I must have been 3 so am told. THE GRAND NATIONAL. pen in hand and dab the paper. People say I used to pick the winner and my uncles done what I scribbled..after looking back on my life I wreckon I was addicted to gambling at 8 I knew every poker hand and played for money with the family. I loved Sundays I can picture it in my head now betting 2pences. When I was 9 or 10 playing pigion toss and cards with the big boys.. There is a video of me at the Christmas fair betting on the horse game I bought 3 horses... In secondary school I played gambling games on breaks and made my own game up so people would gamble with me. 14 I would sneek in with my older friend in the arcade or go to the seaside on the machines. . this is all still so clear to me I loved gambling. The serious stuff started around 17 years of age, I was a regular at the arcade and putting place pots on and lucky15 at the bookeez I was such A sneek even at this young age. Must of been 18 when I blew my first weeks wages. Telling lies to mum, the borrowing started, the lies get deeper. I wasn't interested in going out enjoying myself I would be straight to the bookies with what money I had.
I knew I was addicted .. I had stole from a shop.. My whole life was Gambling . after spending another wage and gambling my family members holiday money . I had to go to gamblers annonymous, after a night sleeping ruff in the park. I was at my first meeting at the age of 19
I remember this being a clear time for me i felt free of gambling and must of attended 5 meeting. Thinking I had cracked it I stopped the meeting. Within weeks I was back to gambling although not as bad , but it was only a matter of time before it kicked in. I can honestly say I have been trying to stop gambling on and off all my life.
I went in army, that didn't work. I would jog past the guard house with my bag. Ready to get changed down the road.. Yes you've guessed off to the bookies. I've tried so many things over the years to try and control gambling. Every time I have fell back into the old destructive pattern.
What misery the gambling life is, the time it has tuck up in my brain. The years I've lost. Av had enough of it..
I'm walking round in the same pair of jeans. People have no respect for me. Iv lost touch with the real world I think.
Thursday I have a counciling session I am really looking forward to it. Its only been 5 days this time but I am giving up gambling wiith a different approach.
Hi Soggycash,
Firstly, honesty is key when trying to overcome these problems. Let it all out on these forums and you will feel a lot better about yourself. I (very similar to you) have been betting from a young age, maybe not as young as yourself but still young, and have found that overcoming this major problem is very difficult.
Even though i am now only 2 days GF i have found that keeping in touch with people like yourself, on a regular basis, finding out how they are progressing with them showing interest in your progression too has made a massive difference and i can really see the start of something good here.
I have been given the advise of giving all control of money to a family member or partener who i have informed about the issue and have them give you enough money to get you through the week, for food/ bills/ petrol etc. Maybe set up a joing account with your bank with your parents/partner having access to. I also use my card as much as possible now so that (rather than using cash) everything is recorded and i am not hiding anything from anyone and they are able to track your progress until you can honestly say your comfortable without help.
If you hvent done it already, get yourself down to all bookies you can think of, take a day off work and just drive to as many towns within your area and self exclude yourself from them. This will take up your whole day but i promise you it will help massively. You can then go on to self excluding yourself from all betting accounts online. My problem in the ast has been that i was willing to drive such a long way to go to the next betting shop i did not self exclude myself from. I have had to recently sit myself down and really talk to myself about if i honestly want to stop gambling, writing down the pros and cons of gambling and remembering the feeling off losing all of your money and the feeling that you think you have absaloutley nothing worth living for in your life.
Change your lifestyle and tell yourself you are going to change from this day on. Only you can change your life, with the help of us here, but ultimately you need to shout at yourself when you get the urge to gamble and remember why you are here!!
Good luck!
Cheers for the advice Tom I really hope you carry on with your recovery and have a fantastic life away from gambling ...
Hi soggycash,
Honestly your story could be mine....I remember gambling on a blackjack machine when i was at a camping site when I was very young. I won a load of money and then lost it the next day. I remember the first time I picked a horse in the grand national (Minnehoma) and it won. I remember how good I felt.
At about 18/19 I had gone through all the things you had.....stolen money from friends, family and work. At that point I thought I had hit rock bottom, life couldn’t get any worse than that surely, boy was I wrong.
I continued to gamble thought my life, had a half-hearted attempt as suicide after stealing money from my girlfriend at the time. Carried on through the years until the 22nd of January 2016, I was in so much debt my head was going to burst.
That was just over 600 days ago and I have not placed a single bet since then.
What helped me......well I started to do the things that I never wanted to do in the past. I joined this website, I opened to people, I started looking at ways to deal with my debt and I attended counselling for well over a year. I live with this thought in my head constantly.....as long as I can avoid that first bet there can’t be a second, third etc. I still think about my wasted years a lot but things are getting better.
Anyway...sorry for filling your diary up with my story but I just wanted you to see that it can be done. It’s your choice on how to battle things but there is loads of great advice on here and I really wish you well.
All the best,
Damo
Thanks for reply Damo, I would love to say I've not gambled for 600 days .. I'm glad I have joined gamcare I am hopefully going to open up more about my addiction..
Hi just to say, no joint accounts. Give your money to others is a great idea but do not involve another person in your finances. I am wife of cg, he has no access to money. Good luck!
Thanks merry..
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