Gambling Awareness, Little Religion and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

By Reginald Bullard

Whether you bet on sports, scratch cards, roulette, poker, or slotsin a casino, at the track, or onlineproblem gambling can strain relationships, interfere with work, and lead to financial catastrophe. You may even do things you never thought you would, like stealing money to gamble or pay debts. You may think you cant stop, but with the right help, you can overcome a gambling problem or addiction and regain control of your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524525903

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Copyright © 2016 by Reginald Bullard.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016911583

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5245-2592-7

                Softcover        978-1-5245-2591-0

                eBook              978-1-5245-2590-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation

Rev. date: 07/14/2016

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Contents

Chapter 2 Depression, Suicidal Thoughts, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the Word of God and How I got better

Chapter 3 Signs of the Last Days

W ell, let me

introduce myself. My name is Reginald Bullard, and I have been gambling for twenty-five years, ever since I was fifteen years old. I meant, ever since 1990. Now I’m thirty-nine; so for about twenty-four years, I’ve been gambling. It’s not easy. It’s an addiction. It’s hard to quit, and I have lost hundreds of dollars. Let’s face it: the average person will lose more than they have won. You get that gambling bug, and the gambling bug causes you to just lie to yourself, saying, I lost this much. I quit. I am not going to lose no more. And you take a chance because you don’t know whether or not you’re going to win or lose. You’re taking a chance. I have won, but not comparing to what I have lost.

I prayed to the Lord to let me quit shooting dice, but I don’t have the willpower to quit. I didn’t play cards that much, but I have lost at playing cards, but not like I have with shooting dice. I lied to myself, saying I quit, but I lied to myself. And I thought about going to the rehab. I needed to be rehabilitated because I was losing everything I came across. I couldn’t keep money long at all. I went on a fifteen-year losing every penny a get a hold to. Then you get discouraged and call yourself all kinds of fool and wish you never started gambling because you never have nothing on gambling. It seems like you just gave that money away, and it’s a hard time. You got some who lost their bill money and don’t know how to pay their bills.

Gambling has messed up marriages, and some people have lost their cars, houses, and businesses and have felt like fools. It’s an addiction, like drugs and any other thing you can get into. It’s not easy because if it was easy, people would quit going to the casino. The average casino makes $90 million a year. Because people are gambling and losing their whole check, they feel depressed afterward. The best thing to do is to get out of denial and admit you’ve got a problem and that you need help and need to stay away from old friends who love to gamble. I thought about signing myself to a rehab because I send myself going down. I have seen people lose every penny they came with, and they would borrow money and sometimes borrow more than they could pay back. You’ve got to get out of denial because, like I said at first, you’re going to lose more than you’re going to win. Go to a rehab, get some help, and quit hanging around those who love to gamble. Because if you hang around those gamblers, and could trick you. Just think for a minute whether gambling comes from God or the devil. It comes from the devil, and it is not easy to quit. If you quit shooting dice, cards, and all types of gambling, you would probably feel better about yourself. You’ve got to rebuild your mind and say, I am not going to gamble. I worked too hard for my money, and money doesn’t grow on trees.

Put your money to good use and mean every word that comes out of your mouth because it’s a hard time. Have you lost all your money before and said to yourself, I couldn’t do anything else with that money besides gambling it away? I noticed I lost more than I have won. Times are too hard to go to the casino or gamble on the street.

There was a time I quit about six months. Gambling is an addiction, just like anything else that could get you hooked and take you for every penny. It’s fun, gambling, but only as long as you are winning! It’s not so fun while you are losing your hard-earned money. I asked this lady if she gambled. She said she worked too hard to gamble her hard-earned money. To stop, you got to stop hanging around your old gambling partners and tell yourself you are not going to gamble because old friends will keep asking you to gamble. And some people said to set yourself a limit, and when you lose that, just quit; but it’s not easy.

I can think over the years about all the money I have lost. It was hard on me because I am poor enough as it is. I used to lose everything I had in my pockets. Like that famous singer says, You got to know when to roll, when to fold them, and know when to walk away. I have lost over 85 percent of my money. My choice of gambling was shooting dice. I couldn’t keep no money for gambling it all always. I stayed broke, and that brought on my depression. I said I must be a fool for losing all my hard-earned money. It was like a routine: get it and go gamble it away. I tried for years to stop gambling. It takes the average person everything they have. It seems like we pick all the bad and don’t pick no good habits.

I knew I had to leave those dice alone. I stayed depressed, and then I had to wait a whole month to have some money. I got behind in my child support. I gave my baby’s mother a little bitty hundred dollars a month, and I had to pay bills where I was living. So I stayed in bad shape, and I knew I had to quit. I had to stop hanging around people that shot dice.

I still relapse sometimes. I hate that I picked that habit up. I can do something else. I was in denial. I told myself I gain of times, I quit. I had quit for about six months and started right back at shooting. I knew I needed some help and fast. I am not the only with a gambling problem. I played cards and couldn’t shuffle the cards. I needed to go to a rehab or something because the devil had me. I lost every penny of my money and wouldn’t have no money to buy no cigarettes or nothing to eat. I was a fool, and sometimes, right to this day, I feel like a fool. I think of all the money I lost. I could have had a house or a car.

Between the middle of 1996 and 1999, I lost five hundred dollars a day. Some people have gone to the casino and lost their money and jumped off the lake. I lost more than I have ever won. I wish lots of times that I never seen no dice. I wish I would have taken the easy way, I mean, the safe way. I went for fast money and what I could buy. I wish I would have went to church, and paid my tithes and offering, and worked hard all my life. I’d rather do all those things than to gamble my hard-earned money that I had to wait a whole month for. My gambling problem got so bad I didn’t hardly have no money when I got my check.

I prayed to God to take that gambling problem away from me. He didn’t answer my prayers right there and then. I went about six months without gambling and started right back to gambling. It’s a shame to see something bring them and still fooling around. Millions of people got