I’ve never really gambled on sports before. I made a few casual bets last week, got lucky early, and then things escalated way faster than I expected. By the end of the week I was down about $2,000, which is basically one paycheck.
I’ve deleted the apps and I don’t plan on gambling again, but my brain cannot stop replaying the loss. I keep looping on thoughts like “if I’d stopped earlier,” “I could make it back with one bet,” or “that money was meant for something else.” It’s not destroying me financially, but mentally it’s been exhausting. I feel drained, distracted, and stuck in regret.
For people who’ve been through something similar, how did you actually move past the fixation on the number? Not just “accept it,” but genuinely stop replaying it over and over.
I’m not looking for ways to win it back. I’m trying to move on and make sure this doesn’t turn into something worse.
Any perspective helps.
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2k is small it’s just tuition in the school of life. I lost a mustang when I was younger that I had just bought for cash for 15k and I was hit and it was totaled and I didn’t have full coverage so it was a total loss. My Kia was just stolen this year too. A few months back I had a medical emergency and had to get a cat scan and paid over 3k for the medical bill. I took a trip with my ex one time and it was pretty horrible, she was black out drunk the whole time and treated me like shit, hotels were 600 a night and pina coladas were 32$. I spent 7k on that trip. One time I went to a strip club and spent a couple grand and regretted it. TONs of different expenses for car maintenance over the years. Bought my sister a 1500 couch while I was living with her and paying her rent only to leave cause she couldn’t go a day without screaming over everything. It’s all just life things money comes and goes. I’ve had plenty of night where I lost a grand or so at the casino but stopped gambling for a very long time. Then I got into online gambling and I lost nearly a quarter million on Stake in 2022, 2 Bitcoin 15 Ethereum. That amount I lost on stake will take at least a decade to recover. If you get a sales job 2k is less than a couple weeks of work, less than rent in a lot of places, less than many medical bills, less than many car mechanic bills, about the price of a really nice couch. You will be alright it can get so much worse, an ambulence ride costs over 2k.
A large portion of gamblers are bipolar. I am. Your rumination is a sign of BP. BP gamblers are hit the hardest. I was one leg away from $87k in December. My other parlay legs were hitting and none in jeopardy. 3 minutes left my team was -1500 with 16 points up They ended up losing by one point.
willpower alone is not enough to overcome this addiction. there is a switch in our mind that needs to be turned off. its pyschological.
if this switch is not turned off, no amount of willpower or money or time you have is enough to kill thiz beast in our mind.
this addiction is pure psychology.
rewire your brain by understanding and acknowledging that you would not continue harming yourself knowing there is nothing good coming out of this gambling activity.
once that switch in the brain is turned off, you will be free, no urges to gamble. trust me.
I have lost 100s of thousands of dollars. I stopped fixating on the number and replaying the horrible decisions over and over by grieving the loss of that money and accepting that its never coming back.
People lose money, sometimes fortunes, on all sorts of things. Gambling is just one way to do it. Drop the ego and stop feeling sorry for yourself. Money comes and goes, if you have an ability to make real money you will probably make other poor financial choices in the future as well. Have humility, learn from it and be patient
My mind won’t stop thinking about even the tiniest loss or even if I forgot to use a coupon on something at a store. lol So I am already set up to think about things that aren’t perfect, apparently. I just keep trying to remind myself over and over the reality of situations. In my case I am not behind all time, so it’s obviously not as hard as for most here, but even still if I lose any of it I get upset and I am trying to quit betting and I have almost had disaster losses lately. I had goals of how much to get back and I passed all but 1 goal, but I think I may have to forget that last one because it’s so easy to lose and then I’d drop below previous goals I had.
Anyway, also I try to remind myself that one single loss is a trivial amount of lifetime money as long as one can stop right then.
You can document down to the dollar what you lost and vow to replace it by working, saving and forgiving yourself along the way. The money will not only be replaced but valued and respected more once you’re done. ✔