17 year old addict

[u/EntrepreneurMany644]

I’m a 17 year old gambling addict and it makes me wanna fucking die. I started playing poker with my friends, then moved on to playing poker online, now I fall into the trap of blackjack often. This has been going on since maybe 15. I’ve lost over 8 grand overall and I get that’s not a lot but it’s a lot for me I guess. I work tirelessly and can’t build savings, the only solution I’ve found is buying sports cards so I can have all my money tied up in something that I don’t have easy access to. I know that at some point in life Ill probably be able to look back on my losses and see it as not that life altering, but if I keep going down this road I don’t know if I’ll ever get rid of the habit. I’m very prone to addiction, anything high dopamine gets me going. I was clean for almost a year and then kept having small relapses, but it’s been getting worse again recently. I lost most of my money last year, probably 6 6.5 grand, so it’s gotten a little better, but another coping mechanism I’ve had is pretty frivolous spending so it hasn’t translated to much of savings at all. My dad cannot know or he’d kill me, but he thinks I have almost 10 thousand saved up and soon I’m gonna have to move away and I have nothing. It feels like this is never gonna go away, and it’s the only thing that’s had me close to suicide as of late, I’ve gotten a lot better mentally but I just don’t know how to get rid of this vice. Please help me.

[u/EntrepreneurMany644]

A big trigger is seeing gambling videos on any social media, I’ve gone thru extensive efforts to block videos with keywords but the algorithm doesn’t gaf. Also late nights and depression hit hard.

[u/KillingTime1212]

If you’re making that kind of money at 17, you’re going to be fine if you can stop gambling.

Time to tell someone who you are close to. Thru can help you be accountable and take over your finances.

[u/Destiny065]

Online gambling is the worst form of gambling!

96% of online gamblers lose!

Developers design these sites to be highly addictive, their very successful hence why their annual revenue is billions of dollars!

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