Charmed,

Please, please, please do not do anything to harm yourself. Your family is going to be hurting more without you. Please call the Help Line for your area in Canada (all of the help line numbers are listed below--I reposted it from Rainietoo's post back in February).

Ending your life would be a permanent solution to a TEMPORARY problem. I know it might not seem that way to you right now but IT IS NOT. We're here to help you. Let us help.

Please call the Help Line and let us know how you are doing.

You are not alone and we care about you. ((((BIG HUG))), Cathy
********************************************
Hello All,

I was talking to a friend from Daily Strength who expressed concern over not being able to get instant help here on Daily Strength. For example if the urge is overwhelming to gamble and you need to talk to someone right away but perhaps live rural and have not plugged into any GA meetings these may be of assistance to you at that time. While what we have here is great and the support is amazing it isn't always instant. I took these numbers from the gam talk website for anyone who feels they need to make a phone call to get help with their addiction.
HELP LINE NUMBERS

Canadian
Alberta Problem Gambling Hotline
Confidential and open 24hrs a day. 1-866-33AADAC (1-866-332-2322)
British Columbia Problem Gambling Help Line
Confidential and open 24hrs a day. 1-888-795-6111
Manitoba Problem Gambling Help line
Confidential and open 24hrs a day. 1-800-463-1554
New Brunswick Problem Gambling Help line
Confidential and open 24hrs a day. 1-800-461-1234
Newfoundland and Labrador Help lines
Mental Health Help Line. Confidential and open 24hrs a day.1-888-737-4668
Gambling Crisis Help Line. 1-888-899-4357
Nova Scotia Problem Gambling Help line
Confidential and open 24hrs a day. 1-888-347-8888
1-888-347-3331 (hearing impaired)
Ontario Toll Free Problem Gambling Help line Number
Confidential and open 24hrs a day.
Available in English & French. 1-888-230-3505
Prince Edward Island
Confidential. 1-855-255-4255
Quebec - Gambing: Help and Referral
Confidential and open 24hrs a day. 1-800-461-0140
OR
1-866-SOS-JEUX (1-866-767-5389)
Saskatchewan Problem Gambling Help line
Confidential and open 24hrs a day. 1-800-306-6789
Yukon
Confidential and open 24hrs a day. 1-800-661-0408
International
Australia - Problem Gambling Services: New South Wales
Confidential and open 24hrs a day. 1-800-633-635; TTY 1-800-633-649
Australia - Problem Gambling Services: Queensland
Confidential and open 24hrs a day. 1-800-222-050
Australia - Problem Gambling Services: South Australia
Confidential and open 24hrs a day. 1-800-060-757
Australia - Problem Gambling Services: Tasmania
Confidential and open 24hrs a day. 1-800-000-973
Australia - Problem Gambling Services: Victoria
Confidential and open 24hrs a day. 1-800-156-789
Australia - Problem Gambling Services: Western Australia
Confidential and open 24hrs a day. 1-800-622-112
New Zealand - Problem Gambling Help line
Confidential, currently open 8:00am - 11:30pm. 0800-654-655.
South Africa - Problem Gambling Help line
Confidential. 0800-006-008.
UK - GamCare Help line
Confidential, currently open 10am-10pm. 0845-6000-133.
USA - National Problem Gambling Help line
1-800-522-4700
Posted on 02/05/14, 09:20 pm

Use the numbers! You are absolutely right about leaving your family feeling ashamed. Not only would they feel ashamed but they would be devastated! I know my brother killed himself. Don't do it! That is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Your life will get better as you take the steps needed one day at a time. Don't think about tomorrow. Just for today you are going to call the help line, take their advice and do what you need to do to get your life back on track. All the best

please don't do anything to yourself. you are precious and loved. the things we do AREN'T US... things can work out. please use the numbers they provided for you. and keep in touch with this site. someone is usually around to respond. remember, you are loved.

Dear Charmed2014,

please read my post of "Not Really Believing".

I too felt that I'd done too much damage and
my life had changed forever, for the worse,
and that I didn't want to accept the terribleness
of the disease.

This is the hardest thing I've had to do in life
as of yet but it is making me so much wiser
and stronger.
I have learned not only more about the world
but a whole lot more about myself.

I do hope that you have called the Gambler Hotline,
and gone to a counselor for addiction as well.
Please tell them how you feel so they may steer
you to the right path to get started on giving up
this addiction and the thoughts that it brings.

Come here and read the stories of people overcoming
this addiction daily and let them fill your heart with hope
for a new future for yourself. Find inspiration on how to
accept what has happened but see that it doesn't have to
stay that way at all.

Please keep posting and
let us know that you are here
with us and we will help in any
way that we can.
Together ...........that is how one overcomes the
pain and suffering of this addiction.

Dear Charmed,

I have "messed up big time" so many times, I can not even begin to count them, don't think that I could. I have also felt tha t everyone would be better off without me being here. Today I am glad I did not take that step!

Please get the help you need to start getting better. The way we stop messing up is realizing that what we did yesterday is done. We can't change it, we can't win that money back, we can't magically change our compulsiveness. What we can do is change our todays. Just for today, we do not gamble. Each day we make that commitment. One day at a time. We don't have tomorrow, so let's deal with today. If we don't gamble today, we won't mess up. You are worth having many today's! You are in the grips of an insidious, life sucking disease. Please don't let it win. Make the calls. Go to meetings. Go to your doctor. Come back here often. Every day would be great.

Looking forward to seeing you here each day!!

Please seek help! As already mentioned, suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem and, more so, make your family proud not shamed, by taking the bull by the horns and turning this situation around. It can be a very positive life changing experience, not life ending.

We have all felt the way you are feeling....worthless. You say you don't like the person you have become??? Get back to the person you were...the person you liked by getting help. Call the number provided and learn to take charge of your life by living one gamble-free day at a time. We are here to listen and help if we can so please stay close to the site.

I hope you will take to heart what all the good folk here have to say and stay close so that we can all help to support you on your road to recovery. This is a healthy place to start with lot's of good advice, resources and stories just like yours. Please stay for your family sake and for your own and give yourself a different ending, a happy one that takes place many years from now.

This addiction need not be the end of anything but Gambling.

Dear Charmed,
I have felt exactly like this. I thought the only way out of this addiction was death. It was plan A and there was no plan B. I felt like this for a long time. I don't feel like this anymore and I'm glad that I didn't take my life.
Get some help. Mine was reaching out to a therapist. In the back of my head, I told myself if the therapy thing didn't work (and I thought it couldn't really) then I would kill myself. But it did work.
I couldn't beat this thing alone, but in the beginning I couldn't imagine sharing my pain with anyone and asking for help. I was full of shame.
My mind was not clear. The addiction had hijacked my life and my thought process.
Just try something else before suicide. I am a living testament that you can change and have a better life.
(hugs)

((( Charmed )))

I was about to end my life back in June 2002 as I didn't see any other way out but something happen that day that gave me the strength and courage to seek out counseling and Gamblers Anonymous.
Today I know suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
Glad you have found this site and if you are interested in chatting with folks just like you check out www.gamtalk.org has a 24/7 chat room.Take care and God Bless
Ken L YBIR

thank you for your replies.

i can't help crying.

i messed up big time more than a year ago. i self excluded myself for year. was doing good then had a relapsed. now worse than before.

i know what i am doing is stupid but i am still doing it. taking my life will hurt my family just once. this addiction will hurt them everyday as i can't even trust my own self that I can really stop. There's no way i can stop this. My case is hopeless. I am worthless.

thank you all for your advice, i am just happy that atleast there are people out there who really made a way out from this addiction. I just can't find my way out. :(

You may not see a way out at this moment, but there is a way. You came to this place for a reason - perhaps to find some hope. Let the good people here give it to you! You do have worth and there are people on this earth that love you and would be devastated to lose you.

Suicide will not hurt your family just once. It is a pain they will carry with them forever. Don't do it!!!!

Keep coming here. Someone upthread posted helpline numbers. Please call them and talk with someone. If you can't do it for yourself, do it for your loved ones.

No case is hopeless. Of course gambling addiction is depressing and the weight of it seems suffocating. Find some help, find a small ray of hope and move forward. It will be painful, we all have to reckon with our past. But you are stronger than you know. It is painful to come clean but it is the first step. Do not let gambling have the last word in your life. Get help.

you were strong enough to come here and post. that takes courage. if you do something to yourself, your family will be hurt over and over again as they each ask themselves: what could I have done? it leaves people devastated. maybe if you talk about what is going on. how far behind are you? you are a worthy person, who has a gambling problem. that is different from you thinking you are the problem. please keep posting. call the numbers. talk to somebody. and you'll see, someone cares. thanks for coming back and letting us know you're all right. I am praying for you, and I"m sure others are too. thanks again for coming back.

Hello Charmed - Glad to see you came back!

In your post you said . . . "i messed up big time more than a year ago. i self excluded myself for year. was doing good then had a relapsed. now worse than before."

So . . . you have quit for a while at least, so you have proven you can quit, so that proves that your thinking is just messed up from the addiction, because you have quit before, so it is possible for you.

Most of us have relapsed at some point in our recovery, some of us worse than others. I went back for 2+ years after being away for 5 years. This disease is progressive in nature, which means, even if we aren't gambling, if we go back to it, it will be much worse than when we quit before. That is just how addiction works.

I understand how you feel helpless and worthless, I did too. But, I am here to tell you that you ARE worth getting better. Your family IS better off with you in their life. Please accept in your heart that you are a compulsive gambler. The only way out is to NOT gamble. Decide that you are going to quit, and then tell your family what is going on. Then, you can begin to heal. Once your secret is out, then you can ask for their help. Ask one of them to take control of your money. If you don't have the money, you can not gamble. Self exclude again. Read the posts for the last few months at least. You will read what you need to do to stop. Go to your doctor, go to a counselor, and go to GA. Enlist the help of your family. You can do this again. One day at a time!!!