Young, Dumb and Living With Mum

Hi LukesFrame,

Welcome to the Forum and to the recovery diaries!

I am glad that you have found the courage to address your problem and that you are now ready to connect with others and to start making changes to your life. I hope that you will find much support here and that you will find it useful to keep writing this diary, putting your thoughts and progress into words.

Should you not have done so yet, keep in mind that you can always contact the HelpLine, too for a one to one chat. The telephone Helpline is 0808 80 20 133 and the internet based NetLine is accessible via this link http://www.gamcare.org.uk/support-and-counselling/frontline-services/netline#.Ve1Tyy1wY3Q

Both services are open from 8am to midnight every day.

I wish you all the very best.

Gabriele

Day 03

This site is growing on me more and more! Instead of heading straight to my regular betting website when logging on to my computer I come straight here. I really enjoy reading what others are going through and how well people are doing. It gives me so much motivation.

However, throughout the day I have thought about gambling many times. Its only day 3, so obviously thats going to be normal. I think about how much I have lost and want to win it back, thinking, 5 pounds wont hurt. I've been there before though and that 5 pounds would turn into hundreds. Its my day off from work today so its been tricky. Days off are always hard, whenever I think about having a quick bet I come to GamCare and read peoples diaries.

A new hobby is entering prizes instead. May sound cheesy but its free and its all that matters! If theres something good I can learn from betting is my money saving skills!

Luke

Hi Luke, welcome to recovery & great work on Day 3 🙂

This is a fantastic place to come but you will need real support to really tackle this for good! I am very sorry to hear about your father & wonder if this could have been a bit of a trigger for you? Have you told anyone close to you? Enlisted their help to stop? You are absolutely right about admitting this is a problem so early, you can make adjustments & get your life back on track very easily from here! That £5 might not hurt if you could stop there but for people on here it is those very thoughts that got us to here so well done for recognising that! You MUST draw a line under your past & look to making the most of your future - ODAAT

Hi Luke, sorry to read about your Dad. However I guess he would be proud of you for admitting you have an issue, and you are doing something positive about it. You asked for my advice, firstly admitting you have a problem is a great start, now self exclude from every you go, get blocking software on your devices. I would then tell everyone close to you and ask them to help support you. Then get someone, maybe your mum to look after your money for you, because you need time to gamble, somewhere to gamble and money to gamble. Take one of these factors away and you can't gamble.

Good do luck and stay strong, keep posting as it's what will keep your mind clear

dave

Day 04

Thankyou ODDAT for your positive feedback and to answer your questions, no I dont think it was a trigger, just stupidity! Also, I've only told my girlfriend about my problem, this was only last week after a heavy loss and feeling sick. But I did the typical thing of swearing not to bet again... I lasted 3 days. She didnt get my addiction too much and thats why I searched the web to seek help off people who realise what I am going through and here I am!

Hello Dave, thanks for the advice! Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I have had my girlfriend set up parental locks on both my ipad and computer to restrict me from betting websites. Seems sad that I need to have parental locks where I dont know the password! But its just that extra block in the way of me and losing more money!

So today was good, I kept my self busy and mind free of gambling! Some thoughts about the past 7 months but mainly thinking why I put my self through it and why didnt I stop sooner. I cant wait for the day where I can look back to this year and just laugh about it. The funny thing is most of the day I have felt the urge to come on here and read what everyone is up to and thinking about my next diary post. Things are going well and can only get better.

Luke

Well done mate, I can read your positivity which is great. Take each day at a time and before you know it the days will be months etc etc. it's clinically proven it takes 21 days to break a habit, so once you break the your habit of gambling, you can really fight the addiction. You will see that after 21 days it all becomes easier, but you must keep all blocks in place and also stay alert of what may trigger you. I'm confident you can succeed, just stay strong

Day 05

Firstly, thank you Dave! Great to have people on here with the same positive attitude as me towards this. Ive decided my first obvious target is a week. I decided to try and stop a while back and thats been my record throughout my gambling experience. So Im very close to achieving that, then after will be 21 days! I'll then reflect on how it has been.

Wednesday has been another good day, keeping busy and enjoying myself! The process isnt very hard at the moment because I don't have too much money in the bank and that money is essential and needed. Paydays have always been the worst for me. My normal payday routine would be to wake up, check that I have got paid and bet a huge chunk of my hard worked money and then struggle the rest of the month. Hopefully my pay day in two weeks will be a totally different story.

Luke

Day 06

Today has been relatively easy, I have started my Open University degree now so that is keeping me very very busy! Thats one main reason why I stopped gambling because I didnt want to risk not doing well in that and risk savings to pay for it. Very exciting things ahead. However, I do get odd feeling to go gambling after I spend my money. For example I filled up my car today and I always think, I have to make the money back now betting. But later on losing triple the amount I tried to make back. So there are still slight urges here and there.

Im nearly hitting my all time record of 7 days, Im going away for the weekend so it is highly achieveable. I always use to find it so hard to quit but now that Ive got a diary its getting easier and easier to stop.

Luke

Week 1 - Achieved

So the past couple of days I have been extremely busy, which is fantastic! I have surpassed 1 week with flying colours. Unlike the other times where I have tried to give up, this time feels so much better and easier. Writing the diaries and having the day counter clocking up and up just makes it fun to stop! I wish I found gamcare earlier than I did, but also very glad I found it before my next payslip. I always have thoughts about gambling but for one week this year I havent had a time where I have felt depressed and felt extremely low after a heavy loss. This week I have spent my money enjoying myself instead of blowing it all on nothing and giving it to the bookies. I think from now on I will do weekly updates instead of daily, unless I am struggling and needed to say something. On day 9 now, let the good times roll on.

Luke