New start 2018

Hi 2018. Enjoying your story so far.. keep it going! I can relate to you as sports betting is my poison too and the story about the tennis game in China is all too familiar. What a stupid irrelevant event can do to your mood!!

You've inspired me to quit so this is my day 1. Any tips and advice much appreciated.

Well done again, T

Day 20

Thanks T. I’ll try and help you as best I can. The first and most obvious things to do are exclude from online sites, exclude from bookies, phone bank and reduce amounts you can withdraw on cards, tell your wife or friends, read and listen to gambling recovery stories, look into GA, look into counselling, look into gambling blocking software and start telling your tale to as many people as possible. It’s crucial that in the early days you limit exposure to sport as much as possible. Set yourself a mini challenge to not turn on a sports channel, open a sport webpage, listen to Talksport etc each day. Talksport was a nightmare trigger for me... always have bookies on talking about odds! I had to sit in silence on car journeys for a while but then I found podcasts on recovery and other topics.

Really interesting podcast episode titled “problem gambling; owls and larks...”. The podcast is called All In The Mind - it appears to be an counselling / psycology podcast. However, there is a 10-15 min slot from the 3 min mark which is absolutely spot on in relation to gambling and sport bettting. Have a listen if you can and catch up tomorrow.

Just flicking channels and saw eastenders and I instantly knew the story was about gambling. Guy is stuffing a ticket into pocket before family member walks in, quickly turns off radio, acts all strange, sofa all ripped up and worn as no money...