Hey !
I think we have a lot in common. I am also a student (22) and also spend pretty much all my student loan on gambling. It’s a huge amount of money – I don’t even wanna know, but probably between 15-20k 🙁 It makes me feel horribly sick just writing that down.
I only registered on this forum 8 days ago, and I haven’t gambled anymore since that time. I know I am an addict for more than a year already and told myself I would quit every month, but it never worked. I believe you can only win this addiction with full commitment and by fully admitting and understanding you have a big problem. And this is the time, we are both in our early 20’s. Our lifes are not wasted yet and we can change it. I am 100% sure about that. Yes it is a lot of money, but over the span of a lifetime it’s ok and we’ll be fine if we can stop now.
I’m also afraid of telling my family/parents. But it is important you tell someone close to you. So I told my best friend I was addicted and that I will quit now. Someone NEEDS to know. I made an ultimatum for myself, if I fail this time I WILL tell my parents and seek professional help. Because I am so dedicated right now that I believe I can do it. However, if I fail I will have to face the consequences.
What helped me so far:
– Made a video for myself every few days, talking the reasons why I want to stop, how I feel and motivate myself to continue. This makes it feel more real with me, it’s like a diary.
– Post progress here every few days. I now know that it is insanely important to stay active beating your addiction. That means posting progress here every few days and staying in contact. Always be reminded of that you are on a mission to quit. Never let your guard down.
– Downlaoded Gamban. I have tried several gambling IP blockers (betblocker, GGG) and at first it worked. But after a few weeks I always knew how to get around it. Gamban is also an ip blocker which costs just +-2$ a month and even after uninstalling/clearing IP list it stilll blocks you from all gambling sites! I would recommend it, it’s a very usefull tool
– Every morning I look in the mirror and say to myself: I WILL NOT GAMBLE TODAY! And repeat that a few times. It looks silly, but it reminds you of your goal.
That is what I am doing so far and it is helping me.
You just have to realise it is impossible to quit gambling if you don’t put the 100% effort in it and think that you’ll be able to quit quite easily. Because you can’t. From my own experiences, after losing a lot of money in one day I also got a gambling hangover. I got sick, felt guilty, cried etc. I have had this many times and EVERYTIME I told myself I would quit, that this was the last time.
It was never the case.. it continued like that for over a year and this hast cost me thousands and thousands of euro’s. I never took the time to go to this forum, never made videos for myselfs and never showed real deddication. If you don’t do that you will always end up losing again when the hangover is over. It’s just how addiction works.
Sorry for the long message. I hope you can do something with it. If you want we can write each other our progress every few days and motivate each other to continue quitting. We’re both studying, both addicted but I think with help of others it is possible to turn your life around.
Again, it’s not too late.
I wish you well!