Good day to all! Each person, in addition to satisfying their vital needs, it is important to have fun. And the easiest way to get it is through the game. This is the most accessible and effective way, which eventually develops into a dependent form. And in the modern world it is also very popular, so today I want to talk with you about how to get rid of gambling addiction. For serious problems, it is better to contact a live specialist. Online counseling will never replace a live person.
Evidence
To notice a gambler among others is sometimes a very difficult task, because until large debts or difficulties with the law appear, there are no special signs, as during alcohol or drug addiction. And sometimes the gamer himself understands that the problem exists when the process is already too long.
Symptoms:
- There is a need for daily lies about your pastime, due to the fact that you have to hide the fact of your addiction from relatives and colleagues. This happens for various reasons, someone is ashamed of losses and debts, and someone is waiting for the moment to surprise them with an unexpectedly received large sum.
- An alarm bell can be a loss of control over yourself. When you can’t stop until you’ve lost all the money you have with you. And then, in the hope of winning back, you raise the stakes, while taking on debt. Rationality and awareness of future consequences are lost.
- The reason to think about the harmfulness of your hobby may be the presence of constant irritability, nervousness, unreasonable anger, outbursts of rage. Loss of interest in life, in close and previously valuable people.
- Steadily growing time devoted to addiction. Up to the point that a person can not sleep at night, spending time playing until the morning.
- There is no feeling of fear about the loss of family, work, friends. Slot machines are the only thing that occupies thoughts and matters.
- During the absence of the opportunity to play, a person may well experience a “breakdown”, which usually accompanies people with drug addiction.
Causes
If you notice the presence of at least one item, then your hobby has grown into an addictive addiction:
- Due to low self-esteem. Experiencing a sense of his own unfulfillment, a person is tempted to experience the taste of victory and self-satisfaction through gambling. Thus, he has the illusion that he is finally realizing his potential.
- Living a feeling of acute loneliness from which it is easier to escape than withstand. Therefore, having experienced euphoria and a lot of impressions from slot machines, a person’s feeling of loneliness is dulled.
- Feeling affordablewhen you do not need to make efforts and work, but it is quite possible to “get hold of” on bets. Having once received a big win, it is difficult for a person to force himself to return to ordinary and hard work, where money does not come so easily.
- May occur in combination with other types of addiction, for example, as an addition to alcoholism, due to the fact that there is already initially a tendency to addictive behavior.
- It can manifest itself in adolescents due to an unfavorable situation in the family. Wanting to prove their independence and get away from strict parental control. Or with frequent conflict situations and lack of support and empathic close relationships with parents, a teenager is looking for any ways and means to feel satisfaction and switch from anger, pain, resentment to other feelings.
Basically, when a person on his own tries to simply refuse to play in a casino or on slot machines, he develops depression and the meaning of life disappears. And for a real gambler, the main goal is to achieve a peak moment of euphoria at the time of the bet, instead of getting a big win. And this unhealthy addiction is exacerbated in moments of difficult life situations, stress in the family or at work.
And it is most important for him to cope with this emotional discomfort in an effective way, to which he beckons anyway — with the help of gambling.
The consequences are terrifying, because a person, like in a swamp, becomes more and more burdened, and trying to get out, taking active actions, fails even faster. Therefore, it usually comes to very large debts, thefts, crimes and suicides.
Stages of development
- Win stage. Involvement is just beginning, but it is already regular. Adults still have a chance to stop by engaging in strong-willed efforts, and adolescents, even at the first stage, have difficulty in controlling themselves.
- Losing stage. At this point there is a substitution of values. That is, if at first the interest was in money, now it is already in the very process of the game. It is very difficult to stop, unexpected circumstances from the outside can save, and sometimes even serious debts do not frighten. Because there is an excuse — you need to win back, and then say goodbye to creditors.
- Stage of desperation. Mental deviations may well develop, social life is practically destroyed (most often at this stage, he was fired from work, expelled from the institute, the family broke up, relatives stop communicating due to a security threat). May be accompanied by alcohol or drug addiction.
Ways to get rid
- Treatment of addictive people begins, first of all, with their awareness of the problem. Otherwise, all methods will be useless as long as there is a denial of the problem. When you realize that you are unable to control yourself and admit that you have brought yourself, your life and the lives of loved ones to a terrible state, and if this scares you, consider that a third of the path to recovery has already been completed.
- Be prepared to work hard on yourself because you will have to change. Habitual way of life, ways of responding to difficulties, «favorite» mechanisms for solving problems — all this will now have to be changed.
- In view of the fact that this type of addiction mainly arises from difficulties in interpersonal relationships, this process should be established again. You will have to expand your circle of acquaintances, discover the satisfaction of touching the soul of another person, learn to again experience the joy and feel the security of intimacy.
- Learn to recognize your needs, as addiction to casinos and gambling is an attempt to meet the needs that are imposed by a social environment that encourages you to ignore yourself for profit. If you learn to hear yourself, you will become a more harmonious person. Ask as often as possible: “What do I want now, at this moment?”, And look for other ways of satisfaction, without consequences in the form of debts, thefts and other things.
- Sports. Team sports are especially helpful. Because then there is a communication that develops and promotes, and not vice versa. The excitement that arises in the process of playing sports, if it is not extreme, is controlled. Collectivity teaches responsibility for one’s actions, because in case of a wrong decision, the whole team will lose. Then the dependent person learns to think not only about himself, but also to notice that the whole family usually suffers from his actions. And the most important thing is to achieve success in case of victory, feelings are also saturated, plus there is recognition from other team members.
Conclusion
In fact, to one degree or another, but a person has a lot of unnecessary habits that develop into addiction. Therefore, I recommend that you read the article: “The most useless and harmful habits that affect the human body.”
That’s all, dear reader! Strength to you in order to manage to improve your life and get rid of addiction! Take care of yourself and loved ones. See you soon.