Hi, I just wanted to tell my story to vent a little.
I am 35 and have gambled for roughly about 16 years. At my worst I would have a bet on sport every waking hour, constantly checking the score. To the point I wasn't sleep and affecting all aspects of my life. Last October I took the step to register with Gamcare and ban myself from all online. However that didn't stop me from betting at the bookies, I just had to be smarter and make sure I covered all the sport events for that day. 4 weeks ago I realised I couldn't go on like this, I couldn't go on each day not knowing what my bank balance may look like at the end of each day. So I took another step which was to ban myself from all the local bookies. I am currently 27 days clean. I have managed to save over £2k just from not gambling in this time, which in turn helps with my state of mind and relationships with people and my productivity at work. Even if this brings inspiration to one person reading this then I will be happy because if I can do it than so can you.
Hi orange2000, that's really good well done your hard work in starting recovery is paying off. Now you need to keep things going, are you doing anything to help yourself mentally, this is a lifelong addiction and presuming you intend on stopping for good consider counselling or GA meetings you will get valuable advice and support from other compulsive gamblers keep you grounded in your recovery and help you to move forward. I initially had 8 weeks counselling and now I attend weekly GA meetings(via zoom at moment due to covid) I'm 4+months gamble free and feeling a lot stronger,happier..calmer. Like you described I used to have that wired adrenalin fuelled buzz that kept me up half the night it's gone and I'm glad it's gone. All the best in your recovery
Hi Charlie boy. Well done on your 4 months recovery.
I must admit I don't intend to use professional help. I tried going to a couple of GA meetings about 8 years ago but I just didn't think they were for me.
To help myself mentally, I've stayed away from watching sport, the weekends are the hardest for obvious reasons. I've thrown myself into my job, I find myself going to bed around 8 or 9 in the week now also. I have a partner who totally understands and we go for the day at the weekends to distract me. So all that is helping and it's so far so good.
fantastic, well done on becoming Gamble Free!!, it may be wise to place that 2k into a family members account so you don't have access to it. as a gambler can go months without gambling, then something causes a trigger for them and Boom!!!, before you know it the whole 2k savings is gone and more besides, this happened to me many times, i would go months without gambling, start to feel healthier both mentally and financially, then my brain would come up with opportunities to place a bet, i would actually lie to my self that i would just spend £10 or £20. but as soon as i started to lose i chased that loss, and before i knew it id blown £1000's of pound in hours, would hate for anyone to experience that pain and anguish!
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