Hi everyone,
I'm new to this site, this is actually day 2 for me as it was late Thursday evening that I decided I needed to kick the habit. For me, I consider myself very lucky as I've managed to keep an element of control over the addiction in the sense that I rarely bet anything higher than 20. The problem is, I place a lot of bets... of around 5, 10, 20 which leads to pretty substantial losses.
I'm 23 and I'm looking for my first home so it really is important that I stop before I find myself in a lot of debt. For me, the weekends are the worst because I have time to think, and boredom sets in. As well as this, sport is everywhere and I think we'd all agree that watching a neutral football match with a bet on makes it a hell of a lot more exciting. As I said, this is day 2 for me, and a difficult one because of all the football and horse racing which is on but I am managing.
To be honest, I'm wishing time would fast forward to 5.30 when the West Ham match is on (I'm a Hammers fan) so at least with this match I've got an interest in it and I know that once the clock strikes 5.30 I can be confident that I've got through day 2.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and hopefully I can keep this diary going. My first target is a week and from there I will build...if my targets are too far away I will deem them unrealistic and the sense of achievement will be too far away for me to care!
Keep battling it people, we're all in this together.
Hi mate, welcome to the forum and thank you for your kind words on my diary. It's good to have someone to talk to me the same age as me in a similar situation. Your doing really well as your still debt free so knock it on the head on now before it gets to that point where you owe thousands due to gambling, it sounds like your pretty level headed guy so I know you will beat this no problem. But If you ever need to reflect just come on here.
Great result for the hammers last night!
All the best
Liam
Day 4 almost completed and I'm in a really positive frame of mind. Offer for the flat was accepted so I now have some real motivation to kick this horrible habit.
The weekend was hard, there were a few occasions when I thought about gambling but never did I feel like I was going to give in. Again today, I had a few thoughts during work along the lines of 'I'd love a small bet tonight'. But I've kept myself busy from the minute I've got in and I've not even thought about betting.
My bank, ironically, is taking a hit because of buying things for the new place but it feels good because I'm not wasting it. There have been times when I've not looked at my bank account for a few days (I usually check every day) purely because I don't want to see the damage that my gambling has done. In this case, I'm aware and in control of what I have spent so it feels good.
Anyway, onto day 5 tomorrow and nothing planned after work as of yet.. but I have no doubts that tomorrow will be another day of no gambling.
Stay strong people!
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