Honestly, I haven’t gotten rid of this addiction completely myself. I was living a gamble-free life, building my bank account back up, for a year and half before i relapsed in 2019. I self-excluded myself from all casinos around me in 2017, so that made me very hard to find a place to gamble, but I relapsed by going to a indian reservasion casino and online gambling sites. If I hadn’t self-banned myself in 2017 from casinos in the states, I probably would have lost all the saving that I had built up from 2017-2019. Self-exclusion was the best decision I made in terms of gambling. I live in the US, but there should be a law regarding self-exclusion in EU as well.
When I gambled, I would always chase losses. If i lost 1000 dollars, I would go straight to ATM and pull 1000 more.. then 1000 more.. until I gave up chasing losses for that day. I would like to think I’m a smart person, but when it comes to gambling, I was the stupidest person on earth. I knew the house always wins, but I kept telling myself, “I can get lucky this time, next time… I just need one good winning streak to get my losses back for the day..” I think this is the most dangerous thought you have when you gamble.
I’m writing a diary to remind myself why I cannot afford to gamble anymore, it destroyed my self-esteem and changed my personality. When i was gambling, I isolated myself from the outside world, trying to escape the reality. I’m heading into week 2 and whenever i have an urge, i look at my diary.
Also, I’m planning to attend GA meeting. These are the things I’m doing right now to avoid going back to online gambling websties. I can’t say for sure if these would help you because everyone handles things differently, but I found that they have been helping me control my urge. I’m still in my 20s and don’t have a wife or kids yet. I am so glad that I don’t have a family yet because I absolutely do not want my family to go through this process because of my problem.. this is the worst thing one can do to his/her family. You have a very supportive husband, which is very nice, but I want to warn you.. my parents trusted me with every life decision I made, but I can’t say the same right now. If you keep breaking promises, eventually they will have hard time trusting you. Don’t let yourself and your loving husband down by relapsing. The money that I’ve lost by gambling is over 100,000 dollars, but the thing that hurt me the most is that my parents do not trust me anymore.
Gambling can really ruin your relationship with your family members. it sounds like you haven’t gotten to that point yet. I think now is the perfect time for you to quit gambling before it gets worse. I’m truly happy for you that you acknowledged that you have a gambling problem before severe damages were done, I wish i did. Best of wishes to you!