¿Am I the bad guy for asking my mother for the money she owes me?

Hi, this is my first time writing on Reddit, but I hope some people read it. My mother is a gambling addict, to the point where she's up to her neck in debt to casino people, but she still goes to this day. At the end of 2025, around October or maybe September, my mother asked me for 5,000. I didn't have that much money, but having just turned 18, I was approved for credit on my card, so I decided to lend her the money, strictly specifying the payment date. She paid on time, which gave me some confidence, but this was the first red flag.

After I paid, she would always ask for the money back, and I would think, "Okay, as long as she pays me." This went on for about two months: she would pay, ask for it back, pay, and ask for it back, until one day she stopped paying altogether. I asked her, "What happened? I need the money for the payment," and she said she didn't have the money and that I should wait until the following month. I told her that those credit cards charge up to double the interest, that she wouldn't pay me 5,000, she would pay me 10,000, and I showed her the application. Besides being a debtor, she was also distrustful. I kept waiting and waiting, and she never paid me back, until she asked me for another loan on another credit card. Clearly, I got angry and confronted her, "How can you expect more money if you can't even pay the previous debt?" Anyway, mistake. She started crying and threatening suicide. Like any daughter, seeing your mother throw a tantrum for the first time completely shocks you, disconnects you, because you think, "Wow, this adult is really messed up to be crying and saying..." "She wants to kill herself."

I lent it to her, as you can imagine—BIG MISTAKE. Not only did she not pay, but she started dragging the issue out, to the point where I ended up with a debt of over 27,000 pesos just in interest. I paid it off after many months, but I never told her that, mainly to put pressure on her to pay me back. If I told her I had paid it, she would try to wash her hands of it. Anyway, months later, in February to be exact, she said she was about to receive a large sum of money from unemployment assistance. She told me that as soon as she got it, we would both go and she would give me the money. I said okay, wait, wait, excited because I thought, "She's really going to pay me back even though it's been a long time." But March, April, and May passed, and I only found out yesterday when I checked her phone. She had asked me to answer a message from one of her friends saying she had already received the money, back on June 1st.

Clearly, I was annoyed and went to confront her, but I was as calm as possible. I asked her three times, "Why didn't you tell me you'd already been given the money?" All three times she acted like she couldn't hear me. Finally, I raised my voice—not loud, I didn't yell, just enough for her to know I wasn't playing around. She turned around and started yelling, "Why are you touching my phone? What you're doing is illegal! I'm going to call 911!" I simply took the phone from her, out of her reach, and while she was yelling at me to give it back, I said, tears of frustration streaming down my face, "Why the hell are you like this? Are you so addicted to the casino that you'd rather steal from me than from your stupid friends, the ones you pretend to have money with?" Clearly, that upset her, and she went completely crazy. She started punching me, grabbed my hair, and slammed me against the kitchen island multiple times, leaving me with several bruises and intense pain in my hip. She threw me to the floor and only let go when my younger sister came crying. Even then, she had the nerve to say that I had scared my sister. So, I threw her out into the backyard and locked all the doors and windows, not letting her in. She started making a scene and trying to break the windows with a hammer. I had to call my father and practically the entire family. The cowardly girl ran away from home. Later, we found her in a park, and when we confronted her, the whole family tried to make up stories about me being in a gang and asking where I got so much money. No one believed her excuse. Seriously, everyone knows she worked at McDonald's all week. Anyway, after that, she came back home, but she won't talk to me, and I don't want her to. She wants to talk to me, but I want my money back. Any advice? Do you think I was wrong to defend myself? Because it's important to clarify that I never touched her, and yet she insists that I hit her and started the fight.