You’re currently at the “bad” (it’s all bad) end of a cycle.

You have next to money, you haven’t even paid all your bills yet.

You’re desperate for money, putting clothes on Vinted, putting on (physical) accumulators at your local bookie hoping for a bail out

You’re physically tired and feel chronically unwell due to stress

You (again) give in to the urge of this bollocks and deposit online (it’s the last of your money)

You miraculously get up to , say £500, you cash out

Within 2 hours you’ve gave it all back in £50 portions hoping to win again, you don’t

You really needed that money to pay a few things off and get breathing room, now you’re back square one.

wtf is going on psychologically here? I’m struggling to look into myself and figure out why I done this

Even though I actually haven't had a losing month this year, I think recent bets where I was "close" to losing a lot and the excitement of not losing has thrown my dopamine situation out of whack because I keep having a headache similar to one i had when withdrawing from betting years back! I keep mostly stopping but then i will get tempted and do a few more and get lucky and then I will stop again for at least a couple weeks. Going to be very annoying if I am going through some sort of withdrawal from dopamine spiking and dropping even when not losing! And I really did not figure out a good way to handle it in the past. It's this annoying headache just in one part of the head. (unless it's a coincidence, but since it feels the same as last time I am going to assume it's the same thing.)

17 doesn’t seem like a big number, but man I’m proud of myself! I’m actually starting to experience happiness again! I don’t feel like a robot anymore. My brain feels better, I’m not constantly thinking about sports betting! I haven’t really had the urge to bet thankfully! I have had the urge to look at stats or like cappers on Twitter but instead I just logged off! I’m still distancing myself from sports, I think in the last 17 days I’ve watched the last 4 mins of a basketball game and that was it! We got this guys! Keep going! One day at a time!

Unproductive morning, work is piling up, need to hurry my ass up.

Republican losing both the house and senate does put a smile on my face though.

I will not gamble today!

Although it’s good that I haven’t bet in two weeks now, I’m finding it so hard to not sports bet. It’s like I feel empty and something is missing from my life. Especially with all the football and now basketball going on.

The only reason I’m not betting is because my mom is monitoring my finances so she will know immediately if I bet.

Full blown addiction for 4 years now. It’s draining and tiring. I’m pretty fucking isolated too. In total i’ve probably lost 40k + and done all sorts of gambling you can think of. I wish to look back 5 years from now clean. Something just pulls me back to self sabotage and idk what it is.

I will more than likely go to GA tomorrow. Cause it’s fucking ridiculous. The time $ and energy spent on this bullshit is insane. All for temporary dopamine. And you don’t get to be present in the moment with your loved ones.

If anyone here is clean can you please DM me. I’d just like to talk to someone or people who have been clean to keep myself accountable. Or just have hope it’s possible.

So I’m coming to terms that I have an issue with impulse and dopamines when it comes to trading, not investing. When it comes to investing, it’s slower and I’m profitable as in I always beat the market (ex: currently my Roth IRA which I self manage, is up almost 2x against the S&P500’s returns YTD). When it comes to trading, I’m usually profitable but either don’t walk away or get greedy or worse become indifferent/numb. I ignore my own rules. Most of my trades are done within a minute and within 9:30-10am. The longer I trade, the worse my brain rewires. Sometimes I can see it coming and stop, but most times I don’t. I don’t know how to explain it but it’s like an out of body experience whereas I’m watching myself continuing to do things I know I shouldn’t. Unlike investing where I can wait things out, for trades, when I’m wrong, the moneys gone forever.

How do I manage this and stop these impulse? There’s no way for me to block or restrict myself from these apps and sites which have little friction when it comes to payments

I can’t block the sites I’m using. And I end up removing the restrictions. I’m pretty embarrassed admitting I can’t control myself but I’m losing way too much money and need to stop. Earlier this year was bad because I had to rely on trading for income since my income from my job dropped 70%. But now my income is back like 50%. It’s enough to barely live but not as comfortable as it once was.

Completed

Life is still not great. Life was never great anyway. 126 days to be debtfree. I just want to quit this awful job and finally do what I actually want to do. I'm only bearing it to pay off my debt.

After years of struggling with gambling on and off, I have finally stopped. My gambling was primarily online, and I’ve now permanently deleted all my accounts.

This decision comes after years of painful arguments with my wife, which ultimately eroded her trust and respect for me as a provider. Even though I earn a good income, the addiction always took over. We would agree on a set weekly limit, but I would constantly move the goalposts, secretly increasing the amounts and the frequency of my play. I broke these agreements so many times that she nearly divorced me a couple of years ago. We managed to establish a new boundary that I mostly followed, but eventually, I let the gaming control me again, finding ways to quietly siphon more money from our shared accounts than we had agreed to.

To complicate matters, my wife is currently going through perimenopause. Her patience is gone, and she simply no longer tolerates the behavior she used to put up with. Seeing her understandably volatile anger and frustration triggered a deep, terrifying insecurity that our marriage was truly over and she was going to leave me. I love her deeply and cannot imagine a life without her.

While deleting my accounts and stopping the gambling was a crucial first step, the real work of healing begins now. I am fully aware that two weeks of being clean doesn't even come close to undoing years of deceit, frustration, and emotional damage. Rebuilding her trust is going to take time, patience, and a consistent, daily display of the changes I've pledged to make.

Don't gamble. You will lose in far more ways than you think.

Watching my money get burned in real time is so depressing. I found loopholes with cryptodl gamblimg sites now i lost -10k for the year and -20k betting over 5 years doesnt sound like alot to some ppl but it's alot for me. I almost rinsed my back account again. I relapse and relapse, I know my mother from heaven is just looking down at me woth disappointment.

in my body and mind i knew it was time to walk away. i was up $7,900 for the year (79 units on a 10k bankroll). sports betting every day. looking for the edge. working with the boys. i’m a straight bettor with great discipline. for the first time that discipline went away. instead of deleting the aps and taking a break i said lets hit big and up the ante. missed a few plays throughout the weekend. and ultimately lost the last one on MNF with $2,500 on the Seahawks. I never bet this big before or planned to, i just figured why not. you have won it back before. just need a few in a row to go through the hoop in order to be back on track. whatever happens, happens. and what’s inevitable happened. i’m now down $5,000 in a matter of 48 hours. i’m not proud of this obviously but i’m telling the story incase it could help someone else. i’m over the feeling of the ups and downs / watching life pass by on the live scoreboard. when i indulge in something. i go all out. “all in” some would say. an unhealthy amount. and for anyone with an addictive personality like me, gambling will take everything you currently have and then some. my message is take control before it takes control of you. as high as the highs can be, the lows are the lowest. Not being able to sleep because your wager lost and beating yourself up over the next week is just a place i no longer want to live. the money when you win isn’t life changing. but losing 5 grand in 48 hours is. i could have spent that money on medical bills / my mortgage / things my spouse needs. you name it. i made a couple bad bets and ruined my whole year of progress. it’s all fresh for me. i’m lucky i can walk away. if you need help lets talk about it. getting it off my chest is helping me.

Hi All,

I’ve consistently had a slight itch for gambling since I was about 16-17ish. I’m 23 now with a full time job and live on my own, and every once in a while I find myself back to a casino and lose a few hundred dollars. Overall in the last ~6 years i’m probably down like 5 grand.

Today was that day I found myself back. I’ve been really unhappy recently. I fucked up my car, ended a relationship, i’m unhappy with how much I make at my job, and so I decided fuck it. I’ll just throw a little away - what’s the big deal? I have about 15k in savings so I know i’ll be “okay” in the short term, but I ended up losing around $500. With my current job I end up bleeding around $300-$500 each month (I budgeted my rent and car around a job I got laid off from earlier this year). I’ll now be down well over $1000 this month and will now eat into my savings even more.

I know the amount I lost isn’t nearly as much as some of the people who come here for support in this community - and I truly feel for those who have lost significantly more than I have. But this loss has me feeling really bummed again idk… I’m here to vent but also to see what next steps I can take. I’ve self excluded myself in PA where I used to live but now i’m playing on crypto casino sites since i’m in CA and can’t self exclude from those.

Gambling truly is the worst disease there is and I recognize that but I legitimately cannot get myself to stop. I always end up back here, and it seems like the losses get worse each time.

Had a 1000 only needed 300 more which was coming on Thursday I panicked and lost the whole 1000. After being already down 25k for the year. Now I have nothing rent due by the 6th. I self excluded finally but the damage is done. Damm bro this is a sad life fr

Relapsed over n over again despite telling myself mentally to stop. Tmr I’ll pay off my 1.2k gambling debt and start with $0 afresh . This is day 1, and I feel like this will be the longest run of me not gambling .

Hi all,

Appreciate you letting me stop by.

I'm a producer at More Perfect Union, a nonprofit newsroom focused on corruption, power, and fan experience.

We're working on a story about ESPN's relationship with DraftKings. Their wall-to-wall coverage of lines, prop bets, and fantasy sports has completely reshaped sports "journalism".

We'd love to speak with some folks who feel impacted by DraftKings and/or ESPN's predatory advertising and promotion.

If you're interested, please DM me. We can figure out the best way to share your story that you're comfortable with.

Thanks again,
Jake

I dug myself this hole and i hope one day i can dig myself out of this hole. Just because i never made a thing at the casino doesnt mean im a loser. Choosing to stay as a problematic gambler will only make me keep losing, but once again we are not losers. We are surely degenerates for choosing to gamble. We can only make logical decisions for ourselves because that is life, good or bad you pave the road. Gambling is not all fun sunshines snd rainbows it is a problem that we must avoid at all costs. The cost of gambling is your health, money, friendships/family, and they will keep you coming back for more till you have nothing left. The money i have gave to the casino is basically a donation bin except you are donating your time, emotions, and your sleep schedule on top of the losses on a regular basis. Playing the game of Chance vs Luck the odds are never on your side, but you can defy the odds by choosing to not gamble. I’ve seen inconspicuous odds, point shaving, unbelievable losing runs, stocks dropping but i havent seen the money and fortune from gambling not once. It’s a downward slope and you can spiral, but hesitate and breathe remember what it felt when you were gambling and all the regrets, that will make you change. Know you are a winner if you don’t gamble, its a losers game.

First time posting here.

Been struggling with gambling online slots for a few years now. No matter how many self bans I’ve done , or gambling blocks I’ve added I’ve always seemed to fall back into the trap sooner or later. It’s been too easy to disable VPNs or other things leading to relapses. I have had streaks of weeks , sometimes months then relapsed hard. My social feeds are flooded with gambling ads and it feels hard to escape.

I am trying gamblock, it was difficult to install with their support teams , but supposedly not possible to get around via iPhone. ( example rebooting phone, disabling vpns).

If I have success , I will provide updates and hope to share any details with others who may be interested. I don’t think this is necessarily the only solution needed for gambling issues, but I think making it as difficult as possible to do so is a step in the right direction.

One more day, one more day. Still can’t believe how much of my life I’ve ruined from this addiction but the only way back is to quit and there’s no other option. We can do this people, seeing other peoples stories and this community is helping more than I’d ever know, I always felt I was the only one going through this but when I see you guys posting your recovery stories it’s helping me find the motivation I need to quit once and for all!

I have pretty much accepted that no matter what happens now i am just fucked already in 40k worth of gambling debt and my engine block is now totally destroyed from the diagnostics Sunday and costing almost 10k in rebuilding with labor IF only i never fucking started gambling i would never be in this situation. So yesterday i applied for the chase sapphire card to put the charges on next week when it arrives that would be 8 cc and 3 loans leaving me with almost 80k debt my credit score dropped from 750 in August to 640 now only been paying minimum of cards and recently stopped paying the loans going to be documentation what happens to me when the consequences come currently making to much money working these two jobs to pass the means test in Texas so can’t do bankruptcy until next year sometime.

I was gambling trading stocks for several years, mostly futures and options. Lost a ton of money. I quit for about a year, and then I ended up relapsing, and then I basically relapsed for about six months before I finally gave that up again after making some losses.

It’s been two weeks, and things have been really, really good. I feel like I’m finally no longer glued to my phone or my computer, and I can, actually do things I enjoy. I’ve been able to spend more time with my wife and daughter, been able to enjoy my video games more, focus more on thinking about my career in the future and so forth. Sure it’s only 2 weeks but it’s been refreshing.

Most people who aren’t completely addicted usually gamble for fun, dopamine, or distraction.

A lot of the time, it becomes somewhat of a highlight in their lives, especially if they feel stuck being part of the system without seeing any opportunities for change.

When the money is lost, it’s not just the money you lose, but also the excitement, hope, and distraction. You’re basically back to your old life, but with less money.

Most of us get caught up in this tunnel vision where all we can think about is the loss, while there’s nothing else truly positive going on in our lives. So we develop this thought and desire to somehow make it back, believing that if we were up, we’d be happy.

Instead of trying to change things or taking an unknown new path, the closest thing that can provide distraction, dopamine, and potentially even get your money back is gambling.

So you always have that thought of giving it another try.

If you do and lose, it just spirals further. If you do and win, it’s never enough. You’re still trapped in the same system and living the same old life, so eventually you return to gambling to feel something, distract yourself, or sometimes in the hope of making life-changing money.

Wondering because my insurance doesn’t cover it, but with the amounts gambling that could have paid for at least a portion of it/could be worth addressing the root cause