My name is Riku Forsell

Hello Steemians,

My name is Riku Forsell. I'm 30 years old guy from Finland.
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I'm recovering gambling addict. Now I have been in recovery about 13 months. I have played different games: sport betting, slots, internet casino, internet poker, bingo etc. My gambling "career" started when I was about 12-13 years old. We have those slot machines in everywhere here in Finland. It doesn't matter if it is big or small shop there is atleast one slot machine in a shop.
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When I was young, age limit was 15 years to bet or play slot machines but oversight wasn't very good. So it was easy to play those machines as underaged kid. So I gambled most of my weekly allowance or any money I got before I turned 15. I remember that I had craving for the slots when I was 15 years old. Craving is one of those signs that you are addicted to something.

After I turned 15 years old I continued playing those machines and started sport betting and betting on horses. After I turned 18 years old I started playing internet poker. First I played freerolls and got every no-deposit bonus which I could find out. When I got to my first summer job I lost almost all of my salaries to poker. At that time I had my first attempts to quit my gambling. I managed to be without gambling about year or so. After that my gambling continued. It took some years when I only played money I had. When I was maybe 23/24 years I first played with my credit card.

After my first attempt to quit gambling I tried to quit many times and managed to be short times without gambling. When I was 25 I managed to be 6 months without gambling because I wanted to travel Rio De Janeiro. After two months in Rio De Janeiro and coming back to Finland, I relapsed again. I continued gambling. I played when I was drinking or when I was sober. Those times were very frustrating. Games controlled my life.

And couple years after playing with credit card I started to get loans for gambling. I managed to pay my debt back always until last time. Couple years ago I managed to get over 50000 euros debt because of gambling addiction which I couldn't pay back. Now I have over 60000 euros in debt.

Last summer I did also day trading with cryptocurrencies and noticed that it resembles my gambling addiction so I had to quit it.

I am also martial artist. I have over 10 years experience in martial arts: 3 years in karate and over 8 years in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I don't train karate anymore but I train BJJ. I have purple belt in BJJ. I have taught BJJ for kids, beginners and more experienced people. I also have over 50 competition matches.

Mostly I will be blogging/vlogging about addiction. I will tell everything I know about addiction. I see that there is only one universal addiction, only target is different for everyone.

Best regards,
Riku Forsell

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Any addiction is a risk but good thing you are doing your best to recover from it. Welcome to steemit I hope this is a good start for you. =)

welcome to steemit brother :) i hope you enjoy here

Welcome to Steemit Riku. That was an interesting journey. I know you said you will mostly write about your topic but will you also write about BJJ?

Thanks! I can write some posts about BJJ also. :)

That would be great and thanks for considering that idea. GOSTEEM

Are you fellow BJJ enthusiast? :)

Honestly your little post about BJJ made me interested to know about it and I am pretty sure there are a couple of people who would love to see more of it while you're at it maybe it would be nice to share

Yes. Probably here are some BJJ practicioners in Steemit. Also many people have no idea what is it like. :)

I agree and you can start introducing us the topic to keep this community going. Cheers

Hi this is @sarahandrew, Welcome on steemit, if you need help you can check @steemguide. Wish you all the best for what you are expecting here

hello @rikuforsell and welcome to steemit!

this is a great place with a great community .. glad to have you.
@ricmark

Congratulations @rikuforsell, you have decided to take the next big step with your first post! The Steem Network Team wishes you a great time among this awesome community.


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