Video Transcription

Bayu’s Story – “When you can’t help yourself, trust the other person to help you.”

I started off gambling when I was the age of 17. I realized I had an addiction when my friend actually told me that I gambled too much. I thought that my behaviour was standard for being an Australian, I suppose, but the amount of money that I actually gambled every day is something that I could not afford for a long time. I would earn around $500 per two weeks, and I would gamble about $600 per week. It’s something that I didn’t even realize until I actually could not afford to buy food anymore, and that was the point I thought I might have some issue.

Gambling did make me feel often sad, feeling excluded, feeling segregated from others where I thought, “There’s no one that can help me out.” There’s so much stigma and shame behind it, so I did feel really, really hopeless. I opened up to my friend about gambling, and the compassion and receptiveness that she showed ignited me to change. It’s something that shouldn’t be taboo to talk about. It opens up a lot of avenues, you know, being able to navigate our way through.

When you can’t help yourself, at least trust the other person to help you. I think the most important thing is to talk to your friends about it. Being open is scary; it’s very, very scary, but at the end, when the right person comes and you find that right person, everything should be fine, and everything will be fine.

Video by responsiblegambling.vic.gov.au