[Closed] New Wednesday Gambling Support Forum

The forum is closed for tonight, we will be back next week, however if you need to contact us you can use our contact form on our website, or email contact@motiv8.im Our support team will be in touch with you within one working day. Don’t struggle alone we are here to help. Thank you for joining us tonight and stay safe.

Thanks for the chat it's been helpful. 

Bye for now Tee, take care of yourself 🙂

Wednesday 26th November. Tonights forum is from 6.15pm to 7.45. We will be discussing tools to help you when you are tempted to gamble. 

One of the tools that we use here at Motiv8 is about coping with urges and challenging the thinking that feeds the urge.

When the urge hits, identify the thought driving the urge to gamble. 

Examples:

• “I can win it back.”
• “This time might be different.”
• “I know the odds—so I have an advantage.”

Then ask:

• Is this 100% true?
• What’s the evidence for and against?
• What happened all the other times I thought this?

This breaks the illusion of control or luck.

If there is anything anyone would like to discuss please pop it in the chat 🙂

Good evening 

HI there, how you doing tonight?

I’m ok getting over a quite a big relapse when I look back over the past few months. Waking up int middle of the night on payday to spending not thousands but winning thousands but not collecting 

I have since put blocks in place and given a last and final chance from my wife. I’ve transferred the bank account my wages are paid into to my wife’s and not wanting to have access to money only while in or at a shop paying for something 

Hi Scorpion,

I see you have been through a lot, and gambling has taken its toll on you, personally and relationships too, its great that you have stopped now and put tools in place to help you. Payday can be a massive trigger! 

handing over your finances to your wife, is a great step, it helps not having money in your bank account, takes the compulsion to gamble out of hands. well done for that move. How have you been coping with urges? 

Another useful tool we use here at Motiv8 is called

“Play the Tape Forward” 

This essentially gets you think about if you acted on your thought, what might happen. 

Imagine the full chain if you gamble:

• First bet
• Losing track of time
• Losing money
• Feeling shame
• Trying to hide it
• Stress afterward

This helps you to connect with the reality of your gambling and the consequences by visualising how it can play out. 

Also, by the time you have wrote this down -- the urge to gamble may have reduced significantly. As urges dont last, they normally only stay for a max of 20 minutes, if you fight it. 

Pay day I think was a massive trigger for my hopefully moving the money away from my account will help. When I look back it’s weird my body actually wakes me up automatically I never had alarms set