Hey guys. First time poster here!! I’ve been on gambling forums before but I have never posted. I used to use other people’s stories and advice as my encouragement. I’ve managed to stop gambling before for short periods of time but always seem to find myself back in a casino telling myself one big win and I can stop!! Never the case though. I have been gambling for 20years but really seems like the last 3/4 years my gambling has got a lot worse. I am now in £20k worth of debt that my wife has no idea about. I have to stop now before I lose more than money!! I have a beautiful 16 month old girl, I should be focusing everything I have on her not making up excuses so I can get out the house to go to the local casino for an hour or so. So today will be day two of me being gamble free. I still have massive urges to go to the casino so I will be thankful for each day I don’t gamble. I really need this to be a turning point in my life. ??
Dear @leapy,
Welcome to the forum and thank you for sharing your situation with us, please keep posting so that you can receive support from your peers. It's a very supportive forum community, we also have our chat room that opens twice a day from 1pm until 2pm. Then again from 8pm until 9pm, we now have an extended chat room too on a Sunday evening so it's open until 21:30pm.
Congratulations on your two days gamble free, this is fantastic! Please do share what you find is helping you so far and please read through other users posts for ideas that may also help you on your journey.
I'm sorry to hear of your struggles, we would always encourage you to open up to your wife and support network where possible. It can really help to share the burden of the problem gambling and debt, many people in similar situations describe it feeling like a weight was lifted from them when they talked about the extent of their problems.
We know this isn't always possible and I just want to remind you that you're never alone. We're here for you every step of the way, we're also here for everyone affected in a negative way by problem gambling. Your support network can also call us if you do decide to open up to them and they feel they would like help too.
It may be beneficial to speak to a professional about the debt, please see the below links of other organisations that you can contact for advice and further guidance.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/
https://www.nationaldebtline.org/
It may also help to make an appointment with your GP if you are experiencing any detrimental changes to your mental or physical health so that they can give their guidance too.
If you would like to talk things through further and discuss coping strategies that may help you such as self exclusion from casinos or a free referral for some counselling sessions then please call our helpline on 0808 8020 133 or access our Netline (web chat) via our GamCare website.
You can look in to self exclusion from casinos by visiting
http://www.nationalcasinoforum.co.uk/voluntary-self-exclusion-sense/
Kindest Regards
Joanne
Forum Admin
Hi Leapy,
Welcome to the forum and well done for posting.
I suppose the obvious thing for me is have you put the right blocks in place to ensure you don't have access to gambling? In your example it would be self exclusion from the local casino but you need to do more than that. Self exclude from all local bookies too (use the multi operator https://self-exclusion.co.uk/ )
Sign up to Gamstop so that you don't get tempted by online gambling. https://www.gamstop.co.uk/
You said you've tried and failed to stop gambling before. Do you think perhaps this is because no one knows? Gambling thrives off of secrecy. I appreciate it would be difficult to tell your partner about your gambling and debts, but it would be a massive weight off of your shoulders.
Get yourself to a GA meeting mate. Good luck with your recovery. Life is better without gambling in it.
Dave.
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