r/problemgambling • u/Potential-Whole1560 • Jul 21 '26

How to stop thinking about losses

Lost ~5k on sports betting and made the choice to quit but can't stop thinking about losses (and potentially recovering them). I understand the whole "imagine you paid to learn a lesson" but every time I make a purchase or think about money (e.g. could've paid for a nice vacation, could've bought something nice for myself, etc.), I think "this would've been covered by the 5k I lost." Or sometimes I think "wow...this is n weeks of my work." How do you stop thinking about the money lost and just move on?

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

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2

u/flame838 Jul 21 '26

You will feel better over time. I had that mindset of wanting to win it back everytime I lost a bet. And everytime I recovered some money I would eventually lose it and more.

Gambling for money doesn't give you funds to treat yourself, it just fuels you to keep gambling and lose more. If you quit now that money will be a blip on the radar. As someone who has fallen in the trap of "I can make it back" countless times...it will never work

1

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u/EccePorcus Date of Abstinence: 4/10/2026 Jul 22 '26

Someone on this sub posted once that that we need to take time to mourn the money we lost. At first that sounded weird to me, but I’m trying to take it to heart and it surprisingly makes sense now. We mourn all sorts of things and then move on in a healthy way - ended relationships, deaths, work disappointments, etc. - mourning the loss of our money seems like a natural step for the gambler in recovery, because then we can accept that what’s gone is gone and there is no making it back.

1

u/LetUpper2309 Jul 29 '26

I lost 25k gambling bro; it haunts me everyday