Need help digging out of huge debt

Being gambling free feels good. I'm more focused at work. I'm enjoying the time I'm with my family. It feels good not being under the control of gambling. My mind feels free, like it has escaped from a vice grip. Doing better about not dwellling on the past. Just focusing on the present and planning for the future.

Alright, GameOver1, you are on the right track. You are living the life you ought to be living, and being the person you can be.

GameOver1 wrote:I'm still preoccupied with my debt. But at least I'm no longer preoccupied with gambling. For the fourth weekend in a row, I'm making plans with my family rather than focusing on what games I can bet on. I also don't have that constant tension of following a game and hoping my team or player wins while trying to maintain a "normal" demeanor around others. Now I'm actually paying attention and listening to what is happening around me. Kind of like coming out of a fog. A little surreal actually.

Over a month without a wager now. My wagering days are behind me.

Hi GameOver,

This is a very good topic. In fact, I believe in the feedback from the "seniors" are pretty much good and will help ex-gamblers in facing their debt issues.

I was into sport betting mainly soccer for a distant time ago. It was introduced to me by a former working colleague. That is always the case, someone will introduce you to this vices, and you will suffer getting hooked into it.

It took me many years to kick this sport betting addiction mainly soccer, but one of the main thing I realised that I should give up my interest in following soccer since it always kept me having the memories of this one live match which I watched in a pub with this same guy, and we both made a bet in which I lost and he won.

So I made this as one of my trigger point, not to watch soccer (in fact I don't subscribe to sport channel).

I have come to know that each and everyone of us in this forum, has some kinda of trigger point, of which if we failed to realise or understand, it can cause us to relapse back.

I wish you all the best in your GF life and I hope that with the therapy and experiences, you will lead a happy GF life.

6 weeks and still going strong. if I can do it, you can do it!

GameOver1 wrote:6 weeks and still going strong. if I can do it, you can do it!

Brilliant !

Stay on your guard - this is the beginnings of your recovery - the honeymoon phase , so to speak . At some point , the addiction may start trying to convince you that :

You're OK now , the problem is gone
You never really were addicted in the first place because you can stop whenever you want to .
You just needed to take a break
You can return to gambling but this time you will do it " in control " .

These are all bait for the trap . The addiction tries to convince us that we are denying ourselves something "good" and "fun" . Gambling is neither of those things .

Stay strong and remind yourself daily that gambling has no place in your life .

57 days of no gambling. But the debt remains. I no longer gamble my paycheck away. But everything in my paycheck still goes to credit card debt. So, I'm still always broke. $75,000 of debt and I don't know if I'll ever dig out of it. I hate living like this. I wish I never gambled. I wish quitting was enough to put it all in my past. I wish this debt would go away and I could get a fresh start.

I wish all of those things for you too GameOver .

And they will come to pass . You are on the path back to sanity and happiness and it may be a long road , but it leads to the life you deserve . I know it's hard , but try to be patient .

It was about the 4 week mark when I felt a real difference in the lack of urges to gamble. It was that point that my body came to terms with breaking out of the routine. How long before you come to terms with the finances and feel like you're moving forward with getting your financial house in order?

You need to stop thinking of the debt as huge and seemingly insurmountable. Think of college students who now leave college with a ton of debt from student loans, with no job in sight to begin paying it back. I knew a lady dental student, who told me she refused financial help from her parents and just borrowed through student loans for her 7 years of higher education; she told me her loan debt was about $300,000. She was not discouraged; she was positive she would pay it back in time. I believe she will, because of her attitude. Hers may be an extreme case but I'm sure it's not unusual for college graduates these days to have over $100,000 in debt. You are already making great strides in getting ahead in your debt situation by just not gambling. You just need to live a normal life, and make regular payments, even if small, to chisel away at the debt. You have a job, and that means you have a way to pay back your debts. Never think, however, that an easier and faster way to pay it back would be by gambling and winning it back. That would definitely be a way to get further into a hole you may not get out of.

Wise words from 58gambling ....

I was hyper-focused on getting rid of my debt during the first 9 months or so of my recovery . As I saw it slowly start to shrink , I realized that time was the only thing that would make it go away . I stopped religiously calculating how much I could pay on it every month and how long it would take before it was gone .

I started to let go a little - spend some money on myself , my family , put some of it away for an emergency fund . The bulk of my paycheck still went towards the debt , but If I gave my credit card $ 500 instead of $ 700 that month , I didn't stress about it .

It's about balance and you'll find it . It just takes time .