Hi James,
Well done on looking for help.
You are not alone with this problem. Read the other stories here, you will see a lot that you will relate to, you will also see the success stories – what are they doing that you can apply to your own situation?
As you are talking about “punds” i am assuming that you are in the UK? You have a lot of help available to you. Here and other similar sites, Gamcare, Gamblers Anonymous and more. The important thing is to use that help – if we could do it on our own thennwe wouldn’t have the problem in the first place.
As Jonny has suggested it helps to get some barriers in place. If you owe friends and family 12k then at least some must suspect that there is some sort of problem, even if they don’t know what.
There are a lot of options around these days regarding the finances. The Citizens Advice Bureau or StepChange will talk you through those options and get you to a place where things are manageable.
The important thing though is to stop gambliong, otherwise of course sorting out the finances won’t be possible.
There is a lot of life after gambling I promise yopu, if you do have those thoughts though then there is always someone to talk to at http://www.samaritans.org/
I suspect that you will have had a fairly crap Christmas, it’s what you do NOW that will determine what future Christmases will be like.
Keep posting and let us know the positive steps you are starting to take.