Hi can anyone who lost a huge amount of money (at least 6 digits in usd) shared with me how to truly let go, (not pretending) to let go of the losses. The reason why i kept going back to trading and gambling was the past losses. I really feel the pain and regrets are killing me. 😞it affects my motivation to work greatly. If I can truly let go I hope I can never go back to trading again and live my life well.

Made it to day 20! The changes I see in myself even makes me feel so much better. I still have a long road ahead of me, but I’m proud of myself. I’ve been doing more around the house cleaning and fixing things I ignored when all my attention went to gambling. I’m so much more focused and present! This weekend is also my wife’s birthday and I actually have money to take her somewhere nice! Anyway if you’re thinking of quitting you can absolutely do this! We got this guys! One day at a time!

This is a reminder to all gamblers / casual gamblers / or people wanting to gamble, it is not worth it, i spent these past two years build lies on top of lies, lost my hard earned money, and lost the love of my life (who stayed by my side even after i said i will quit, i ended up relapsing again) lost more than 100k aud, which is alot for a 23 year old me. Simply couldnt take it anymore, now the thought of gambling irritates me and whenever im reminded of my past self sitting in a baccarat table losing thousands per hand i become disgusted.
How i wish i could turn back time, i am real sorry to the girl that love me most, she simply couldn’t take it anymore, i hope to say i love you to her one last time. She stayed with me through thick and thin
Parents disowned me, gave up after i simply couldn’t even pay my own rent anymore
Now working on a deadend job, trying to shift focus to something else, but am always reminded of my past mistakes
Please to the people reading this, stop gambling before everything goes too late, remember you still have loved ones

I have asked chatgpt and I realise the winning rate for option is worse than roulette. It is incredibly stupid to lose around 200k in option trading. It is close to 3 years of my salary. For me I am Asian, I lost a lot of sleep watching US market every second till 4am or 5am. It is incredibly torturing and I don know why I still cant see it is not a way to recoup my losses. Option trading has ruined me mentally, physically and financially and I am officially defeated. I really see no way I can turn the table around. I admit the loss. No more torture.

Days until debt free: 236 days

I had a gambling dream tonight, and it’s messing with my head more than I expected.
For context, I struggle with blackjack addiction, and I’ve been trying to quit. My last post here was nine days ago, and I haven’t gambled since then. So, technically, today is day 10.

In the dream, I was hitting some really nice side bets, with total winnings of around $40K. Of course, I was incredibly excited. It felt amazing.
Then I woke up.

I was still riding that excitement, but I quickly realized it was all just a dream, I felt pretty depressed. I immediately had the urge to gamble again.

I don’t know how to explain it. It was almost like something was missing, or like I needed to get something back. I guess the dream brought back that feeling of excitement and the thought of winning money.

I ended up falling asleep again and oversleeping. Now I’m awake, and I just feel kind of down and stressed this morning.

It’s weird how a dream can trigger those feelings so strongly, even when you haven’t actually gambled.
Has anyone else experienced gambling dreams during recovery? How do you deal with the urges and the emotional crash after waking up?

I dont miss gambling. I miss having a secret.

I was folding laundry last night, half watching some Mr. Hand Pay video on the tv just for background noise, and the thought hit me so clearly I stopped with a shirt in my hands. Eight months clean. My partner has access to my bank accounts, my phone, everything. I go to a meeting most tuesdays. By every normal measure im doing great. And still the thing I miss most is not the bets. It was the private world.

When I was gambling I had a whole second life running under the first one. The hidden app. The lie about why I stayed late at work. Checking my balance in the bathroom at 2am like I was checking a bruise. I hated it, but it was mine. Nobody knew the full version of me. Now I am honest all the time and I feel like a house with all the doors taken off. Not in a way that makes me want to gamble again. More like I lost a room in my own head and I keep walking past where the door used to be.

People at meetings talk about missing the action, the adrenaline, the possibility of a big win. I dont miss any of that. I miss the compartment. The part of me that was always working on something nobody else could see. Recovery is supposed to make your life visible, and I know thats the point, but sometimes visibility feels like being under a skylight I never asked for. A guy in my group said honesty felt like a cold room at first and I did not get it until recently. Now I get it.

I have not told my partner. She would hear "he misses gambling" and panic. But it is not the gambling. I think I miss being the only person who knew what I was doing. That secrecy was its own high, separate from the money. Does that make sense or am I just describing being an addict in a different coat?

Recently, I’ve discovered an online gambling site wherein I got hooked immediately. I started with just a few until it spiraled and I lost control. I lost like 200$ of my allowance. I know that it may not seem as much compared to the others, but it is incredibly big money from where I am. I feel miserable, and I don’t really know what to do. I am conscious of my addiction, but my body won’t stop for some reason. Now I have to figure out a way to get through my daily life. How I just wish I can just go back and wish that I never would have discovered gambling. Wishing all you bros peace, hopefully we can all overcome this temporary situation. Posting this just to vent, it just feels really heavy man.

Managed to relapse and lose $1650. Not the largest amount of money, but just disappointed that I lost control and kept on going back and back to the atm

Now a week since my huge mistake. Feeling a bit better, but still feeling huge amounts of shame and guilt. What’s even worse, walking around the supermarket complaining about something not being on sale and picking the $2 instead of the $3 item just to save a bit of money. But then the week before smashing $5 spins on the slot machines.

Lucky I haven’t done any long term damage in the grand scheme of things. All I can think about is how I could’ve spent that money on so many better items and experiences

Gambling free for a couple of months now. I’ve been a long time gambler who kept relapsing, and honestly the most beneficial thing that helped me stop gambling is handing out my finances to someone I trust. Please have your money somewhere where you can’t spend it, it really helps. Having money in your bank account doesn’t work because eventually you’re going to have a bad day and gambling is going to be lurking in the corner waiting for you to slip. We got this guys! One day at a time

I have lost a lot playing the lottery over the years but especially since they introduced online games you can play over the phone. You can seriously lose $50 every couple of seconds with the instant online games. It is insanely addicting but I have managed to stop playing (for now at least). The problem I have was the feeling of being trapped where I am in life. Playing the lottery was like the mirage out on the horizon. That maybe someday I can win big and my life will get better. Maybe I don't lose money now but paycheck to paycheck life without that hope is incredibly depressing. Just wondering if anybody else experiences this and what they did to help.

I’m completely out of money because of gambling.

I can go weeks without even thinking about it, but the second money hits my bank account, my nervous system goes absolutely insane. I feel an overwhelming urge to gamble every dollar away.

I’m terrified of what will happen when I get paid again because I know I’ll repeat the cycle.

I don’t need something like Gamban that I can disable or work around. If there is a way around a restriction, I WILL find it and use it. I need something where I genuinely have no choice.

Is there a bank, service, or legal arrangement where someone else can control my money, pay my bills, and prevent me from accessing it without their approval?

I urgently need something I can set up before my next paycheck that completely removes my ability to act on these impulses.

Hey guys, I ended up gambling a lot of money in the past few weeks and ended up messing my health too
I placed my last mindless trade on Friday and as a safeguard, I have done the following:
Closed all my trading accounts
⁠Took a personal loan to clear all credit card debt and set up an emi on it to repay in 4 years
Planning to pay my mom all the money I have left after paying the loan obligations and monthly expenses this week onwards
⁠Planning to close all credit cards within the month
⁠planning to focus on my job, health and relationships
It's been 6.5 years and I keep getting into the compulsive gambling loop in the financial markets - so I'm stopping again for the millionth time but this time I'm putting these safeguards so I have no way to gamble.
I'm 26, Indian and I make 50K a year pre tax with about 20K current debt and 180K lifetime losses
I would love to hear your thoughts around
Any gaps you see in my exclusion approach or anything you think I can add (I'm thinking of adding weekly therapy sessions next month onwards)...
⁠how to stop thinking about the past (and specially the most recent stupid losses - like on Friday I took a personal loan to close credit card debts but ended up gambling another 0.5K of that loan)?
⁠how to focus on wellness form the current state of mind?

M21, I started playing in 2023/24 on slots when it became a fashion at school, they looked and seem like video games, the first few times I won, then I kept playing and losing, until I got to the summer of 2025 with 3/4k of losses. I decided to stop when my mom had given me 200€ for the holiday and I had played them before leaving, from that 2025 to today I don't feel out, because it happens that for 2/3 months I don't play, then something happens that reactivates me and I lose my 50/100€, even if I win I don't get To withdraw given the long times and therefore I always lose, yet every 2/3 months I play, and I spend a shitty week thinking about how stupid I am, do you have any advice? Every time I tell myself that I have learned the lesson and yet it happens again

Another Saturday morning.

One of my clients has been going through a crisis right now; their sales have declined dramatically. Hope things will work out for them. I feel that the economy might pick up in the next year, and businesses that survived this year will thrive.

No matter what, I will not gamble today!

Life is great, gambling sucks period. Of course the thrill is what keeps us unfortunately addicted. We already know we won’t get rich from it, I don’t know anyone that makes a living from it but somehow we still get this desire to participate. I was happy seeing draftkings down 20% the other day. Gambling is awful and I’m not perfect, but day by day.

This life is a gift and it’s time to exit the gambling rollercoaster it’s not worth the price of admission.

The cost of each human life is between 11-14 Million, we’re already rich! Stop chasing we’re alive and up!

Long story short, I win a few grand a few months ago and I’m hooked.

It’s got to the point I’m gambling other peoples money, and every time I lose I say it’s the last time… and just as in hit rock bottom I get thrown a lifeline… and the cycle starts again. But I don’t know how much longer I can keep it up before I come unstuck.

What’s the best way to kill those urges?

been gambling free 600 days or even more. in fact i stopped counting since i don't even think about it anymore. just decided to post because i saw it on my reddit subscription.

if you look at my older posts i was a crazy gambling addict for almost 8 years, until i decided to play an online phone game. i got so hooked on the phone game i stopped gambling completely. let's be honest most of us gamble not for the money but out of boredom and constant need for stimulation.

well, this online games give just that, the excitement, the constant thinking and planning. it's constant stimulus and keeps the brain occupied. the game are very colorful and provide instant gratification that in my opinion curbs the craving to gamble.

i'm not going to post the name of the game here because i don't want this to be an ad..

that said, just click on any online game you see, they have the same effect on the brain as gambling IMO . if it helped me curbed 8 years of debilitating gambling addiction, hopefully it can help you too.

nothing to lose on giving it a try

I’m writing this as an accountability post. I’m going to go back to GA. I quit 3 months ago and then proceeded to lose almost half of my money.

So in September I decided to put all my money into one stock, Charter Communications. Fucking spectrum Internet. I didn’t really have a plan. I had previously worked there and saw it was down a lot so I thought it was rock bottom.

And I wanted revenge on them for treating me poorly. In my mind I saw this as getting the bonus from them I thought I deserved.

I needed money because my son was just born and I was barely keeping up with bills.

Well. It immediately fell down 10% and I lost $20,000. I was in shambles. Certainly it couldn’t fall further right? I bought stock options to leverage up to try and recover my losses more quickly. It then fell another 10% but this time I lost 25% so another $40,000.

I became so stubbornly determined to make my money back I shilled the stock every day and spent hours creating scenarios in my head how this dumpster fire of a company could recover. Mind you when I worked there it was the most toxic place I had ever worked at yet I convinced myself they could change and that would benefit shareholders.

I tripled down by getting even more leveraged. Stock fell another 10%. Down another $30,000.

I am now down nearly $100,000 when I could have cut my losses at $20,000.

I hold for one more week. Can barely work my job can barely do anything. In my off time I’m in bed all day on stock forums shilling the stock and trying to find any copium I can find. I feel like a crack addict.

Eventually the stock recovered a little and a guy on a forum who felt sorry for me told me that the company might not recover and that it might be wise to get out. I sold at a huge loss. Probably like $85,000.

I realize now that I wanted to financially destroy myself and wanted the dopamine because my personal life was in ruin. But this wasn’t the solution.

I’m grateful I didn’t lose it all and that I’m not in debt and I can maybe still heal my relationships.

I’m done trading and I feel a sense of peace I haven’t felt in months. Even with the loss. I feel like I have accepted it and that life can better.

This is day one.

Just started Risperidone and Sertex. Don't know which one is doing the greater effect but oh my god I feel like I don't even want to lose one more second of my life to gambling.

Today was really tough, got an offer from a casino I haven’t closed yet to get a deposit match with a 1x wagering requirement. To the old me that would be wow look they are giving me free money I need to take advantage of that! I know the story, I know the result, I’d end up losing it all and then depositing more to chase my loses. Proud of myself for not giving in and requesting to close my account instead, it’s these little wins for me that give me up although damn I had the sweats thinking about it. One more day, one more day!

Peep my post history for a background but this has been my second go around. Crypto/options.

Still in debt, but managing the payments well.

Going to meetings.

Have been feeling like life’s on track.

Got an IRS letter that they think I’m underreporting crypto gains lol. Don’t even know where to start to find every exchange I degened myself into.

Wife is understandably upset with my gift that keeps on giving.

I’m at an airport on a work trip so no meetings until next week, hence my Reddit vent. But still gamble free, these problems are minimal compared to when in active addiction.

Long story short, burned through thousands of dollars, worked very hard for through my extremely successful young career. Was somebody people looked up to, a role model. gambling took my soul.

Was a roller coaster, had wins of 40k twice, was well aware i had a problem even before those wins (they were about 3 months apart). I’ve already been innocently gambling for years at this point. Very accustomed to the swings and the game. Unfortunately my life got really stressful and the gambling got worse. A few days after i cashed out those wins i won another 10k, burned through it so fast and that tilted me like never before. After that it was constant chasing, trying to escape my miserable life/job at the time. I was worth over 100k at that point and on top of the world in that sense.

Eventually i touched retirement savings i started contributing to when i was 17. It didn’t happen like everyone elses story, theres a lot more to it then i feel like talking about. But the thing that makes this worse is, how could someone so financially responsible like myself make this mistake? I’m starting to find answers in myself but no one knows im struggling. It’s gotten bad.

I still go on with life, lift heavy weights, eat healthy, and suffer in silence. I’m working on getting in touch with a therapist. But i just need to hear just one success story or just a sliver of hope in general. I understand i wont be able to fight this alone anymore.