[Advice/Tips] My drug/gambling addiction

First of all, I don't know whether these threads are allowed or not but I've been struggling with drug addiction/abuse and I've got a gambling problem. I'd really love some advice from people who have gone through the same. If this isn't the right place (health) or not allowed, please (re)move it.

So my main substances are; Cannabis, Benzodiazepines, Alcohol, Cocaine and Ketamine. I am also heavily addicted to smoking and took every drug out there basically. After I completed my 60 days in rehab I relapsed quite alot. Mainly Cannabis and Ketamine, on top of that I started gambling quite alot losing most of my savings. Just to get that thrill. I've got a script for my Benzodiazepines now so I am still on those aswell. I can't seem to stop, using my creditcard yesterday to gamble and lose ofcourse.
Anybody out here who has the same experiences or gone through something similar? I'd love some advice or tips and tricks to get out of this hole. I am very depressed (yes I am on a high dose of anti-depressants) and have multiple anxiety disorders including OCD which don't really help in my recovery.
Every piece of advice is welcome.

Thank you for reading.

 

Hi Machead,

This will probably be better in the https://www.sythe.org/forums/personal-support.527/ section will get a mod to move this for you.

You sound very alike myself at a certain time in my life. What I would suggest is to go to any type of gambling helpline and say to them that you require help, Even if you go to a support group this will really benefit you! The drugs is similar go seek help! Alot of people are afraid to seek the help required but honestly its not there for no reason they do not judge, they are there to help you.

 

Hey @Machead, firstly thank you for publicly posting this. Not many people have the confidence to share their troubles and that is something I respect.

I personally have not experienced this myself, as I have stood away from drugs throughout my life but I have been surrounded by many individuals who I have seen gone through similar issues as you. One of which actually hits too close to home... I'll give you a little backstory so that you can see/understand where my words are coming from. My older cousin was an absolute doll growing up. She always played with me and looked out for all of her friends and family. She was the type of girl that would brighten up the room just by being in there and everybody loved that about her. In high-school though, she hung out with the wrong crowd and things just went from bad to worse. She started doing drugs, sneaking out to parties, and being arrested and detained in jail for being so intoxicated/high on drugs.

For me, it was quite devastating to see her throw everything down the drain for the "next high" she was looking for each and every time. She viewed it as a release from the pains she was currently experiencing and I honest to God tried my best to help her. Her family and mine are very very close and their home is like a second house to me. Same for them towards us. I would always be visiting and just go on car rides with her and just... talk. I remember her being so depressed that she wanted to kill herself but I started freaking out because I was in the car with her as well and she snapped out of it realizing I was there too...

How is she now? Well, she got herself kicked out of her family's home because she stole $40,000 worth of jewelry from her parents and pawned it off for cash for drugs. She also has had 6 kids but nobody to call a husband. All of her kids were taken away from her because she is incapable of handling herself well, let alone children, and she still texts me from time to time asking for help. It's been some time but thankfully, she has started following my advice for her on how to get out of the hole she got herself into.

I'll tell you the same thing I told to her over the phone...
1. Ask yourself and truly mean it... "How committed and willing am I to getting out of my current situation?"
- This is one that will be incredibly hard to overcome. Battling addictions is absolutely no cakewalk and watching my cousin struggle with it and update me each and every time breaks my heart. She is suffering through the cravings and temptations but she wants her kids back so badly that she is willing to go through it all for them. I suggest that you find something that you absolutely cannot live without and have that as your goal. So that whenever you are tempted to relapse, you remember why you are even on this path so you can fight it.

2. Make REALISTIC goals for yourself.
- It is easy to tell yourself, okay I plan on never touching these drugs for the next year and i'll be clean. My cousin said this at first and I immediately told her she will fail if she does this. You have to keep it 100% real when making goals. Instead of completely cutting it off, look for ways to minimize or even substitute for patches. If you go completely cold turkey your body will certainly go into shock and you will never make progress like this. Do you spend X amount of $ per week on drugs? Well try to lower it more and more each week until you spend barely at all. Instead spend that money on safer alternatives like I mentioned above [patches].

3. It may sound tedious, but make sure you ask yourself before you do something "Will this help me in the long run?"
- My cousin thought I was joking but she told me that this has been one of the single most important things that has helped her since she started. Every single time she is tempted to relapse, she asks herself that question, and it reminds her why she is even battling her addictions to begin with. I highly recommend following this up by self-reflecting every single night before you sleep so that you can look over what you accomplished and also where you fell short.


When it comes to depression, trust me, I know it is no cakewalk. I feel that if you implement what I mentioned above and start seeing actual changes in your life, then your depression might also subside as well. I feel I might be overwhelming you with too much information so i'll leave it at just 3 points for now. Feel free to tag me with your thoughts and I will happily share more with you since this is something I am very very familiar with handling (as I am still working with my cousin to this day on this).

 

Little addition as well incase you may not have seen it, this sticky here has a bunch of useful tips and links that you may find helpful.

Feeling upset, depressed, angry, suicidal? Useful links and numbers.

Again, simply tag me if you'd like more from me as I quite honestly don't mind sharing it with others

 

Best of luck man. It's not easy to do but your self awareness is a HUGE asset in this situation. I know very very very few people will be able to sympathize with you so take advice from non-professionals here with a grain of salt. If I were in your situation I would try to taper down until I was down to just weed, but I'm obviously not you. You've got lots of time to fix this-- I believe in you bro.

 

Thanks for all the replies, its appreciated.

 

do what you've always done and you'll have what you've always had.

good quote with meaning.

 

Gambling addiction is probably one of the most cruelest addictions there is, because once you become an addict, that rush of dopamine and thrill you get becomes so addicting. I struggle with that too, and recently relapsed the other day after fighting so hard. My best suggestion would be out of sight, out of mind. Try your best to remove any ability of you to gamble and enable yourself. It’s not worth it letting yourself back on these gambling sites and losing more money and feeling that same level of guilt.

 

I've excluded myself from my ususal website and have set limits for gambling. Gambling should be fun and not about money. I am trying to pace myself now.

 

Sometimes though if the addiction is real you shouldn’t even be in that position to begin with.

 

True.

 

Be around positive people who understand what it's like to have these addictions. Your surrounding is vital during these hard times.

 

i agree 100% with this, having a good support group who will not enable you is crucial in getting better and i owe it to my friends for keeping my grounded

 

I'm someone who hasn't ever touched, drinks, drugs or any of that sort, but i feel like the main this that keeps me away from anything like this is knowing that i DONT need it and I will enjoy life without these things, gambling is kind of different because if you (have) you can always (bet) so if you didn't have it you couldn't if you know what i mean?

You've got to be at rock bottom to realise that the gambling will always be there but the money won't be you gotta provide for your self and your own well being, you just need to know that YOU matter, the drugs don't, the gambling doesn't - The Gambling doesn't care about you and you should try and not care about it, I know it's better said than done but being able to open up about this kind of stuff to the interenet especially is a big thing in itself

I feel like hope hit a lot of the right tips and prizford, your surroundings is a huge thing!! and if you have access to drugs you'll always want drugs, you need to block the people you buy from if you buy them i'm not sure or just get rid of the people that can provide the habits for you, with gambling just know, It will always win, they have unlimited amounts of money and they can keep going until you lose it all theres never a goal in gambling because you always want more it's in human nature to want MORE and more, it's always "i'm up i should do the odd number to make it even" then you're upset about the last loss because us as humans obviously don't like losing things, I don't know much about this kind of thing but i hope this kind of helps a little bit

TLDR; You matter, Drugs do not, gambling does not, build an empire without the gambling, you got this!

 

Yes yes yes, positive envoirement and people helps alot
Also get a job? or set goals in your life
Life can be hard but it for sure is damn beautiful if you know what you're living for

 

1. Have no free time[get 2 jobs/read books/play video games/work out literally change you're whole life]
2. Find a reason to do this [a girl/a family member/ a car/ a new house]
3. GET RID OF EVERY SINGLE DRUG USING FRIEND YOU HAVE!!!!

 

Thanks to all who have posted. I've read it and appreciate every post.

 

Hi @Machead so i'm not going to lie and say I have read over the whole thread because I haven't, mainly just the title.

What I can say from personal experience growing up though, my dad was a alcoholic/drug abuser from the age of 17 (when he had me) all the way up until a few years ago so we're talking 20-23 years of substance abuse.

My dad used to live with my grandfather as he couldn't support himself due to these addictions, each time he would pick me up and take me there let's say on weekends when I would spend time with him it would consist of - 5-6 litres of cider each night, some crack cocaine and the occasional bit of other stuff.

I was a small kid then, let's say 4-12 years old, after that I started to notice things. Back then things like the gameboy advance and the pokemon games etc all came out and were like the best thing since sliced bread was found to us children, so my dad being my dad went and bought me some of it all. A few days later, he turned up "oh Dbuffed, I need to take it away to get it repaired for something" and I never saw it again, in fact I didn't see him for weeks after.

After that he ended up back at my mothers house claiming he was waiting to see me with a strange lady (I assume she was a prostitute idk), and went up to my bedroom. You can guess what happened next, I walked in to one of them injecting the other with a needled substance. (heroin I assume)

The point of my story is, my dad has since had more children (2 girls) who he nearly lost because his girlfriend at the time who he had these children with was also a sort of mild/small time drug abuser and alchy. She would have the odd line of coke, smoke plenty of weed, have some drinks and be away with her day, it came to the point they was going to lose the children or give the abusing of it up. She chose drugs and such over her kids, left my dad and he went cold turkey, yes COLD TURKEY which means basically he completely stopped at random, without any real knowing what would happen to solve the issue.

Me and my dad wont ever be what we was when I was a child, or what I thought of him as I loved him so much but we do see each other occasionally and we do have a good laugh when we do and that's nice. I saw him a few months ago sitting in his car outside a shopping centre and I said to him as he was peeling open a cucumber wrapper "what are you doing here?", he goes "HAHA Didn't you know? I'm a diabetic"

I know being a diabetic has nothing to do with the moral of what has happened, but generally speaking he laughed it off like it was nothing when it can be very serious indeed. I personally deal with problem in my blood which has blood clots appear in my blood stream all the time at random, he was up the hospital before my own mum to check on me and make sure I didn't need anything - If this was years ago he wouldn't have due to the substance abuse.

Fun fact though, his new girlfriend she has the odd drink occasionally let's say at a party, he wont he only drinks water. All of the people in this world smoke (other than me, because i'm a dickhead) including her, and he doesn't. She drinks energy drinks, and sometimes she will annoy him and go "do you want one?" he simply shrugs it off grins and says "nah i'll have a bottle of water, thanks for asking though"

It's just amazing how you can go from something so low to someone who now see's the importance of life, of everyone and everything around you and makes a change for the better, just remember you can do exactly the same even in the darkest of times.

 

I haven't walked the path that you're walking but I'll just say what worked for me. (i smoked 1 pack a day, smoked weed every day, had problems with alcohol and because of that lost a lot of money, my job, multiple nights in jail etc, so it's safe to say I had a problem)

I quit smoking cigarettes and weed (smoked both for abouth 6 years), I'm still drinking but I reduced the amount and have control over it now.

Find a good reason to quit. Because why would you quit if you don't have any reason to do so? Sure drugs are expensive, they're bad for your health, but those reasons are not good enough to quit (at least it wasn't for me and a lot of other addicts).

What worked for me is starting a business, I dedicate my life now to my business, I created a reason to quit. If I smoke a pack a day, I cannot invest that money into my business. If I smoke weed all day, I'm lazy and I'm not being productive and can't work. If I get drunk, I won't be doing jack shit and can't run my business. It's something I thoroughly love doing, I'm very passionate and enthusiastic about it and it's something I want to succeed in, and I know for a fact that with my old lifestyle I won't succeed.

Now I'm not saying that you should start a business, but try to find a genuinely good reason to quit, the reason could be anything, maybe a new goal, hobby, a lover, sport, as long as it's stronger than the urge of taking drugs or gambling. Step-by-step improve.

 

Hey there @Machead if you need any type of help, feel free to reach out to me! I know this is the first time you will be hearing from me, but I am here to support you fully. As far as drug addiction goes, I’ve been there. Gambling at casinos and online I’ve been there.
Gambling: No matter what anyone says, you as a person will do whatever you feel is right in your head.
There’s a scale that you will have to balance out and see which you would like. There is always a positive and a negative. Gambling you can make lots.. But can also lose your hard earned money. When you make a few hundred or thousand for example or even a smaller amount.. Walk away and be happy with that. Don’t let yourself become greedy and lose it all. I’ve stopped myself from gambling because I’ve lost all my hard earned money. I don’t do it because I know what happens.. You start winning and your mind tells you to keep going.. What happens when you continue? Your mind gets manipulated by your thoughts and pretty soon you will have no money.
Drug addiction: Everyone will have an excuse of why they use drugs. They want to escape reality to remove the thought of there depression or whatever battle they are facing. Sometimes others do it just for the fun of it. Drug abuse becomes very strong and effective to everyone’s life, not only the user. The person using has lots of people who care about them, even when they think they don’t. That’s the negative in there head thinking for them. There is lots of alternatives rather then to turn to drugs. The reason I say that is because I was an addict for 5 years myself, and pulled myself out of it. It was hard to remove myself from that lifestyle, but it was worth it. Some people it’s easy to stop, and others it’s a lot harder said then done. If you ever need anyone to talk to or vent to, reach out to me. I would love to help you!
Whatever you are dealing with in life, I’ll keep you in my prayers man. God loves you and everyone else!
I’m not sure if your into Christ at all?
The Bible is always a great resource as well❤️.