Video Transcription

Gambling – When you can’t help yourself, trust the other person to help you.

“I started off gambling when I was 17. I realised I had an addiction when my friend actually told me, ‘You gamble 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 was something I could not afford over a long time. I would earn around $500 every two weeks, and I would gamble about $600 per week. It was something I didn’t even realise until I actually could not afford to buy food anymore.

That was the point I thought, ‘I might have some issue.’

Gambling often made me feel sad, excluded, and segregated from others. I thought, ‘There’s no one that can help me out.’ There was 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—being able to navigate our way through.

When you can’t help yourself, at least trust another 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 in the end, when the right person comes and you find that right person, everything should be fine. And everything will be fine.”

Video by Responsible Gambling