Gambling Addiction & Recovery Support Group
Compulsive gambling is an urge or addiction to gamble despite harmful negative consequences or a desire to stop. A preferred term among many professionals is problem gambling, as few people described by the term experience true compulsions in the clinical sense of the word. Problem gambling often is defined by whether harm is experienced by the gambler or others rather...
Every morning I wake up promising myself that I will not gamble. Every night I go to bed wishing that I hadn't. It's a cycle and I can't break it. So I'm going to try posting here to see if it can help me get out of this circle of betting, winning, betting, losing, betting, chasing, quitting, betting to win back some losses and then planning to quit for good, betting and winning, betting to win more since I'm now on a roll, losing, chasing to get back the winnings, losing it all, betting again, losing, chasing, quitting... The next word in the cycle is "betting," but I'm replacing it with "posting" and hope that can put an end to it.
My vice is online sports. It's a combination of escaping from the day and the addiction to winning money. I've had a problem for 4 years now and it has escalated over the past 6 months. Before that, I was betting $300-$500 a week. It was a bad habit and I wanted to quit, but didn't. And then I discovered bitcoin as a way to fund my account. And the stakes went up. My deposits went up in both amount and frequency. In the last six months I have turned an intial deposits of $1000 into over $20,000 on five occasions, only to lose it all within 72 hours and repeating the process again and again. Of course, I always end up losing the $1000 deposit followed by losing the redposits in the chase.
So today I stop. And I'm posting this both for your support and so I can read it the next time I have the urge. Hope to update this and track my progress. I want to stop. I need to stop. My first goal is one day, my second goal is 7 days. My third goal is 30 days.
I hate being a compulsive gambler.
It's inevitable your credit will take a hit as a result of having used a large percentage of your available credit. Fortunately this will improve every month. A few suggestions I have that may help alleviate some of the stress you are under:
Are you paying the lowest interest rates possible? If your credit score is still strong enough, could you open new credit card accounts with 0% interest? If so you could transfer some of your highest interest rate balances onto those cards. Have you checked out peer to peer lending services like Lending Club and Prosper? Maybe you could get a fixed interest loan that could help pay off some of the higher interest revolving balances?
Is your debt repayment plan realistic? You said you are trying to pay back your debt in 2 years. Even with a good income that is quite a burden to take on. Leaving yourself broke and stressed about money can be a trigger that leads to a relapse. Maybe you need to extend our your goal to 30 months or 3 years, something that leaves you a little more breathing room and some extra money to enjoy yourself every week. 3 years go by in the blink of an eye. I stopped gambling in November 2014 and it doesn't feel that long at all. I am also halfway through paying back my debt and it doesn't feel like it's been that much time. It goes quicker than you think.
I am also not sure what strategy you are using to pay back your debt. But there are 2 that I have read up on, the snowball method and the avalanche method. Try reading up on them and see if one will work better for you than the other. Here is a link to a good article about each method:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertberger/2017/07/20/debt-snowball-versus-debt-avalanche-what-the-academic-research-shows/#65a38ec01454
What's most important here is for you to find a way to manage your stress. Constant worrying about money can lead you back to gambling. It is a very common trigger. In addition to formulating a plan to pay back your money you also need to formulate a plan to manage the stress in your life caused by your addiction. There are lots of ways to do this but ultimately only you will know which method works best. I'd recommend trying everything and anything until you find what helps you the most. Exercise, new hobbies, travel, home projects, whatever helps you relax and unwind. I found you won't really know what works until you try it. So get started today! I hope some of this helps, stay strong and don't lose hope. 2 months is an accomplishment to be proud of.
I find that I've replaced my gambling addiction with debt repayment calculations. I'm becoming obsessed with it. I had thought about taking a loan to pay off the higher cards, but I'm quite frankly terrified of taking out any more credit. I don't want to give myself access to more funds until I'm certain I won't gamble. I feel that to be the case, but I can't chance it. So I'm just going to keep making payments and drill away at the debt. When I hit 12 months being gamble free, and making payments of $3000 a month, the credit score simulator has me back around 780 at that point. So I figure at that point, with a proven commitment of one year without gambling, I can take on a new low interest loan to payoff the remaining credit card debt. That's how I'm calculating 2 years to pay off (with a low interest rate in year 2).
It's really helpful to hear you mention that you quit gambling in November 2014 and here you are gamble free heading on your 3 year anniversary. It gives me hope and something to aspire to. Thank you.