Gambling addiction

Whether a person prefers the ponies, the greyhounds, or a good old game of cards gambling addiction is a growing epidemic as it becomes more and more accessible through the Internet and the availability of over the phone bet placement. Moments spent on gambling increase blood pressure, heart rate and adrenaline giving people an often addicting buzz. This compulsiveness to gamble is, like any other addiction, a mental disorder that will unfortunatelly progress into stress, anxiety, depression and worse of all , suicide. Even more sadly, the effects of a compulsive gambler are felt family wide and can effect a gambler personal relationships, career and life.

The Progression of Gambling Addiction

Winning phase, where gamblers experience a big win or a serie of wins that leaves them with unreasonable optimism that their winnings will continue. This leads them to feel great excitement when gambling, and they begin increasing the amounts of their bets.

Losing phase, where the gamblers often begin bragging about wins they have had, start gambling alone, think more about gambling and borrow money legally or illegally.

Desperation phase,where there is a marked increase in the time spent gambling. This is accompanied by remorse, blaming others and alienating family and friends. Eventually, the gamblers may engage in illegal acts to finance their gambling. They may experience hopelessness, suicidal thoughts and attempts, arrests, divorce, alcohol and/or other drug abuse or an emotional breakdown.

When it comes to gambling addiction, adding fuel to the fire is the fact that by the time many gamblers have sought help for their problem, they are already drowning in debt. Many view gambling as even more addicting than some forms of drugs seeing as how quickly one might move through the three phases of gambling. While in the winning phase one may experience a big win or triumph over a lot of small fortunes leaving them with the same feeling of rush that you could get from a drug, the losing phase is sure to follow soon after when the gambler begins bragging about past wins, lies to friends and family about what they are doing in their spare time, borrows money just to gamble and becomes irritable and withdrawn. In this phase a gambler “turns the corner” and becomes unable to repay debts and adopts the mentality that they need to “chase” their losses in hopes of winning them back. The final phase, the desperation is when no light can be seen at the end of the tunnel and the gambler is just gambling to recuperate the money they owe other people or to escape the reality of what their problem really means.

Many problem gamblers, especially video poker players, gamble as a way of "zoning out" from life and other people. They are most comfortable in their aloneness. These people occasionally are resistant to the group setting in which successful treatment is achieved. Although, a proper group support is essential for successful recovery. The people that overcome their objections to the group dynamics are often the most successful in achieving recovery from gambling addiction.

As with alcoholism, gambling addiction is often treated in psychotherapy and while GA programs are not as numerous as AA programs, Gamblers Anonymous is a frequent referral for those afflicted with this addiction.

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Gambling addiction

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