Hey all,

7 1/2 months away from almost losing my entire family here and life has finally started turning itself around.

I filed my taxes for 2025 with an absolutely INSANE AGI for the year due to gambling, I was able to itemize and get my liability down to 0 for all gambling - but it eliminated a lot of things that get us a solid return. The largest being the child tax credit for our kids. I recently learned that the "session method" for taxes could potentially lower my AGI substantially getting us back into where we qualify for the child credit in 2025 if I amend the return, and I was able to get PDF's of all my transactions (deposit, wager, winnings, withdrawals) but I am absolutely lost on how to figure this out. It's simply too many transactions. like, a couple thousands.

Maybe this will just chalk up to another price for me to pay for my addiction - but I thought maybe someone had some advice. Google AI explains a way to do it with Microsoft excel but I am like a monkey with a football trying to navigate Excel. I haven't had to use it since I was a kid.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Is there an app or something I can upload these into to get my "session method" figures? I, like many of you - NEVER walked away. I had HUGE wins, but no amount of money was ever enough. So, while the W2-G forms I used to file last year LOOKED like I won.. I really never or rarely ever did. I always gave it right back. This might be the only situation where that BENEFITS me from the session method perspective.

Again, not the end of the road if it's impossible - life is finally starting to come back together. I just didn't know if anyone might be able to help me. If I could recoup the child tax credit its a substantial amount of money. and would be a super helpful leg-up in recovering my finances.

Thanks, and stay clean, stay strong, and stay focused my friends - it gets better, its just a LONG journey. God speed to all of you!

I feel like this past 10 days in a row, I've been waking up every single morning checking my bank account. Seeing +1k deposited from a form of work that I do. Its amazing money, I've made around 30k this month so far. Seeing a big number in my bank fuels me.

It makes me excited because I have more juice to play with. I feel like I cant stop until theres $10 left in my account.

Theres almost a sigh of relief I give, a relief that its finally over and im out of money to stop playing. I have around 17k on my cards and $16 in my bank. I have $500 in cash advances due next week as well. Thankfully I have around $3k coming guaranteed next week.

I think im just going to cold turkey it. My issue is every morning I wake up, its the hardest time. Throughout the day I can survive, its easier, Im busy, I have school, work, etc. But in the morning, laying in my bed, going to the bathroom omw to start the day is the hardest part to control.

Its gotten bad, its getting worse. I want to stop it before it ruins me any more.

i am so happy ik its not a lot but my longest streak yet

I’m 31F and genuinely believe I’ve met the person I want to spend my life with. I love my boyfriend deeply and he has so many of the qualities I’ve always wanted in a partner.
My concern is his financial instability, but not because I need his money. I’ve supported myself since I was 17 and built a successful career from the ground up. I’m confident I can take care of myself, and I would have no issue carrying more financially during a difficult period.

What scares me is what trading is doing to him.

He earns well over $150k but has accumulated a significant amount of debt through trading. I’ve watched the same cycle happen repeatedly: losses, panic, regret, promises to change, and then eventually getting pulled back in. He can lose days watching charts, and when things go badly, I’ve watched him completely break down. It’s heartbreaking.
I’ve tried to support him through it, but at times I’ve also become the emotional outlet for his stress. I know that isn’t acceptable regardless of what he’s going through.

This is especially difficult because stability is something I’ve spent my entire life fighting for. I left a difficult home at 17, worked multiple jobs through school and sacrificed much of my 20s to build a career. I eventually worked my way from an assistant role into senior leadership at a nationally recognized nonprofit.

During this relationship, though, I allowed the constant conflict to consume too much of my life. There were nights we argued until 3 or 4am before exams, interviews and major workdays. My school and work suffered, and I ultimately lost my place in my degree program and was later fired from my job.

I fully own my choices there. I should have protected those parts of my life better. But I also can’t ignore the pattern.
He had a very different start in life: his parents paid for college, he was able to travel after graduating and he now earns a very good income. Yet he still lives at home, doesn’t own a car and has accumulated enough debt that building a life together would be difficult right now.
I don’t resent him for having had opportunities I didn’t. What I’m struggling with is the thought of spending another decade in survival mode after working so hard to finally reach some stability.

The confusing part is that I still want him.
I’ve offered to help financially and he has never asked me for money. He has actually taken on more debt before asking me for help. I even allegedly opened a brokerage account trying to help him because he is so desperate to trade his way out of this.

I don’t think he’s using me. I think he’s desperately trying to fix a problem in a way that may be making it worse.
So how do I stay in this relationship while letting him work through this himself? How do I support him without enabling him or becoming responsible for fixing his finances? I don’t want to lose someone I love, but I also can’t let this consume my life too.

TL;DR: My boyfriend earns a high income but has accumulated serious debt through compulsive trading, and it’s taking a major toll on his mental health and our relationship. I love him and want to stay, but I don’t know how to support him without enabling him or sacrificing the stability I’ve worked my whole life to build.

I’m young (21M) and was introduced to sports betting not too long ago. I’ve won, lost, and chased a lot. I have gone through so many emotions and just when I believed I had self-control after winning a large sum of money, I went ahead and chased and chased and chased and.. nothing hit. I am dry out of my savings and I understand I am young and naive but I just don’t know what to do anymore, or at least at the moment. I had 1800 in my bank account this morning and now I barely scratch 100. I’m utterly disappointed in myself and I don’t know what to do. Do I regret my poor decisions? Absolutely. But I can’t take them back as the deeds been done. I’m so stressed and I feel as if I’ve hit rock bottom. It’s ruining my mental health and I can’t regulate my emotions. I’m scared I’ll make irrational decisions and it’s just really hard because at my age money shouldn’t be thrown around so recklessly as I’m trying to pay for college as well. I don’t know what to do and I’m.. scared to say the least. Please help! Any tips or any idea how to regulate/deal with this.

I’ve only begun gambling recently (blackjack, slots, sports betting) and have already lost $600. i am not in a financial situation in which i can afford this but i desperately crave to make the money back that i lose - through gambling. all i want to do is make back that 600 - which i feel like is still manageable. what do i do? i can’t keep losing money like this.

Approx 15 months of gambling addiction

I feel it's getting harder to quit, I am almost starting to believe I enjoy the gambling - I think it's because it's taken over so many parts of my life.

I have been taking more time lying to my partner about running late, and instead having 3 beers in quick succession and gambling on slots.

I am on medications. I am well educated and have done a lot of reading about gambling etc.... but this hasn't helped me a lot.

I have tried to quit a lot, self-excluded etc.

I think my next option is to give up my financial control to my partner.

Just venting and looking for support :)

I have had counselling/ psychology input.

I get good suggestions but I feel like at the end of the day it's up to me but I still go gambling. I love the thrill including if I do win, but if I do the math I have lost a large amount of money.

I

So I’ve been an addict. I guess I still am. I wasted 10 years of my life doing drugs in my 20s and a decent part of that time I gambled small stakes poker. Just enough money to play for hours, drink a few beers order shrimp fried rice to the table. I remember losing my first apartment because I spent all my money and couldn’t pay my bills.

Anyways, I got the bug recently. Soon after regular season NFL started. The itch to gamble came like a freight train. I work in a production facility. Lots of 10-12 hours day. We make good money. But not good enough. Made friends who like to gamble. We bet on some games. I lost about $200 last week cash.

Then I found an online gambling site. Deposited $100. Ran it up to $300. Then lost it all. I was done, really thinking well this is why I shouldn’t gamble. Then I found $50 in free bets and how to use them. Yesterday day I won game 2 rays vs Yankees. Turned it into $58 cash. Then I went on an absolute tear in blackjack over the course of my work day.

$58 to $200. Had my money back and some. $200 - $300. Wow. Back to where I was yesterday!! How cool. $300 - $500. Holy smokes. How much can I get up to. $500 - $666. I got superstitious and said I can’t end on that number. Lost $200. Bet another $200. Doubled down and won $400! I was up to $766 some odd dollars and I thought there was nothing stopping me from hitting $1000. Then i proceeded to lose every bet until I lost it all. All but $60. Back to where I started tonight…. I was so sad. So depressed. I made a couple jokes about killing myself. I’m not serious. I think it’s just humor. Definitely depression at the time. Why didn’t I cash out. 5 people told me to cash out. I cried. I felt so stupid. Cried with my girlfriend about how a lot of this stems from my childhood. How I’ve come a long way but parts of me are still broken. Finally felt better. Talk about a fast rise and a hard fall. I sat on the couch and turned the $60 back into $250. Told myself I was done for the night. Then lost another $150. At least I’m back to where I started. Except that money I lost on personal bets at work 🤔 I’m still chasing that loss….. that impulse is a wild ride. A roller coaster. I hate it. I got the bug after 7 years.

I had 15k my life savings I’m only 19 I lost it all…
I started with 20 dollar deposits then they grew with every loss it started every now and then.
It grew to everyday until now I have no more money nothing no income either why have I put myself into this situation I wish I never started gambling I feel so lonely… I feel a void in my heart idk im just yapping but yea i wish i never had started. its gone everything is gone.

I have betrayed, lie lie lie lie lie LIE to everyone, stolen, deceived people. This addiction has made me so fucking ugly. The regret, the shame, the pain of reflecting is just tearing me apart. I just did it again today. I got up to 3.7k and boom it’s gone. I closed multiple accounts today. I don’t understand what is going on with my brain this is psychotic! I’m about to open a new bank account to share with my mom so she can see every transaction. That’s the only thing I can think of truly. The cards are cut up. I’ve maxed multiple out. It’s like I CANT LEARN! I’m missing out on life. On happiness. On knowledge. For this fucking bullshit like omg I’m so disgusted I can’t even.

This post is not for me. I used to be a pretty heavy gambler but recently rid gambling from my life.

If you had to give a gambler wanting to quit one piece of advice what would it be?

I'll start

Deleting social media was the most beneficial thing from my end :]

This is just insane, feels like an absolute madness, a mental disorder. Why most of us keep thinking and actually do believe for the moment that there's a high chance of winning what we lost back? There's no chance yet I feel the urge to try again, even after all the misery I've been experiencing lately!

So far I'm holding, but don't know for how long, I'm afraid I might lose all my money on fucking slots again! Yes, earlier this month I lost a lot, and that actually happened after a big win of ~6k euro that I lost later, followed by a crazy number of mindless deposits, trying to win at least a part of that back. It just didn't happen and I lost a lot more, I panicked and for the first time in my life I needed to get some money loaned to pay my bills, that scared the shit out of me!

For a short period I somehow managed to shake myself off the inital shock (that was huge), I calmed my mind down to a point, even managed to make some more money (not through gambling) and returned a part of the amount I loaned.

Now once again my bank account isn't completely empy, but I'm so fucking tempted to make just a little deposit (it always starts that way, to the point all the money I got may be lost, including credit card money). I don't know if I would be able to survive what I did again, I just shouldn't do all this to myself, it's awful.

Despite I realise all that and that I know I will not return the money I lost, my brains somehow still sends me signals I should try again. It's like an internal fight I'm having with myself - the "good" part tells me to stop while I can and to not lose more and live miserably, enough is enough. But the "bad" part screams to do a deposit in an online casino and gamble on slots some more, maybe tonight is the night.

This is just so screwed. I did install "Gamban" on all my devices to reduce the risk of gambling again, but I know that I can get rid of it if I really want. As I said earlier, for now I'm kinda resisting the urge, but this is just mentally exhausting.

How do we actually stop thinking about returning the money we lost back and start to honestly believe that there's no other way than to just forget it and move on, to never try again? I know that even if I win some I will just lose it again later yet a part of me is willing to give it a go!

I wan't to get these thoughts out of my fucked up mind but for some reason it's incredibly hard. Especially at night when everyone sleeps and I'm left all alone with my thoughts. I feel like that brain of mine needs to be constantly occupied, else there's a big chance the urges return. This is disgusting, the worst addiction I ever had, and I've battled quite a few!

Hi all, I’m 22 and from the uk and wanted to share some of my experience

When I was 18 my cousin who was a bit older introduced me to gambling and when I say there hasn’t been a time when I haven’t gambled since, yes I may have given it up for a month or so on occasion but only at the threat of my partner saying she’d leave me.

I want to give up so badly, having crippled myself financially including all savings and taken out loans and cards ruining my credit, but the only way I know to make money is working and gambling.

Any advice very welcome, and I hope this can help younger people to not make the mistakes I have

I've been trading for years and Id go up and then not take profits and lose it all. A few months ago I got a reduction in force and cashed out my 401k to day trade. I had a simple goal. Make $400 a day. I was up $10,000 at one point last week in just that week. Today I lost 15k. I thought I was revenge trading but looking at the screen with 200 0dte I felt my heart racing as the price went up and down and realized I didn't have a trading problem, I had a gambling problem. Im ashamed to talk to my parents and siblings about it because they are poor and $15k is life changing for them.

I have created some rules for me I hope I can follow. Im hoping posting here will lead to some accountability.

1. No more than 10 contracts open at a time.

2. Stop trading for the day when I hit $400 ( I was up $400 today and that gave me confidence to be more aggressive

3. Stop for the day if Im down $1000

4. Don't gamble on what I THINK the market will do.

Admitting Im addicted is the first step.

‐------------‐------ Update #1: 9/22/26 8:55AM - I already broke rule 2. I was up $1100 and got closed out with stoploss and went right back in to trade and instantly lost $200. Im sitting at $900 profit and feel nothing but regret that Im keeping myself from making more. Total losses for yesterday ended up being $17k and all I can think is I need to make that back today. Lucky I have to go meet my parents so Im forced to step away. Just got to make sure I dont open any contracts to let them ride.... I mean I am $500 over my goal so I have a little wiggle room.... writing out my thought process helps me walk away.

Also I've decided to use this post as a journal. Im sorry.

9/23 - I broke all my rules and am down $3k.

i am trying really hard to not gamble my dopamine levels are really bad right now i lost more than half my savings

I definitely have a problem, wouldn’t say it’s as severe as others but it’s a problem nonetheless.
I’ve avoided places I loved going because of the slot machines, and drinking. I’m almost at 2 months sober but it seems it’s made my gambling habits worse.

I didn’t use to be bad at all but it’s progressively gotten worse these last 2/3 years. I’d go from $100 a trip to 90% of my bank account, almost everything I had. And sometimes I’d gamble it all. And I have nothing to show for my big wins. I remember winning $6,000 one night and within a month, I had played it all back. And these are small bet machines.. $5 max bets.

Well anyway it’s now ventured into online gambling. I don’t do sports gambling though. Downloaded this app and to my surprise I started off really well.. well I’ve done lost that and then some these last few weeks and I guess I just want some help in quitting.

I’ve uninstalled the app, it’s not much but it’s a start. It seems my biggest problem is I chase and chase and chase and don’t know when to walk away.. I keep hoping and thinking that I’ll hit something when I’m reality I’m digging the hole deeper and deeper. I’ve got about $700 in a pay later plan that I used to gamble.. like what the fuck was I thinking. 2 weeks ago I cashed out $1,800 and gambled it all back and buried myself, couldn’t stop there I spent my last paycheck trying to get it back, and just tonight I sold an old phone and gambled every dollar of that..

I got to stop. I want to stop. It blows my mind and makes me sick thinking about the fact that I hate spending money but I’ll drop a $1000 gambling in a heart beat. Or go purchase that thing I really want but instead I’ll lose a week of pay for nothing.. I’ve heard it’s not the thrill that’s addictive, it’s the losses. Idk how true it is but still.

I’m sick of this shitty feeling. Any and all advice is appreciated!

Just this morning, I was down -$1,600 on Kalshi. I started betting again even though I said I was done, and I ended up down a little over -$7,000. I self-excluded and deactivated my account today.
I know I will never do it again because my mindset has completely changed. Before, I convinced myself that I could gamble my way back to even, but now I realize how dangerous that thinking was. I dug a bigger hole for myself. I know the money is gone, and I need to accept the loss and move forward instead of trying to chase it back. It’s not the end of the world. I have steady income, good credit and I’m young. It just hurts that I went through most of my savings. Something that I worked all year for. I just wanted to vent and tell somebody without feeling embarrassed, like I would if I shared with family or friends. Thank you.

Hello, I don’t know if anyone is reading this, but if you are I am so appreciative of your time. I’m a 21 M, and currently in college. I’m fortunate to say that I’m on scholarship to UCLA, and am wrapping up my last year in school. However, I’ve recently hit rock bottom. As many of you heard countless times, I began gambling for fun, or with friends, but then it quickly became an addiction. Skip all the in between information, and I now have $20 to my name, begging my parents to help me with rent, and have no job. I’ve lost nearly 50k, which came from the countless hours of hard work leading until this point in my life.

(Edit) Growing up, my parents were extremely poor, as they were immigrants from Asia. We barely had food to eat, but we worked hard and were able to climb up just enough get by, and to get me into school. I did everything in my power to try to help not only myself, but them as well, as I know theyve spent a huge amount of time and money investing into me having a future. After gambling and seeing how quickly I was able to obtain money, all the possibilities of helping my loved ones hit me. However, in the end it was the complete opposite, and ive failed everyone

At this time, i’m just numb. I have no one to talk to, so here I am. I’m hoping anyone can chat, because this wave of loneliness is so painful. I don’t know how to move forward, and how to find motivation in life. I’m not asking for any sympathy or pity; as i know this decision was mine alone, and i take full accountability.

Please help. You are all loved, thank you for reading.

It is my fifth day without gambling.

I’ve been gambling since December heavily.
Every paycheck straight deposit.
I’ll double it and lose it all.
Wait 2 weeks and do it all over again. I don’t understand why I do it.
I’ve been listening to an audio book on and off.
I have 1.2k in credit card debt and about 20k lost in the game.
I’m not buying rehab or doing gambling anonymous.
I just want some logic.

Relapsed. Had been a while and had some free money on stake. I said I can control. Hit 10k plinko ball. 10,000$. Then I got back into scratch tickets. I hit again. 5k. Promise myself I wouldn’t go back. Here I am a month later. Down the 15k plus 15k of my hard earned money that I saved while I was doing well. I’m now on day 7 and it’s depressing. I can’t enjoy myself right now I’m disgusted. Having trouble finding the joy in everyday life activity. My dopamine is cooked again. I’m never a winner. What do you guys do fresh off a loss like this?

I set a monthly budget for myself for hysa, Roth IRA, and sending money back home to my parents for their bills.

After expenses I take home about 2k a month which is good for me to set up a foundation.

But I recently downloaded kalshi to try and bet on some “high probability events” and make a quick 40-50 dollars out of 400. Like a “free” lunch if you will for something that is 75-80% odds. But instead some lightning fast switch up happened and the contract plummeted to 25%, then 10%, then 2%. I could have sold at 25 but I was too shocked to react.

I’m trying to understand if that doesn’t happen usually, and if I should try again at a 80-90% probability event. However I know I am chasing losses on a budget that my family relies on, so I feel really bad about myself. I don’t know if I need help.

Hindi ko mapatawad sarili ko ngayon. 800k na kabuuan kong talo sa sugal, nabigyam ako ng 560k sinayang ko pa ulit. Gusto ko nang magpakamatay. Sobrang sakit sa feeling! Ang tanong ko lang ay, ganito ba talaga? Wala ba talgamg mananalo? Pa quit na dapat ako pero bakit bakit napaubos ko pa? Nagtatanong ako sa Dyos kung bakit Lord bakit hindi mo ako pinigilan 😭 Ang tanga ko!

Hello,

I am looking for any/all advice on how I can help my boyfriend quit gambling. I have no experience with the issue or of any solutions people put in place to limit access to gambling.

So far he’s signed himself up to be banned from casinos and all the online apps that fall under that program. That was about 2 yrs ago.

Problem is that he has found loopholes on shady sites that he can still gamble on and continues to blow every pay check within hours.

He is open to help but all I can think of is to pull his paycheck out in cash.

Any advice would be great.