Hopefully my story might make some people realise the damage gambling can do to ones life and the others around you.
So lets start from the begining. At 27 I started having seizures, sometime down the line I eventually realised that I had been hiding the depression this was causing me. I found gambling to be somewhat of a really helpful distraction, this just started off as little football bets. One day Coral sent me 100 wager free spins and i won and cashed out £100. I got it in my head "this is easy" BIG MISTAKE.
To supress the depression I used all of my life savings to gamble on slots. When I ran out of funds, this is when I first talked to my wife about it. She was great and was very supportive, as she was from day one of my Epilepsy. I somehow managed to go for years without gambling, I really can't remember how. Might have been down to having no money to gamble with and the support of my loved ones.
Epilepsy was getting worse and worse, and I had that feeling like I was on a downward spiral. I was offered brain surgery to stop the seizures all together. I really thought this would be a turning point in my life and jumped at the chance. 19th May 2019 came round and I had the brain surgery. For two years it was great at I didn't have a seizure and life felt great.
Then that fatal day of when they started again came around, my life changed again and that spiral of despression began. Once again I started to gamble and they wife found out. I promised her I would stop, which I did for a good amout of time as I used GamStop, then all of a sudded a had a very bad seizure, one of the worst I had before the surgery. The cycle started over again. The gambling, getting caught and the lies to the wife that I would stop. I even took out loans to gamble, which I am still paying off now. The loans totaled up to £7k. I don't remeber how many times this cycle went on for but eventually it led to my wife dispising me and deforcing me.
So as i write this now, I live alone, rarely see my kids and always feel sad about what I gave up for that dopamine fix.
I am an on and off gambler at the moment. I keep finding different none GamStop casinos, I play for a bit then ask them to close my account due to me having a gambling problem. So I guess I am slowly getting better as I get that courage to close my account pretty quick after opening one. When I know I have nowhere to gamble the thought actually leaves my mind.
I actually cried when writting all of the above as I miss my old life before Epilepsy and gambling, but these things can't be changed. So I now have to concentrate on the positives, like been seizure free for over 3 years and the ability to drive again.