So, I've been struggling with the concept of addiction lately. I have been gambling since I was 12 years old. My friend's grandma would take us both to bingo, buy our cards, and if we won we'd give her half. One of us would almost always win, never a lot, usually $20 or so. I also played scratch cards, as long as I had the money for them someone in my family would buy them for me.
On my 18th birthday I went to the casino for the first time (we lived in Alberta then, and 18 was the legal age) and I loved it! I was certainly hooked and loved going. I was a smart gambler, though. I never gambled more than I could afford, and I had a strict rule that if I doubled my money, I quit.
Then, I found online gambling. I'd say I was around 19 or 20, but I didn't really start wagering my own money until a year or two after that. I started off doing really well, with the same strategy I used at B&M's. Bet low, double my money, and quit. I'm now 27, and probably over the past year or two I have noticed a difference in my gambling strategy.
I have been in school for the past 11 months. It has been a difficult thing for me to do, and the school has not been without its issues - we switched teachers 4 times for various reasons, and my stress level went thru the roof. Then, my beloved grandmother died, suddenly and very unexpectedly. It was after that that I began to gamble more. So much more that the line of credit I opened to get me through school was maxed out 2 months before I was done. Credit card, same story. I worked my way through school, and that money disappeared, too.
Now that I am finished school, I have a lot of extra time. It used to be that when I was at home I had homework or studying to do. Now, I am bored and finding the urge to gamble pretty strong, although I do not have the financial means to do so. The fact that I feel the NEED to gamble is what has prompted this post. I respect a lot of you and while I tend to hide in the backround, I feel I know a lot of you just from reading your posts. I trust that if you tell me I have a problem, that I probably do. All the extra time I have really leaves me with a lot of time to think as well. I am so proud of myself for getting thru school and graduating with honors, but I am so not proud of how I handled my finances! I am smarter than that, and I am now way more in debt than I should be.
Could it be an addiction in the making? Or am I just a gambler? Gamblers love to play, right? Any thoughts? Don't hold back, if I didn't want to know, I wouldn't have asked.
On my 18th birthday I went to the casino for the first time (we lived in Alberta then, and 18 was the legal age) and I loved it! I was certainly hooked and loved going. I was a smart gambler, though. I never gambled more than I could afford, and I had a strict rule that if I doubled my money, I quit.
Then, I found online gambling. I'd say I was around 19 or 20, but I didn't really start wagering my own money until a year or two after that. I started off doing really well, with the same strategy I used at B&M's. Bet low, double my money, and quit. I'm now 27, and probably over the past year or two I have noticed a difference in my gambling strategy.
I have been in school for the past 11 months. It has been a difficult thing for me to do, and the school has not been without its issues - we switched teachers 4 times for various reasons, and my stress level went thru the roof. Then, my beloved grandmother died, suddenly and very unexpectedly. It was after that that I began to gamble more. So much more that the line of credit I opened to get me through school was maxed out 2 months before I was done. Credit card, same story. I worked my way through school, and that money disappeared, too.
Now that I am finished school, I have a lot of extra time. It used to be that when I was at home I had homework or studying to do. Now, I am bored and finding the urge to gamble pretty strong, although I do not have the financial means to do so. The fact that I feel the NEED to gamble is what has prompted this post. I respect a lot of you and while I tend to hide in the backround, I feel I know a lot of you just from reading your posts. I trust that if you tell me I have a problem, that I probably do. All the extra time I have really leaves me with a lot of time to think as well. I am so proud of myself for getting thru school and graduating with honors, but I am so not proud of how I handled my finances! I am smarter than that, and I am now way more in debt than I should be.
Could it be an addiction in the making? Or am I just a gambler? Gamblers love to play, right? Any thoughts? Don't hold back, if I didn't want to know, I wouldn't have asked.