And as gambling becomes more available, according to John H Fleder, the founder of the 12-step programme Gamblers Anonymous, its addictive nature will reach more and more people. There is hope, however, for both sufferers and their loved ones, as new tools are in place to help detect unhealthy behaviour and take the first critical steps to recovery.
These include international fellowships as well as localised groups that offer a more tailored experience on the ground, including self-guided workbooks supported by longer, informative phone calls or other participation.
Local Resources
The process of recovery from substance or behavioural addiction must undergo a transformation such that community-level prevention, financial recovery schemes and gambling treatment form an integral part of the same process.
, gambling can be very dangerous for the person effected, destroying his life in many ways, such as the relationships with beloved ones, working abilities, studying, and interaction with other people. In addition to it, a gambling can be primary symptom of psychological mental disorders, such as depression or anxiety, as well as a subject of emotional and legal problems.
Gambling addictions have local and countrywide support systems available to them from international fellowships to local personalised systems which can help persons identify their symptoms and provide tools for recovery: self-help workbooks, information handouts and participation in group discussions.
Digital Outreach
Both males and females, the young, the old, the rich and the poor are equally susceptible to its ruinous effects upon both themselves and those around them. These include ruining relationships, financial disaster, and both legal and medical problems, with severe mental distress thrown in for free.
It is done with the help of identifying one’s gambling triggers and high-risk situations, cognitive interventions to challenge irrational beliefs and maladaptive thinking, and self-help using information workbooks or phone calls with a treatment provider or peer support specialist.
Debt management programmes like Debt-Anon can also help people who are gambling addicts recover by managing, and paying off, debts; and they provide help to family members impacted by the financial fallout of a gambling addict’s behaviour.
Mutual Support Groups
Evidence indicates that treatment of opioid use disorder can be undermined by harmful gambling behaviour for some of our patients When addiction experts like Schreier draw a line between casino gambling and opioid use disorder, it illustrates how troubling it is to some addiction treatment providers.
Chemically speaking, gambling will help turbocharge a player’s dopamine levels, as surely as cocaine or meth, and is as likely to go hand in hand with desperate money chasing. Awareness is a must – as is the ability to see the warning flags of when a person is at risk and respond appropriately.
Everything thing from traditional support groups such as Gamblers Anonymous – with its 12-step programme – to debt management resources that help rebuild financial stability (and therefore greater resistance to the allure of casinos) and psychological support can help individuals find a sponsor and immerse themselves in healthy social circles, where harmful behaviours are not the focus of conversation.
Healthy Substitutes
Recovery is helped by being able to identify and then change triggers and high-risk situations, and may lead to broader redirections into sporting activities that exercise and fit minds and bodies.
This problem, a form of compulsive or pathological gambling, leads to ruin, for example, a gambler might borrow money at exorbitant interest and lose friends and family. Moreover, because of the shame and stigma that are often part of this process, lying and secrecy are also required.
Actually naming someone who ‘has’ a gambling problem, and therefore who might need help, is the first step toward treatment. Helplines, peer support groups and residential treatments can all provide the gateway services that connect people to recovery pathways.
Debt Management
But with problem gambling there tend to be much more awful consequences.You lose your family. You cannot function, because you cannot pay your bills, because you spent all your money gambling.You may even find yourself having to steal from other people to fund your gambling habit.You don’t answer their questions because, first of all, you don’t want them to know, and secondly, you don’t know, you don’t want to quantify your gambling, sometimes not even to yourself.
People often use self-help materials and support groups to help them manage the impetus to gamble. By journaling and tracking expenses you can get a better understanding of how your gambling has affected you and what thoughts, events or behaviours precede or trigger this unhealthy activity. Knowing these things allows us to then attempt to dispute these irrational thoughts or beliefs by framing thoughts in healthier ways, or replacing my unhealthy thoughts automatically with healthier thoughts.
Financial Stability
Psychologists and other counsellors are now aware that the destructive financial consequences of compulsive gambling, which can lead to bankruptcy and legal problems among other things, and severe problems with employment, can be effectively dealt with via organisations such as Debt-Anon and Gamblers Anonymous.
A good treatment programme usually helps an individual pinpoint the causes of gambling addiction, learn how to manage cravings for gambling that might arise from ‘triggering’ events and situations, and build a more meaningful life through investment in maintaining and building relationships, for example, and addressing stress in healthy ways.
