are going to be fine.

Those were the words my family told me when I came clean about my addiction back in September 2017. I was over £6000 in debt, gambling relentlessly and hiding all of my spending from my fiancée and pretending it was going on other things.  When I got caught out and admitted addiction, as so many others also would have felt I felt pathetic, worthless and very depressed. “You are going to be fine!!” My parents and Fiancée told me, but I didn’t believe them.

Nearly 2 and a half years on and I now know they were telling me the truth, it hasn’t been easy and no ones path to recovery will be easy, it is a real fight and a daily battle.  All of us will go through different challenges but take it from me, if you put your mind to it and want it bad enough you will be fine.  Sometimes we all need to hear these words, not just hear them but believe them, it is easy for people to tell us things will be fine when it is us going through the battle but sometimes those words are very important to hold on to.

All of us are at different stages, some of the stories I read on here people are seeing counsellors, attending groups etc but still really struggling which is sad because gambling is such a harsh and unforgiving addiction.  Sometimes we read other people’s stories to get some sort of insight in what we can do to help ourselves and sometimes we can’t relate to those stories so the help is limited in some ways.  I wanted to write this so that anyone who is having a hard time with this can just see a few encouraging words and hopefully use this as a leap forward, I haven’t shared much of my story because maybe the paths I have taken may not be the paths that others can go down, maybe down to their courage, strength maybe even their state of mind or their network of support.  This post is there for people to simply take some form of encouragement and perhaps be the pickup that they need. Guys if right now it seems hopeless and that there seems no end to the struggle, remember “YOU ARE GOING TO BE FINE!!” Be true to yourselves and take each day one at a time, time is a wonderful thing, you could be 1 minute, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, months and so on without gambling and each moment is a victory for us against the gambling world.  If you achieve small steps first, the bigger ones will feel even greater the further you go along, a good man told me “we must lay bricks to build walls”. Those words mean a lot to me, we must lay bricks meaning small victories become greater successes.  Lay your bricks, build your walls and remember guys, as hard as things may be right now YOU ARE GOING TO BE FINE!!