Where to seek help if you need; concerned with gambling addiction.

[3meek]

~

I agree if looking for lesser evil, with drug addictions the chance of harming other people is very possible, while you are still in drugs your control is far lesser with things that you are doing, while with gambling addiction you are just more focus with how will you win with every bets that you are doing.

Financially, both harmed your savings, drugs and gambling both money are being wasted.

New researches suggest that gambling addiction activates the same brain pathways as drug and alcohol cravings. This means that gambling addicts, former or current ones, can be more inclined to drug abuse than regular people. That's why we should be very cautious and avoid self-medicating, because there is a chance of replacing one harmful addiction with another, even more harmful one.

Don't take advice from random people. Seek professional help.

If these researches are correct, it is up to the individual to decide that he or she needs help in the first place... Without the addict's desire, no one can help him or her! It is the same with drugs and alcohol, if the person does not want to be treated, then any attempts to help them will do them no good!

[1715251135]

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[ethereumhunter]

Many people are now attempting to bet as a result of the pandemic because they are bored or want to make more money through gaming.

In my country, cockfighting betting is highly popular, and I believe that many individuals have been addicted to it and lost all of their money.

So it's easy to persuade people in my nation to bet on cockfighting since people in my country are prone to FOMO and hence waste their money on such things.

People confuse what they need to do in this pandemic because some are tired and waiting for a solution from the government. The big impact that feels from a low society that does not have a source of income. Maybe they already search for the alternative way to have a job but that does not give them a result.

Cockfighting as a traditional gambling game seems to found a new way to attract people to come to that place and gamble. The gambling owner knows about that and they try to tempt people to start gambling again.

I dont see for it to be worth for people to consider on doing gambling on this pandemic situation if you are that someone who do really need to work hard before you can earn for daily sustain or survival.

For people who do have money to spent then its considerable but for those who intent to make it as a source of income then its suicide.

Addiction is something that can be solved easily one you had been shackled up this is why. you should really be careful on dealing with it if you arent that good
on handling out yourself.

It is not worth it for people to gamble in this pandemic situation, but not for most people who are suffering and still search for new ways to make money. Maybe they are forced to gamble, and we do not know about that so they try to gamble. If the government is trying to help them, they will not attempt to use that money to gamble and are better used to buy food.

Addiction needs concern from those addicted to gambling and from people around them to try to solve the problem together because once they act together, it will not feel hard even they will pass every day without thinking about gambling.

[lienfaye]

This is like the third time am seeing a thread talk about Gambling addiction,  does this mean this pandemic has given people a reason to gamble more such that they have forgotten to limit themselves??

Most likely because during pandemic people are looking for a way to entertain themselves, and for gamblers an alternative to physical casinos (which they found in online casinos) are better to continue the way they used to before this pandemic happened.

If gambling is really an issue talk to some one you trust preferably family or friends because you don't want someone that will look down on you for opening up.

I agree, before seeking to a professional help its best to open up to our family because they're our strong foundation to overcome this problem. However some people prefer to keep it a secret because of fear and judgement not knowing that our family are the first one who can help us at this point of our lives.

It's okay to open it up here in the forum. Our identity isn't going to be publicly posted anyway but only just the issue we had. Gambling addiction is often an issue of the gamblers from Traditional Casinos who can't avoid going there. If there is a place they should be avoiding it's those public casinos so they'd also stop that addiction. Keeping it private is normal, I think it should be handled that way too.

I think it doesnt matter if you're playing publicly or privately the issue is you're addicted, spending too much on gambling and unable to control yourself.

Just like what i've said if a gambler who became addicted in gambling (regardless if he is playing in physical casinos or in online casinos) wants to stop his addiction, the people he can count on are his family first. There are some cases that are not in need of a professional help, but the presence of the family is enough to make him realize his mistake and encourage to change his bad habit.

[Rruchi man]

You know you need help when your gambling becomes compulsive and unable for you to put under control, the good thing is that you are definitely not alone with this addiction and for you to come to the knowledge that there are others who were once addicted to gambling as is the case with you currently.

As the topic of the OP is asking "where to seek help"? It means that the party seeking the help has already come to terms with the fact that he needs help, which is first very important.

You may seek professional help from a therapist to help you first overcome the mental challenge involved with breaking free from the gambling addiction. Depending on the degree of addiction, the therapist may recommend some medications to help.

Talking to an individual or group of individuals maybe in self help group who have or have had the same gambling addiction and are really trying to break free or have broken free from compulsive gambling also helps

[cabron]

You know you need help when your gambling becomes compulsive and unable for you to put under control, the good thing is that you are definitely not alone with this addiction and for you to come to the knowledge that there are others who were once addicted to gambling as is the case with you currently.

As the topic of the OP is asking "where to seek help"? It means that the party seeking the help has already come to terms with the fact that he needs help, which is first very important.

You may seek professional help from a therapist to help you first overcome the mental challenge involved with breaking free from the gambling addiction. Depending on the degree of addiction, the therapist may recommend some medications to help.

Talking to an individual or group of individuals maybe in self help group who have or have had the same gambling addiction and are really trying to break free or have broken free from compulsive gambling also helps

Seeking help from a psychologist would mean he has to have money to pay for the therapy, there's got to be a lot of control before he could do that. Because I suspect an addict will just gamble instead of paying someone for therapy. He might feel like gambling is more therapeutic for him.

It might be good if there is a government agency handling this kind of problem for gamblers who hits rock bottom because that's where it will really be serious.

[boyptc]

Seeking help from a psychologist would mean he has to have money to pay for the therapy, there's got to be a lot of control before he could do that. Because I suspect an addict will just gamble instead of paying someone for therapy. He might feel like gambling is more therapeutic for him.

It might be good if there is a government agency handling this kind of problem for gamblers who hits rock bottom because that's where it will really be serious.

An addicted gambler that seeks actual help and really wants to end his addiction wouldn't mind the fee that he has to pay for the professional help that he'll get.

That's why some are asking for actual help to do in the process of elimination of their addiction.

[Wawa2013]

Seeking help from a psychologist would mean he has to have money to pay for the therapy, there's got to be a lot of control before he could do that. Because I suspect an addict will just gamble instead of paying someone for therapy. He might feel like gambling is more therapeutic for him.

It might be good if there is a government agency handling this kind of problem for gamblers who hits rock bottom because that's where it will really be serious.

An addicted gambler that seeks actual help and really wants to end his addiction wouldn't mind the fee that he has to pay for the professional help that he'll get.

That's why some are asking for actual help to do in the process of elimination of their addiction.

Gamblers who have a strong intention to overcome their addiction, usually they will do various ways for them to recover from addiction.
Including spending a very large amount of money to pay for the therapy, maybe they do this because gambling addiction is hard to make
their life messy. But it is better for the government to help provide assistance to addicted gamblers, it will be more effective to reduce
the number of addicted gamblers. Because there are indeed some gamblers who are unable to pay the therapy fees, due to being in a lot of debt.

[Pamadar]

Gamblers who have a strong intention to overcome their addiction, usually they will do various ways for them to recover from addiction.

To overcome this problem, gamblers will try to find the best ways to removed it fromt their system.

Including spending a very large amount of money to pay for the therapy, maybe they do this because gambling addiction is hard to make
their life messy.

Precisely, even they'll going to spend money for the theraphy just to have some better results after those medical sessions.

But it is better for the government to help provide assistance to addicted gamblers, it will be more effective to reduce
the number of addicted gamblers.

If government will intervine, the possiblities to lessen the chance of gambling addiction will just be the same, unless government
will implement laws about those addicted people to penalized if they go back and play.

Because there are indeed some gamblers who are unable to pay the therapy fees, due to being in a lot of debt.

Same with drug addictions, this concern also needs good attention from the government, providing free theraphy house
will give some hope to those who are willing to change.

[Bitinity]

Seeking help from a psychologist would mean he has to have money to pay for the therapy, there's got to be a lot of control before he could do that. Because I suspect an addict will just gamble instead of paying someone for therapy. He might feel like gambling is more therapeutic for him.

It might be good if there is a government agency handling this kind of problem for gamblers who hits rock bottom because that's where it will really be serious.

An addicted gambler that seeks actual help and really wants to end his addiction wouldn't mind the fee that he has to pay for the professional help that he'll get.

That's why some are asking for actual help to do in the process of elimination of their addiction.

Gamblers who have a strong intention to overcome their addiction, usually they will do various ways for them to recover from addiction.
Including spending a very large amount of money to pay for the therapy, maybe they do this because gambling addiction is hard to make
their life messy. But it is better for the government to help provide assistance to addicted gamblers, it will be more effective to reduce
the number of addicted gamblers. Because there are indeed some gamblers who are unable to pay the therapy fees, due to being in a lot of debt.

Many people talk about therapy or consultation with psychologist to solve gambling addiction. I have one question related to this, how effective is such therapy to solve gambling addiction? Is there any studies about the effectivity of therapy to help gamblers overcome their addiction? Just curious, because I still believe that the only way to overcome any addiction will always start from ourselves. Most of the time I think that others wont be able to help, maybe I'm wrong but it is based on my own experience when I was an alcohol addict long time ago but I could stop it myself without any helps from other people.

[michellee]

Gamblers who have a strong intention to overcome their addiction, usually they will do various ways for them to recover from addiction.
Including spending a very large amount of money to pay for the therapy, maybe they do this because gambling addiction is hard to make
their life messy. But it is better for the government to help provide assistance to addicted gamblers, it will be more effective to reduce
the number of addicted gamblers. Because there are indeed some gamblers who are unable to pay the therapy fees, due to being in a lot of debt.

I believe those people really have their chance to solve their addiction problem, especially if some people around them can help them. Yes, he can spend the money to seek help and cure his addiction but other gamblers will not do the same as the addiction level on every gambler will be different. The government can help them and support them, but the addicted person to gambling does not want to tell their problem to others. So that makes it the government difficult to start to help them.

[Zilon]

Gamblers who have a strong intention to overcome their addiction, usually they will do various ways for them to recover from addiction.
Including spending a very large amount of money to pay for the therapy, maybe they do this because gambling addiction is hard to make
their life messy. But it is better for the government to help provide assistance to addicted gamblers, it will be more effective to reduce
the number of addicted gamblers. Because there are indeed some gamblers who are unable to pay the therapy fees, due to being in a lot of debt.

I believe those people really have their chance to solve their addiction problem, especially if some people around them can help them. Yes, he can spend the money to seek help and cure his addiction but other gamblers will not do the same as the addiction level on every gambler will be different. The government can help them and support them, but the addicted person to gambling does not want to tell their problem to others. So that makes it the government difficult to start to help them.

Once can only be helped if he/she opens up to some one reliable. There are many addicts who love their present status and feel very comfortable with it. Getting help is a personal decision because you can't help someone who isn't ready to accept help. You might volunteer to help an addict who doesn't want help and end up complicating the whole process. For me the addictor should first desire to helped that Way it makes the whole process more easier.

[Silberman]

This is like the third time am seeing a thread talk about Gambling addiction,  does this mean this pandemic has given people a reason to gamble more such that they have forgotten to limit themselves??

If gambling is really an issue talk to some one you trust preferably family or friends because you don't want someone that will look down on you for opening up.

All addictions went up during the pandemic, we must understand that people are social by nature so the lockdowns affected people, now if you were living with your family then this was not as much of an issue but for those living alone this was terrible, this means that we saw an increase in all kind of addictions including but not limited to drugs, alcohol, food, video games, social media and gambling, so this is why it is so important to discuss it as some people may be on the verge to fall into this and we could get to them before they fall even further into those harmful behaviors.

[Woodie]

This is like the third time am seeing a thread talk about Gambling addiction,  does this mean this pandemic has given people a reason to gamble more such that they have forgotten to limit themselves??

If gambling is really an issue talk to some one you trust preferably family or friends because you don't want someone that will look down on you for opening up.

All addictions went up during the pandemic, we must understand that people are social by nature so the lockdowns affected people, now if you were living with your family then this was not as much of an issue but for those living alone this was terrible, this means that we saw an increase in all kind of addictions including but not limited to drugs, alcohol, food, video games, social media and gambling

Are you implying that our social well-being is to blame for those that have turned out to be gambling addicts?
Honestly this is just a sympathy card for those that would say this because you could use this time to learn something new, a new degree if you can because we have plenty of online schools right about now and this could get you socializing again.

Btw very valid points you have aired @Silberman

so this is why it is so important to discuss it as some people may be on the verge to fall into this and we could get to them before they fall even further into those harmful behaviors.

For these regulated casinos they should know that people are gambling heavily this time around and should see this has business as usual, let them have some kind of reminder on one's dashboard on the signs and ways to over come gambling addiction...I remember seeing this on bet365, wonder if they still do it.

[LUCKMCFLY]

The topic is worrying, because eventually the topic of addiction is appearing much more in people who have never gambled and who are desperate for money, in fact I know some people who have come to casino games because they see it as advice that they got on google to make money, and most of them are unemployed and want to maintain their status-quo by resorting to such actions as casinos and gambling, obviously if a person has no experience they can lose a lot, becoming addicted quickly, for me the pandemic has seen many new players with and without experience entering.

I think the only way to combat addiction is with professional help and manage stress and anxiety with other games, games that do not involve a lot of money but that can generate it, some games like Warcraft, Tibia, Axie Infinity are some of the options that they can take, and that is what many have dedicated themselves to, since they can invest but with more options to gain than lose, but that involve a lot of time to dedicate to it.

This is a very good article about addiction and tells how you can deal with the problem:

Gambling Addiction and Problem Gambling

The biggest step to overcoming a gambling addiction is realizing that you have a problem. It takes tremendous strength and courage to own up to this, especially if you have lost a lot of money and strained or broken relationships along the way. Don’t despair, and don’t try to go it alone. Many others have been in your shoes and have been able to break the habit and rebuild their lives. You can, too.

Source: https://www.helpguide.org/articles/addictions/gambling-addiction-and-problem-gambling.htm#

[carlfebz2]

This is like the third time am seeing a thread talk about Gambling addiction,  does this mean this pandemic has given people a reason to gamble more such that they have forgotten to limit themselves??

If gambling is really an issue talk to some one you trust preferably family or friends because you don't want someone that will look down on you for opening up.

All addictions went up during the pandemic, we must understand that people are social by nature so the lockdowns affected people, now if you were living with your family then this was not as much of an issue but for those living alone this was terrible, this means that we saw an increase in all kind of addictions including but not limited to drugs, alcohol, food, video games, social media and gambling, so this is why it is so important to discuss it as some people may be on the verge to fall into this and we could get to them before they fall even further into those harmful behaviors.

Do you have any source about this matter about raising up addiction percentage since this pandemic?

We can really say that online gambling did really have significant rise in users since people are spending mostly online of their time and even non  gamblers had been hooked up
because of those more screen time.

Addiction is something that can be cured directly or in instant but doesnt mean its not possible.

[Questat]

Addiction is something that can be cured directly or in instant but doesnt mean its not possible.

It depends on the gravity of addiction, once you are addicted, you already have a problem and I don't think it could be cured instantly as you are building that overtime until it enters into your system, eventually it will control you and you'll not be able to think of minimizing the risk when you are gambling.

Gambling addiction can be treated, but it needs time and your dedication to change your life for the better.

In the end, it's your effort that is necessary, you cannot rely on your change on other people.

[Wawa2013]

Gamblers who have a strong intention to overcome their addiction, usually they will do various ways for them to recover from addiction.
Including spending a very large amount of money to pay for the therapy, maybe they do this because gambling addiction is hard to make
their life messy. But it is better for the government to help provide assistance to addicted gamblers, it will be more effective to reduce
the number of addicted gamblers. Because there are indeed some gamblers who are unable to pay the therapy fees, due to being in a lot of debt.

Many people talk about therapy or consultation with psychologist to solve gambling addiction. I have one question related to this, how effective is such therapy to solve gambling addiction? Is there any studies about the effectivity of therapy to help gamblers overcome their addiction? Just curious, because I still believe that the only way to overcome any addiction will always start from ourselves. Most of the time I think that others wont be able to help, maybe I'm wrong but it is based on my own experience when I was an alcohol addict long time ago but I could stop it myself without any helps from other people.

Indeed, therapy will not be effective if there is no desire from ourselves to recover, because like you said the key is in ourselves. As long as there is
no strong desire on our part to recover from gambling addiction, doing therapy may only make us stop gambling temporarily and at any time we
can relapse. So to cure gambling addiction, it is necessary to convince the gambler, what he did was wrong, and it took someone close to him to
help convince him that he wanted to recover from his gambling addiction.

[swogerino]

I think what made the situation worse is the pandemic,many people lost their jobs or a certain part of their salary and they were locked at home for some months during 2020 and this is exactly where online gambling saw a big increase in their user base.Most probably these desperate persons were trying to find a way out and they thought to give gambling a try,this made their situations worse as in gambling we all know we will lose much more than we can win and I think this is exactly where addicts are created in big numbers.It is good that the measures for the pandemic have eased a lot since then and people can start their recovery by returning back to their everyday life.

[Betwrong]

While it is true that we all want to pursue that which is pleasurable to us it is known that the part of our brains that is in charge of controlling impulses is in the frontal lobe, near our foreheads, and those that have problems controlling their impulses have less activity there caused simply because that is the way they were born or because of an accident, and there is a correlation between lack of impulse control and addictions, so unfortunately there are some people that are predisposed to addictions due to neurological issues.

Well, this is too deep for us discuss here, I think. Although I'd read a good article on the matter(can you recommend one?) I doubt I could say something valuable in this regard even after reading it. That's why many of us in this thread recommend seeking professional help in the first place. We, regular gamblers, can help with an advice or two on very common cases, but still the best advice we can give - go to a pro.

Here is an article about it, it is about alcohol addiction but extrapolations can be made about gambling as well.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2730661/

Thank you for the link. I will download a pdf format to my kindle, and will read it, but after a quick scan I can see that it will take time, maybe a lot of time, until I will be able to understand the most part of it, let alone every word there. But I will try. This topic is very interesting to me. Who knows, maybe I can become an expert in this field one day.

~
And here is a quote from the same article.

Thus, addiction is likely due in part to increased impulsiveness from the loss of frontal cortical inhibition of impulses and increased limbic drive.

So while addiction is not completely caused by a diminished activity on the frontal lobe it is a factor that is there which means that those that have lower activity in that region of their brains are at higher risk of becoming addicted to anything.

I hope I will be able to comment on this, after exploring the article.

[arwin100]

I think what made the situation worse is the pandemic,many people lost their jobs or a certain part of their salary and they were locked at home for some months during 2020 and this is exactly where online gambling saw a big increase in their user base.Most probably these desperate persons were trying to find a way out and they thought to give gambling a try,this made their situations worse as in gambling we all know we will lose much more than we can win and I think this is exactly where addicts are created in big numbers.It is good that the measures for the pandemic have eased a lot since then and people can start their recovery by returning back to their everyday life.

We cannot blame the pandemic about this issues since if we are in our proper mind to think to much on such things we can avoid to gamble more then came  to the point  that we been hooked up  to the  game. Although there are some instance that pandemic really contribute since many casino advertisement popping out but if we know how  to control our selves we this gambling things will not hurt us totally. Now since we  are slowly progressing maybe its good for addicted gamblers to avoid playing to much so that  they will not suffer  more financial damage to theirselves.