addiction

Great name , Is there anybody there ???????

yes pal

Hiya Buddy and welcome to the forum :)).

Basically you find the strength anyway you can , if being gamble free is something you want more than placing the next bet then you'll succeed .

This place is a good start as your among people who know exactly how you feel , we pretty much all have gambling debt in tow , some also broken relationships as well , being honest with yourself and others is a good start , facing upto things and telling those close to you that you have a gambling problem's always advisable , gambling loves a secret life so if you tell people around you it's got nowhere to hide anymore .

Lots of blocks you can put in place to help like , self excluding from bookies or gambling sites , installing blocking software so you cant access sites , K9's a free one or netnanny and gamblock are one's you pay for , there all ways of helping to stop you gambling but the biggest things willpower , if you really want to stop you will . I came here in a bad way over 13 months ago after gambling for about 35 yrs and haven't gambled since , believe me it's so worth it .

cheers for the advice pal I know what you mean whey you say it likes a secret life I told my family but as I work away and only go home a couple of times a month I still gamble when I'm away I have been looking at this site for a while and though I should just bight the bullet and try and stop I know it will be hard but when your down that low you cant go any lower you can only go up can't you so ye iv just got rid of my pc,laptop and tablet so when I go back to work next week i won't have the means to go online and gamble just need to get a block for my phone i tried k9 but it doesn't work on windows phones

No I've heard people struggle with the iphone and blocking software , maybe have a word with Gamcare as I'm not to sure which one works best , if it's going to be a big problem then maybe go the whole hog and think about downgrading your phone to a non internet one as a lot on here have done , it's drastic but drastic times call for drastic measures ? .

What you said about not going any lower is a difficult one , a few times before I stopped I kinda thought I'd reached that point when I couldn't but always found a way to go even lower and just get deeper in the Sh..ite , it took me to the point of wanting to take my own life before I sort of woke jup one day and found this place , the first thing it showed me was that there were thousands of people out there just like me with a massive gambling problem , so it was quite nice to realise I wasn't alone anymore or just tghe only one it had happened to .

It's good news about the family knowing though as that's always difficult sitting down and having that conversation and you never know how its going to go , so it's a big plus if they stand by you and give you some support :)).

Chatting on here's pretty good therapy though and can fill in a bit of time if you have the urges to gamble , even if you just read other peoples stories it's a real eye opener and like yopu say it must be hard when your away from home finding stuff to keep you occupied .

as I'm in the military thers that stigma that if you talk to people about your problems people view you as weak so after I told my family about my gambling it felt like a massive weight of my shoulders but then I just buried it and never talked about it again then it was just a spiral of highs and lows which made me fell like doing stupid s@i# so I thought I should talk about it on here rather than talking to someone face to face as ther is a lot of people with the same problem as me and so far so good Il just keep talking on here to keep my mind busy and stay positive and post my journey to quitting gambling for good I know its going to be hard but I never want to line the pockets of the scumbag bookies and gambling sites again iv had enough of living to gamble if I had it my way all bookies and online sites would be banned and everyone who owns them would be locked up doing hard labour I won't let the f@c#e@s beat me peace вњЊ out

Hey, I think joining gamcare and posting on here is such a big important step forward.
Like you I've gotten into tons of debt 26k because of gambling. It got bad pretty quick my addiction and I couldn't stop for more than a few days to the point I was so broke and in debt with tons of payday loans and credit cards loans overdraft etc I could borrow no more. As a last resort I joined this forum and called up the helpline. The lady was really great and I started. I'm now 44days gamble free and it's the best feeling I've got control of myself and my life back again. I find it really helpful to read the stories on the forum and at first spent ages doing that. I read less now but still love to see the number of gamble free days go up. The first ten days were the hardest after that it gets easier and easier. You can do it if you make becoming gamble free a priority and it will have a positive impact on the rest of your life.
You can free yourself for sure 🙂 best of luck

Have you thought about a bit of councilling ? You can do it through Gamcare , it's free and confidential , you contact above at the top of the page and they give you an initial phonecall and then you get 10 sessions I think , or there's a helpline or netline as well could be handy having someone else to talk things through with , just thought I'd mention it ?

Anything's worth a go , just try them and see what suits , but that being said its always good to come on here and have a rant :))

yes Alan I talked to gamecare a while ago and they told me about getting self excluded from bookies and online sites which i didn't know about at the time as well as the blocking software like gamblock and k9 etc they also said about a place called beacon counciling trust which deals with problem gamblers and there near to where I live so thats a plus but I think that counciling at the moment is not something I want to jump straight into i need to get used to talking about it on here rather than talking face to face with someone but Rome wasn't built in a day and this is a big step for me to sorting my sh#t out and get a grip of my life again

Fair one mate , your recovery , your choice as always and it really does have to be what suits you , if it works great if not try something new , I didn't do it that way either as I found enough help just being here and talking with my family to be honest , it's kept me free from gambling for nearly 14 months so I'm not complaining :)).

Have a good night Ghost , good talking to you and I'll catch up soon , cheers buddy !!

ye pal good talking to you take care will talk again peace вњЊ. Out

can't sleep thinking about my life, iv been in some dark places how the***** am I still here, Maybe there's light at the end of the tunnel I just need to get there, day one starts today iv got to fight the urge and stay positive

Hello again mate , listen your heads gonna be all over the place at the moment , with loads of different thoughts whirling around , it's all normal and will pass in time , when o turned up here I'd got to the point of googling painless ways to die and was full of disgust at myself for what I'd allowed myself to become , just let it run its course and things will get much better , it just takes a bit of time , were all human and as such all make mistakes but we also learn from them to , it's rubbish looking back but all said and done it's just money that can be earnt and replaced . You need a bit of space between you and your last bet as times a pretty good healer , don't beat yourself up too much we've all been there. Try and get your head down and have a bit of kip , Night mate I'll talk to you soon ! Al

its Friday the first day of the weekend and the first weekend in my journey of being gamble free. I would of normally been on the slots for a few hours by now but haven't so a good positive start just got to fight the urges