Sports betting luck has gone cold. Lost 2k

I am now 13 days gamble free, I feel much happier generally. It is becoming easier not to gamble the more time passes, the only time I get an urge is if I see the basketball scores but because I am self excluded I can't do it.

13 Days is a great effort, and you are on the right path now - keep going!

I am 40 days ahead of you, i canceled facebook, self excluded and then started to tell all my family, friends and colleagues that i was in recovery (for me it was the last part that has helped most).

Forget about nonsense basketball matches and concentrate on you and a happier, stress free future.

With every day that goes by you get your life back.

Make plans for the future based on what you earn rather than what you wont win.

Its a wonderful feeling to know the future is looking much brighter.

All the best

Ssb

Skyblueblue wrote:

13 Days is a great effort, and you are on the right path now - keep going!

I am 40 days ahead of you, i canceled facebook, self excluded and then started to tell all my family, friends and colleagues that i was in recovery (for me it was the last part that has helped most).

Forget about nonsense basketball matches and concentrate on you and a happier, stress free future.

With every day that goes by you get your life back.

Make plans for the future based on what you earn rather than what you wont win.

Its a wonderful feeling to know the future is looking much brighter.

All the best

Ssb

Thanks for your kind words, I am now 17 days gamble free, the most I have gone without gambling for a long time. Looking at my bank balance is depressing, I am -2.1k in the red, but other then that I am a lot happier. It will feel like a massive weight lifted off my shoulders once I clear my debt.

Update - 21 days Gamble free. Don't miss it. Bank balance is screwed up though, after getting pay check and paying bills off this month I am -900 in Overdraft.

Longest I have ever been GF, it gets easier as time goes past.

Well done on 21 days gf, your bank balance will get better if you remain gf, keep it up and your right it does get easier but beware those urges can pop,up at any time, stay strong and positive x

Sigh, relapsed. I was doing so well, then found an account which wasn't self excluded, lost 300 pounds in a few days. The trigger was trying to win some money back for Christmas. Sigh - going to be a s**t end of year! I have since self excluded that account.

darkhorse2016 wrote:

Sigh, relapsed. I was doing so well, then found an account which wasn't self excluded, lost 300 pounds in a few days. The trigger was trying to win some money back for Christmas. Sigh - going to be a s**t end of year! I have since self excluded that account.

Luckily my family bailed me out by giving me £300, which was the total amount that I had lost. They didn't know I gambled this month, but one remarked 'I hope that you have learnt your lesson' - she was right.

Hey... you did 21 days. And you're starting again. But from a better position, your O/D is better than it was at its worst. This is a life journey, one step at a time, one day at a time. Good luck!

Thank you all for your feedback, it is making the journey less lonely.

I am now 2 days GF, had the urge to put a basketball bet last night on a favorite, I couldn't because I was self excluded...the favorite went on to lose so I saved 30 pounds.

This morning I woke up and checked my bank balance, to my surprise I did not gamble away all of my 'pending withdrawals', and the bookie gave me a 100 pounds back. I previously thought that I did.

If I remain GF I will be comfortably out of debt after the next pay cheque comes through. Providing of course I don't spend money on other things, which is hard not to do over the Christmas period.

Now that I'm single again I have less overheads do not have to worry about spending money on a girlfriend. It's my birthday soon, I am probably not going to do anything for it to save money. I can't wait until 2016 is over, it's been a horrible year.

Hi darkhorse. Just a small observation about your debt - you don't need to clear it within a month or so! The size of the debt is small enough anyway so don't get hung up on that, there are other issues and reasons why you feel the need to gamble other than actually needing to win money.

I haven't read through your diary in a while so forgive me if you have mentioned previously but what all have you done so far to abstain and gradually get into recovery? Have you attended GA and/or counselling? Have you actually excluded from every site you used or is there another one ot two you have 'forgotten about'? You could put blockers on your phone, PC and laptop to stop you going on the websites also.

All the best

Sam Crow wrote:

Hi darkhorse. Just a small observation about your debt - you don't need to clear it within a month or so! The size of the debt is small enough anyway so don't get hung up on that, there are other issues and reasons why you feel the need to gamble other than actually needing to win money.

I haven't read through your diary in a while so forgive me if you have mentioned previously but what all have you done so far to abstain and gradually get into recovery? Have you attended GA and/or counselling? Have you actually excluded from every site you used or is there another one ot two you have 'forgotten about'? You could put blockers on your phone, PC and laptop to stop you going on the websites also.

All the best

I have phoned the help line a few times, and have self excluded myself from every major gambling site. Prior to self excluding myself, I kept on relapsing, thinking that I could do controlled gambling, now that is happening less and less. The only time it has happened if I forget to self exclude an account I had set up, then give into temptation once I find out.

update:

6 days GF. Don't miss it at all.

Hi all,

Some bad news, I relapsed over the Christmas period, I was watching the NBA and gave into tempation and started betting. I ended up losing about £800. Anyway, l would have been out of debt if I hadn't of gambled, so now I am starting the year in debt by -300 which is annoying. On the bright side, I have eaten into my debt considerably, at it's height, I was -2k in debt and if I remain GF I will be out of debt by feb 2017.

The pattern of losing was the same as usual, starting winning a lot, then lost all winnings + my own cash. I am amazed at how the bookies manage to do this so consistently.

If I may, darkhorse, here's the algortihm that compulsive gambling addicts, like us, always go through. Every. Single. Time.

For every given gambling session (this could have a duration of hours, days, weeks, months or longer).

1. You bet. You win. (Goto Step 3).

2. You bet. You lose.

3. If you win (Step 1), then you continue to bet (in the given session) until you lose more than you win.

These steps are repeated for every session.

That's it. We lose every time. That's how the bookies do it!

How do we stop this from happening? By not going to Step 1, and jumping, instead, straight to Step 4: Not betting; choosing life over misery. Thinking of not only our future wellbeing, but our loved ones too.

There's your answer. Step 4 from tomorrow, every day, one day at a time...?

Mixer wrote:

If I may, darkhorse, here's the algortihm that compulsive gambling addicts, like us, always go through. Every. Single. Time.

For every given gambling session (this could have a duration of hours, days, weeks, months or longer).

1. You bet. You win. (Goto Step 3).

2. You bet. You lose.

3. If you win (Step 1), then you continue to bet (in the given session) until you lose more than you win.

These steps are repeated for every session.

That's it. We lose every time. That's how the bookies do it!

How do we stop this from happening? By not going to Step 1, and jumping, instead, straight to Step 4: Not betting; choosing life over misery. Thinking of not only our future wellbeing, but our loved ones too.

There's your answer. Step 4 from tomorrow, every day, one day at a time...?

Mixer that sums it up.

I would like to add, I have realised what my problem is, I am greedy. I could have easily gone into the new year not being in debt if I hadn't gambled, let alone thinking about how much money I woud have saved if I never had gambled. Now I am really annoyed because I would have preferred to spend the money on something else.

There was a part of me for a while, and it has taken a long time to accept this...thinking that sports betting unlike other forms of gambling is different and is based on skill. But it isn't, it's as random as playing the lotto if you do it long enough.