The illness is winning

Hi Craig, welcome. You've really come to the right place. There are plenty around to give good advice. Believe in yourself, believe you can do it. I totally get the "constantly thinking about gambling" bit. I've dreamt many times about it. Anyway, good luck in your journey to become gamble free. Teresa xx

Hello Craig

Welcome to the forum.

Self-exclusion, blocking software and handing over finances are all good barriers to put in place to help stop gambling.

I understand how damaging a gambling addiction can be to your health and I'm also always thinking of gambling.

Keeping busy is crucial. Reading around the forum is a good way to spend your time productively, learning how different people deal with their gambling addiction. Counselling isn't for everyone, it might not be for you - you will read about other options out there that help people.

Best wishes

Glint

HI Graig and welcome to the forums,

Its time now to try and put all this behind you , you have so much in life to be thankfull for and are still a young man. You cant go down that road youre dad has and look back in 20 years time and say , what a waste. YOU say youre debts arent huge so you can turn this around m8 .Does youre wife/ partner know of youre compulsive gambling? maybe time to let her know and hand over total control of cash ? , if thats not possible there are ways to block things with ur bank and online .

Step over that line now Craig ,this has got to be it this time. its hard ... i get urges ,but my life as a CG was 100% worse than one as a new recoverying CG . Clear youre mind craig off all this negativity ,gambling feeds off it, and move foward now m8 !

I wish you all the best , lets make it a gamble free weekend !

Hi Craig19,

Welcome to the Forum, and thanks also for your post.

I’m glad that you found our forum and posted here too. It would be of immense help to your recovery to keep reading from the forum as it’s full of useful information about overcoming gambling problem. You’ll also learn from others experiences, and become aware of different strategies that you can put in place to enable you to overcome your problematic gambling.

Gamcare is ready to help and support you every step of the way with your journey to recovery. However, it’s important that you follow these advice, so you’ll be able to achieve your aim.

Meanwhile, try and replace your spare/ gambling time with other activities/ hobbies to distract you from gambling. It has to be something that you really enjoy doing, so you don’t get bored easily.

What I get from reading your post seems like your gambling problem resulted from having been influenced by family from a rather young age. It also seems like you enjoyed it until you started using it as an escapism from work and from the kids. That tells you it’s time to do something about it, so you can look forward to a gamble free future. Not doing anything about your gambling problem makes it worse, and it can get out of control easily if you try to chase your losses.

I thus suggest that you contact our free phone Helpline on: 0808 8020 133, and speak to one of our advisers for further help and support. Our lines are open from 8.00am to midnight, every day.

Thanks once again for your post, and pls. keep postings.

Best wishes,

Beatrice

Hi guys thanks for your comments. Yeah my fiancГ© does know. Well she knows I gambled a lot. We got a bank loan for our wedding and straight away I gave it to my mother as I couldn't trust myself. Crazy isn't it.

Not got a lot of money this week or next week. Got money for food and stuff just no money for treats.That's when the temptation to gamble arises. I could put a bet on win some money and do this and that. Reality is even if I did win all that meant was more time Iin bookies or on my phone checking scores. While ignoring the kids.

Hey mate,
Gambling was my escape and ironically my chosen method of self destruction.
I would delibratley lose so i would not have to face up to stuff, i would cut my arms to shred because its all i was worth and all i deserved.
Listen to me and us here, you can stop gambling you can stop, trust me on this.
You have alot to fight for and alot to motivate you, you have so many happy times to experience, if you fight this.
After years of gambling and self destruction, iam on my own and have many faded and healing scars.
I dont have anyone, but i am fighting so so hard every day to fight my demons and urges to gamble and cut, to make something of my life and try to have a happy life i have my degree i have started, and books i study, and my job, and today i finally felt alive, i walked in the rain and it felt amazing.
Sorry to rant but i just wanted to say, all of us here have your back and you can air all you need to without being judged.
Rob

Hi, Craig,

Just picking up on the last sentence in your post about your kids...the loss of money is galling but your kids do need you, your time and energy, so does your OH. That's the main loss that addiction brings, when the next bet overtakes what would otherwise be your commitment to your family. But look at it the other way round, yes you have to do recovery for you but recovering from an addiction is an achievement to be admired, something that your kids can respect you for.

Keep the time money location triangle broken, get external support from GA, counselling etc and things will change.

Wish you well,

CW

Thanks very much for all the comments guys.

No gambling since I started thisnl diary so 3 days. Temptation has been there as a bit short on cash untill payday. Managed to borrow money of mother so all good.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Today is day 7. Had urges to gamble but managed to get past them. I'm wondering to myself if it was easy as there was no big sporting events on. This weekend gokf football rugby is all back. If I get to Monday without a bet I know this is possible. Gonna use this website over the weekend read a few diary's.

Hope everyone is doing well

Day 11 today. Yesterday was very tough strong urges to gamble. So I got out the house and took them to McDonalds. Inknew the weekend would be hard and yesterday was but no urges so far today. Busy day today. Taking my son and daughter to go see the speedway. Better spending money than in a bookies. Hope everyone is doing well

Hi Craig, glad to hear you are continuing to do well. I only joined a few days ago so I'm only on day 2! I am just reading through a couple of different forums to keep stuff fresh in my mind. It definately helps mate. And there's nothing more satisfying than looking back on a full day without feeling either guilt or skint (or both). I have also found that when I make the effort to stop, good things start to happen - even if it's just the little things. Like i bet your kids think you are a legend after the Mcdonalds visit - it may seem a small thing to do but they will appreciate the time you give them, after all thats all they want.

It's good that your mum helped out too, it's a massive relief when you can get the money needed for the basics so you don't get the urge to try and win enough for the basics - this never works out. The best way to repay those who help you is to prove you are a good investment by keeping positive and away from betting. It's easier said than done but worth it all the same.

Good luck Craig

Today is my 14th day.of.not gambling. Payday this Friday but my wages will be going straight to the fiance's account. Been good couple of days no real thoughts of gambling. Big weekend coming up this weekend . the grand national. Where everybody has a bet. Free bets from the newspapers. Syndicates everywhere u turn. Every bookies you walk by has a special offer to bring you in. Well I wont even be watching it. I think out of 15 years I only had one winner in the national and I dread to think how much I've lost on a single race that is pretty much to do with luck.

Hope everyone is well

Very tough weekend. From Friday to 520 Saturday I kept thinking about the grand national. Doesn't help that everyone bets on it asking who you fancy etc. Thankfully a huge sense of relief when the race started and in actually enjoyed watching it without having a bet on. Seen on chat and a few diaries lots of people have had a tough weekend. Well thankfully that's the weekend just about over and whatever happened it's now in the past.

I'm so angry at myself as I'm back at that feeling of feeling rubbish worthless and lashing out. I did so well not gambling the grand national I thought that's one major test done well done. Then following week I stick a coupon on. It won but that makes it worse as I then stick more bets on. Over the 2 weeks I'm probably up say ten pounds but it's the emotional damage this does to you and your loved ones. I'm really struggling to figure out away to beat this ilness.