- This topic has 11 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 5 months ago by .
-
Posts
-
-
I habe read so many posts on here, and I feel a fraud as numbers involved are small compared to some . However this afternoon I lost £150 on a cricket match, and tonight I feel physically sick . For years I have known I bet too much, I think about betting too much , but in last 12-18 months the numbers have crept up and I no longer feel I can enjoy a bet. I got into online betting and loved it, I would win but inevitably give it all back, betting on anything , basketball I had no clue about, tennis, handball, anything. I closed accounts as I knew I couldn’t control it, the state where I’d wake up and before getting out of bed I’d check sky bet for in play betting . I’d start and be off again! In last 2 months made real effort to stop , I go a week and reward myself with £20 bet, I’d lose and then start again , I thought I was in control . Yet on weds this week I lost 20, 20 on thurs, 40 on sat and now 150 today. We had family bbq today yet all I could do was check phone. I just have to stop for good .
-
Losses are all relative to each other! I’ve joined today and I hope we can both succeed in losing our gambling demons! I’m trying to find a new hobby to do to preoccupy my time so my mind doesn’t wander off to gamble!
-
-
Hi Coaster and welcome to GT.
You asked on C-Noel’s thread how you could control your thoughts. In my experience, thoughts come and go and we have little or no control of how and when a particular thought will pop up. How we react to these gambling thoughts is what leads a CG to either total destruction or recovery. For a compulsive gambler there is no middle road. Once we cross the line into compulsive gambling, we can never gamble normally again. I think this is the stumbling block for many gamblers. For years I dipped in and out of recovery. I would abstain for weeks, months-even made it to a year once, but I always went back . Why? Because I thought I could gamble normally. My plan was to “play for a while and leave when I’m winning” . Many years and many thousands of lost pounds later, I discovered that a CG never wins. I believe when we come to realise this FACT, we will give up trying (gambling). I also realised that my need to gamble was becoming far greater than my need to win and know now that if I ever go back to that lonely place, it will be for the buzz, not for the money.
Have you ever tried GA? (Gamblers Anonymous)
At GA meetings you will hear many success stories. You will also look into the eyes of other broken people who , one day at a time succeed in putting gambling to the back of their minds, while they live their lives, free from the torment and misery gambling brings. My poison is slot machines but most of the GA guys are “bookie/sports ” gamblers. I hear them describing how they no longer talk about racing, no longer read the racing pages on newspapers etc. This may be something you will have to do . CGs have to go to extreme measures to stop gambling controlling our lives. Not carrying cash or cards, not having gambling conversations, not daydreaming and planning the next bet are some of the ways which will help us to break the habit and prevent the cycle from becoming a never ending part of our lives.
Best wishes in recovery. -
-
-
-
Hi Coaster,
Well done on your four days gamble free time.
How many excuses can you find for your friend? The best answer would be none, just tell them you have deciided to stop gambling. Up to you how much detail you go into but “I got fed up with losing” works for me. Make en excuse and they will ask again, why wouldn’t they? Tell them you have decided to stop gambling and it draws the line. If they are a friend then there will be other activities, other places to go.
If not, well maybe they and so much of a friend as a gambling acquaintance?
Vera suggested GA, check out their website, they have 20 questions there which you might find interesting. Why can’t you just enjoy a bet? Because you aren’t a gambler, I think you will find when you look at those questions that you are a compulsive gambler.
Talking to your wife would help, show her this site. If you make yourself accountable for your finances then you will find it harder to place a bet.
Keep posting and let us know which positive steps you are taking.
-
-
-
-
How are you doing Coaster?
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.