Hi joey, welcome to these forums and hopefully this will mark the start of a new chapter for you.

I can see a lot of myself in you. I’m currently 27 as well like you. I had gambled since I was very young as my dad plays poker. It was never a major issue until early-mid last year, when a $500 loss just kept escalating until I’d lost my entire $23,000 of savings. I had a good job, a great gf and everything else was looking up in my life at that time.

This is where you are now. You must stop now.

I ended up taking out a $20,000 line of credit and blowing that too. I ended up treating my gf not the way she deserved as well due to my addiction. My work performance dropped. I stopped going to the gym.

This is where you’ll end up if you keep going. Self-exclude and STOP now. Confiding to your SO will actually take a massive load off your shoulders as I’m sure she has some kind of inkling that something isn’t quite right with you at the moment. But that’s ultimately up to you. The main thing is you STOP now. You said you’ve hit rock bottom – trust me, the addiction will take you to lower rock bottoms that you would never have even thought were possible.

I’ve stopped my compulsive gambling for just over a year now and feel great, despite having a few minor relapses (3-4 since). Everything in my life has become a lot better since that period of madness over a few months.

Go to GA and if you’re suffering from depression or anxiety – seek help from your GP/counsellor. The main thing is to NOT gamble – self-exclude, limit access to your funds. Hand over control of your finances to your gf if possible. All the best.

Hey man,

How about getting a gambling blocker? I used betfilter myself and for a fairly low subscription fee (you can choose 1 or 2 years) all gambling related sites (but not recovery forums like this) will be blocked on your computer/laptop/phone. It helped me stay clean for 6 months right after the peak of my addiction. Again like I said confessing to someone else will help you mentally.

You sound like you make good money so all you need to do is to STOP spending it on gambling. You can easily look back after a year with decent savings and in a much better place if you stop now. You need to be patient…that is the key. No quick fixes…gambling will not save you…it will only make you go lower and lower if you continue. Change your life path today.

i think you’re dealing with urges to win back all the money that you lost. Me too, so many times but always ended up losing more than i could afford. Stop and find a way to clear the debt, step by step, creditor by creditor. I used to think that i could do that in a day, it ended up lasting a year.