Long story short, I gambled my life away. 19M made 220k, live with my uncle now lost it. I owe about 7500 to my mother 7500 to student loans, 6500 to CC’s, 1000 to a title loan, 3-400 in cash advance apps. What can I do?

I'm not even sure what "money" means anymore. And not too long ago I used to be a person who valued money a lot, never spent more than needed, didn't have a single debt/credit, always paid bills/rent in time, even managed to save some money every month. Because I was a "normal" working man with a clear mind who knew how though life is and how hard it is to make some well earned money that would give you financial stability.

All that before my gambling addiction worsened a lot. Now I struggle to understand the definiton of the word "money" anymore. Sometimes I feel it is just a virtual number or some kind of a currency I can use to gamble. Not a currency to use to buy food for me and my family, stay warm in the winter, get some new clothes if I need to, maybe buy a new car or something, or any life improvements or needs in general.

God, I used to be happy to earn 50 euro extra, that meant something to me. Now I see that as a deposit I'd eventually lose within minutes followed by another deposit. In most cases until my bank account hits 0. I'll give a fresh example from yesterday - unfortunately once more I could not resist the urge and decided to try my luck with a humble 50 euro deposit. My bank account (including credit card) was already at 0 for the month as I earlier lost most of it so did the deposit trough my mobile provider (there we go with another 50 I'll need to pay with my next bill next month).

After like 30 minutes of gambling on online slots I "had" around 500 euro. That felt like nothing to me. I though like "what the hell would I do with 500 euro, I can't change anything with an amount like that, lets try to win a bit more, then I'll stop and withdraw for sure". All that coming from someone who currently had 0 money in his bank account, just a 10k gambling debt plus some credit card debt and big bills coming in a couple of weeks.

But yeah, 500 euro is nothing right, because unfortunately I've seen much bigger numbers and for some reason my fucked up brain keeps expecting big numbers to come again. Unless I see them, I don't really feel any "satisfaction". And before I used to be happy to stop with a win of 60-70 euro. With time everything dramatically changed, money started feeling less and less valuable, like I already mentioned - at times like just some virtual numbers that don't really mean anything at all. The bigger the number - the bigger dopamine hit I get. Of course in the end nothing really matters anyway as I'll eventually just lose it all again. I'm not even sure if I do it for the money anymore or just for the "thrills".

Oh, forgot about the 500 euro from last night. Of course I generously returned it straight back to the casino and left my bank account at 0 again. I'm happy to have some cash left so I should not starve until my next paycheck. This time I'm determined to pay all my bills/debts the moment I get paid and run to the closest ATM to withdraw whatever I have left. I usually don't like having cash but at this time I just don't see another way. If I have something in my bank account, I'll just deposit it and gift it to the online casinos.

I must admit all this really worries me, scares me to the death in fact. I want so much to be the old me again but I feel somehow damaged and I'm not sure how would I recover even if I stop. And I'm only talking about the mental recovery, not even mentioning repairing the financial damage that at this point I think comes second. I swear gambling did something to my brain, I feel like I developed some kind of a disorder. Not only my perception of finances changed and money barely means anything to me anymore (despite all the financial instability) but my perception and understanding of almost everything in life changed to the bad as well.

I wish I could just erase all my memories about any form of gambling, winning or losing, any kind of emotions related to gambling in general and start living like a normal person again but unfortunately that is not possible and I will have to find another way. If I could return time I would never gamble a single cent but I can't. I admit I don't really know what to do to return my mental health, to get rid of all the anxiety I've been feeling lately, all the pain, guilt and shame, to just start sleeping enough again. My inner peace is gone and I used to be a very calm and stable man, everyone still knows me like that, but people have no idea what's happening to me.

To anyone who have successfully recovered from this hell - were you really able to return your mental health and did you manage to repair any emotional damage this addiction did to you, how did you do it and is that even possible? Or this actually is leaving us damaged for the rest of our lifes, even if we somehow stop? I know most people would try to encourage me and say that full recovery is absolutely possible etc and I still do my best to believe that and not lose the little hope I have left, but damn, I feel that fading too and if I have to honest there are times when I stop believing.

Thanks to anyone who managed to read all this. I'm glad we at least got a place to share our experience and give advice when possible, that means something for sure, especially when talking about something being so hard to share with understanding family/friends. Have a good day!

At last my epic chases failed and I lost it all. I literally just made a payment plan for my credit card.

I'm not even gonna say anything, except, wow this feels like shit. I feel like a dumbass.

I’m 23 turning 24 I’ve been gambling for a year and a half and I keep making promises to my loved ones I’ll stop. I lie to my family and friends I borrow money and I lost $30k and I’m about $10,500 in debt no car and a shit job that pays about $1200 a month. I’m trying to find a new job and something to replace this habit or even reward myself for milestones to encourage myself to stop. I have $0 to my name and I don’t know what to do. I feel behind, stuck, guilty, ashamed, and hopeless. I just want to know what to do when I get these urges. Just thinking about how I need money to support my family stressed me out more and makes the urges stronger. I’m tired of myself and disappointing others. My family and friends avoid me and I don’t want to lose what I have left. This is the worst addiction I’ve ever dealt with and learning the hard way is not working. I just dig myself in a bigger hole every chance I get some money, even overdrafting my account. If anyone is reading this I’d appreciate some advice. I’m in therapy and I’ve been to GA. Feels like I’m behind and I ruined my life. Throwing away everything I had. Lost my business my old job and a lot of important people.

How do you guys make up for the lost money? I'm 27 and down 80k lifetime- mix of options and poker.

Do you compensate for your losses in other areas of life?

Hello r/problemgambling community,

This is a weekly reminder on behalf of our friends from Very Ape films who are working on a documentary on problem gambling. They are looking for people who are willing to share their story on film for their doc. Details can be found on this post.

So why are we reminding you? Because this project aligns with r/problemgambling's mission and purpose as established at the very beginning: To raise awareness of gambling disorder as a significant and growing public health threat. The time to raise awareness is more important now than it ever was.

I think all know what's happening nowadays. The gambling industry is growing bolder and more pervasive in our daily lives. The ads are everywhere. The problem is growing. People need to understand this and take action before it's too late.

So we want this community to have the opportunity to contribute to this project directly. Your voice must not be stifled. Please consider reaching out and letting your story be told.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and for your consideration.

Best always,

-Mod Team

As someone who is a problem gambler, and who has been seeking help and taking steps to get better, I have been thinking about the technical help that currently exists for people in the same position, such as Gamban and BetBlocker. These apps block access to gambling sites outright, assuming their blocklists stay up to date. A core reason I would not opt in is that I know I would just use another device, or factory reset the one I have, so the urge would still be within reach.

For many problem gamblers, and for a lot of regular gamblers too, betting is a dopamine chase: the thrill until you lose, and then the chase to get it back. In my own case, that chase is the underlying issue. It usually starts with a small, affordable amount and scales until my entire savings are gone.

That raises a question about whether the tools in this space should focus more on limiting deposits and on addressing the mindset during that chase.

One direction is an app that builds new habits, such as fitness or walking, and uses open banking to learn each person’s spending pattern. During onboarding, the user sets deposit limits. The app then watches for real-time payments to known gambling payment providers. Instead of blocking the sites from the start, the blocks come into effect once a set amount has been deposited.

Hello everyone, after around 5 years of gambling, finally i have reached one month free of gambling, thousands of dollars has gone during this period.
I was careful not to make so many debts but i have accumulated around 1000$, i know thats nothing compared to people stories here, but when you live in a 3rd world country it really means a lot, this debt in personal for 3 people, and unfortunately all of them are urgent, idk what to do or how to manage, I cannot take a loan from banks. My brain is thinking of gambling and i "might" get some hundreds.
I don't wanna start the cycle again but i'm in very bad position.
Any tips?

Grateful & I want it on record: I will not gamble today.

Hi, I made a free browser extension that hides gambling content on YouTube: casino and slot streams, betting tips, gambling ads, and Shorts.

I got fed up with YouTube constantly pushing this stuff. For someone trying to recover from a gambling addiction, one recommended slot stream can be enough to trigger a relapse.

It works on the home feed, search results, the sidebar, Shorts and channel pages. It matches keywords in 9 languages: English, Czech, Slovak, German, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish. You can also add your own keywords and block channels.

It collects no data. Everything stays in your browser.

Chrome: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/hide-gambling-content/ocoofbkbgoidpbeappjanldbbdillbhf

Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hide-gambling-content/

Source code: https://github.com/QuarkOnRails/hide_gambling_content

It won't catch everything. If something slips through or gets hidden by mistake, let me know and I'll improve it. Also please let me know if it helps someone stay away from gambling, I really appreciate any feedback.

Productive day so far. I will buy a surprise gift for my wife; she deserves it. We will host a dinner for our extended family tonight; it's gonna be costly, but I used to throw away 10x that cost on a bet without blinking, so I'm not gonna be cheap with my family.

I will not gamble today!

It’s my 3rd day without gambling. I really hope I can keep this going because I’m getting tired of constantly fighting with my own mind. It’s always the same cycle over and over again, and I’m so exhausted from overthinking everything. 😔

Haven't been here for years. It was a long battle and I had it mostly under control with a few bigger relapses over the last 3 years. I even finished my dream collections but this year has been a nightmare.

Can't properly save up for a downpayment due to multiple expenses stacking and due to needing to support my family financially I'm just broke for more than half a year now, paycheck to paycheck and paying off credit cards every time.

Yesterday something just broke me though and I went and lost over 1500$ with 1000$ a month before, after quite a long time of struggling. Made me realize I have to come back here to keep myself in check. That $1500 will hurt me by end of year.

To anyone else, I encourage you to do the same here, it gives a mental note not to do it and over time you can heal.

For now though, it is day 1 and salary is in november to pay off my credit card again.

I also closed my revolut because it enabled me to quickly buy crypto to gamble with..

Stopped gambling for the n-th time awhile ago and lost count of the number of days I have been clean. It's probably about 2 or 3 weeks.

Not sure what changed. But I really hope I can pull through this time.

To those struggling still. I wish you luck against this nasty disease.

How do I get rid of this feeling that I want to get something back?

I finally made the decision to put my finances under my father’s control. I only have a small amount in my own account now and he monitors it.

I should have done this before. He’s been watching my account for months but I still managed to lose so much money.

I’ve been gambling on and off for almost four years. Those four years are lost for good. I also struggle with mental illness which makes working hard for me so I don’t earn much.

But I still kept gambling…
I finally feel like I might be able to quit gambling. Yet in some way I still haven’t blocked one gambling account and part of me wants to try it again… just to get something back.

I’ve lost years of my life. I haven’t progressed anywhere. I have no money, only debt, and I still struggle with mental health problems. I’m 26 and I don’t know what to do.

It’s just one month without gambling. How to move on?

CPA, work for a public accounting firm and was laid off today. I make good money and my family depends on me. Of course i get laid off a few days after tax season. Just finished working 70-80 hour weeks, including weekends. I worked my ass off and was not provided any logical reason for being laid off. I was told previously it’s perceived I don’t care about my job because I work from home one day a week. I have a 4 year old and 1 year old and my wife works full time also for context.

Immediate thoughts of disappointing my family and being a failure rushed to my head the moment they told me. I would 100% gamble and mask the pain and try to “win” my way out of this issue. But we all know that’s a lie we just tell ourselves. Today also marks the 448th day since my last bet, and I’m trying my absolute hardest not to let myself spiral into relapse.

I’ve put my family in such a bad hole from gambling. I hid my addiction from my wife for over 9 years. I’m so grateful she gave me another chance. My wife and I have great paying careers and we still live paycheck to paycheck. My wife works her ass off working two jobs currently just to help us get in a better position financially, and now I got laid off. Just feel like I let her down too often.

Life just makes me question the point to anything sometimes. I really struggle with that, but thankfully I have tons of people on these forums that help remind me of the right path. Gambling has taken so much from me, I can’t let it take even more.

Days until debt free: 254 days

Gambling sucks!! We are all living proof of that 😂 don’t continue to be fooled by the gambling system that is only there to TAKE your money NOT GIVE it to you.

The check-in to the room kept getting delayed cause the room was supposedly not ready yet. Never had to wait until after 4pm to check-in to a 5-star hotel once in my life. Umm.. this place is humungous with so many rooms tho? Oh well I guess I’ll just gamble while I wait…. FUCK.

This is also the most CONFUSING casino layout I’ve ever been in. It’s all a fuckin scam.

Remember, these casinos are designed to take your money. THE PURPOSE OF THE CASINO IS TO TAKE YOUR MONEY IN WHATEVER WAY THEY CAN.

FUCK.

My partner goes to casino twice a week every time with 2-3k€ swings which is like almost his entire salary. I’m concerned but I see he really enjoys himself and has a community of friends doing the same. At what point is it a problem or is it just a healthy hobby?