Help For Gambling Addiction

Anyone can get help for gambling addiction just as gambling addiction can happen to anyone.

Addiction is a truly equal opportunities illness.

You could be a lawyer, engineer, cleaner or school crossing patrol: It matters not.

It might start with a scratch card on pay day or a weekly lottery ticket. What starts as something fun and harmless ends up with a very unhealthy obsession and very serious consequences.

It could be slot machines, online gambling, trips to the bookmakers or a casino. How you gamble is not important: They will all lead to the same destination.

Gambling addiction can put an incredible strain on your finances, relationships, business and studies. It is not uncommon to loose your house, car, spouse, etc. Bankruptcy is no picnic. Some people become so desperate they steal and/or get involved with loan sharks.

However deep you are in the hole, the next bet is not going to save you. The richest person in a casino is the person who owns it.

Help For Gambling Addiction: What is Gambling Addiction?

Gambling addiction, pathological gambling, compulsive gambling, gambling disorder: Call it what you will. In short, it is an impulse control disorder.

When you can not control your gambling, it it underlying impulse that is the problem.

You known you shouldn’t. You know you can not afford it. Your relationship is under strain, the mortgage is in arrears and the final demands are now being hand delivered by bailiffs. Yet you can not stop.

Lady luck doesn’t exist. Even if she did, whatever you win goes straight back into your addiction.

Problem gambling

You may be in a hole, but not as far down as others.

Problem gambling is where you still have a modicum of control yet you are still spending a lot of time on it, money you really can’t spare and you are chasing losses. Your life is disrupted but not, completely, out of control.

Gambling and mental health conditions

Very often, gambling addiction comes with other problems.

Many compulsive gamblers suffer from alcohol and drug addiction as well as untreated ADHD.

Stress, depression , anxiety and bi-polar disorder and all very common in those who can not control their gambling habits.

It may seem that there is nothing you can do to overcome compulsive gambling. That just isn’t true.

If you understand the problem, you are on the first rung of the ladder to overcoming it.

Compulsive Gambling: Myths and Facts

Frequency

Some people gamble daily, hourly, every 5 minutes. Some once a week or a month. If the behaviour causes problems then you have a problem.

You may plan your gambling or it may be impulsive. Both can be just as destructive and the outcomes the same.

Financial

Just because you can afford to gamble doesn’t mean it isn’t a problem.

Gambling can take up massive amounts of time. It can lead to job losses, poor mental health, anxiety and even suicide.

You can loose your house, your business and end up with bailiffs banging on your door.

Willpower

Being caught up in a vortex of compulsive gambling has nothing to do with lack of willpower.

You aren’t stupid or weak willed.

Gambling addiction, just like any addiction, is an equal opportunities illness.

Rich, poor, manual labourer, PhD holder: Makes no difference.

Someone elses fault

Just as gambling is not due to a lack of willpower, neither is it someone else’s fault.

Blaming someone else is an avoidance tactic. It is an attempt to shift responsibility.

You can help by clearing someone’s debts

Would you buy heroin for a heroin addict? A bottle of whiskey for an alcoholic? No!

If you clear someone’s debts, all you are doing is enabling them.

It will be a quick fix. bailing someone out is like putting them in a life raft with a hole in it. They will sink: quickly.

Gambling takes a lot of time

Not necessarily!

The internet enables someone to gamble 24/7 on their smartphone.

Large towns and cities have 24/7 casinos and slot machine arcades and betting shops have fixed odds betting terminals.

You don’t have to go to a racetrack to get hooked.

Online gambling is less problematic

Putting your credit card number into a smartphone or laptop keyboard is just the same as buying chips in a casino or putting on a bet in a bookmakers.

It matters not how you spend the money, or where. The end result is the same.

Help For Gambling Addiction: Signs of gambling addiction

Unlike alcohol and drug addiction, there are no physical signs associated with gambling addiction.

it is very easy to deny the problem. If you don’t have a joint bank account or live on your own it is easier to conceal.

Signs you may recognise in yourself

In time, you will start to recognise that you have a problem.

These feelings can include:

• Having to be secretive: You start to conceal your behaviour and tell lies about where you have been. You worry people won’t understand.
• You feel out of control: Once you start, you just can not stop. You have £5 left until payday but you just can not resist the urge.
• Debt: You start to borrow, even steal, money in order to fund your habit. Bills are ignored. The mortgage goes into arrears. Your world is crashing around you but you just can not stop.

Causes and risk factors of compulsive gambling

When you start gambling, it gives you a rush. An intense pleasurable feeling that is triggered by the release of naturally occurring chemicals in the brain.

It is a normal human reaction to chase pleasure. The problem is that, if you keep doing it, the brain will adjust to the constant release of these chemicals.

Tolerance

If your brain is constantly put in a situation where these chemicals are released it will develop what is known as tolerance. This means that you will need to engage in more and more addictive behaviours to have the same effect as when you started.

You might win £2 on a scratch card or £1,000,000 on the lottery: The feeling will be the same.

Young men between 18 and 29 are more likely to develop a gambling problems. Those who live alone and are struggling, financially, are also more prone.

Other factors

Sometimes, gambling addiction runs alongside other problems such as:

• Schizophrenia
• Drug and alcohol addiction
• Personality disorder
• Impulse control disorder

Recovery is possible.

Just as with any addiction, there are four elements to recovery:

Detox, therapy, relapse prevention and aftercare.

Detox

Your brain can not respond to therapy while you are dealing with the chemical reactions caused by gambling addiction.

While you won’t need medication to detox, there are some medications that can help reduce some of the more distressing aspects of withdrawal from gambling.

Medication is not a cure. It is adjunctive but can, in the short term, be really helpful. The last thing you want is to replace one addiction with another.

In rehab there are no trips to the bookmakers, no outings to a racetrack. Your phone can only be used, under supervision, for phone calls.

Your brain will re-adjust. It won’t be easy but you will be supported. Every step of the way.

Therapy

In rehab everyone is there for the same reason: To recover.

It doesn’t matter in a group if the person to your left is addicted to alcohol and the person on your right has an issue with cocaine: Addiction is addiction.

Every centre, the world over, uses a group therapy model. Why? because for the last hundred years, millions of people have overcome addiction using this approach.

Therapy is hard work. It needs to be. There will be laughter, silence, tears and joy.

You will explore why you got into the hole you were in. The pleasure you were seeking or the trauma you were trying to avoid.

No one makes a choice to be an addict. If you understand how you became addicted you can learn to overcome it.

You will learn how recognise emotional triggers and external ones.

Individual therapy

Every centre provides a weekly session of individual therapy.

These sessions are very intense and tiring. One session a week is appropriate.

During these sessions role play is often used to prepare for risky situations post discharge. This forms part of the next essential element: Relapse prevention.

Relapse prevention

Relapse happens: FACT

It doesn’t happen to everyone but it is not a sign of failure.

Addiction is a chronic illness. People with asthma and diabetes have periods of remission and periods of relapse. Addiction is no different.

If you know how to tackle difficult situations (and difficult people!) you stand a strong chance of success.

Having a set of skills for when the going gets tough is essential.

Aftercare

Rehab provides everything you need to overcome addiction.

Clinicians, therapists, support staff, chefs, housekeepers, maintenance: You just need to concentrate on your recovery.

At home you can still access support with a dedicated support line at the rehab centre.

There will be regular telephone check in and a weekly support group.

Help for gambling addiction doesn’t stop when you leave rehab.

Help For Gambling Addiction: Free Advice From an Experienced Addictions Clinician

You can speak to an experienced addictions clinician for free, independent and confidential advice.

We work in rehabs but are not tied to any particular one.

Our concern is merely you get the right help that is safe and cost effective.

There is no charge for treatment referrals.

We only signpost to registered centres.

Our service is registered with the Information Commisssssoners Office.