There are numerous people who love to gamble without letting it become a huge problem for them to deal with. However, eventually some of these people might even end up developing a gambling addiction which ruins their lives. Compulsive gambling has been regarded as a progressive ailment. Therefore, even if people have tried gambling previously without a problem, it may transform into a huge problem later in life. The desire to gamble becomes overwhelming for such people and they get into bad habits like stealing, lying, wasting all their savings and so they end up missing out on their entire lives.
There are many signs that help identify when the usual gambling for leisure purposes might have indeed transformed into an addiction. There is a greater probability of a gambling addict for recovering if this has been noticed early. Many people do find compulsive gambling rather difficult to get rid of but they try to seek professional help to manage this illness. If you’re looking for a responsible Korean online site, 바카라사이트 leads the way.
What is Problem Gambling and Gambling Addiction?
Anyone can suffer from problem gambling or addictions. Basically, a gambling problem starts with a fun, innocuous deviation to a rather harmful obsession that has grave consequences. Gambling problems can seriously deteriorate your relationships, intervene with your work and even lead to financial instability. You may end up doing certain things that you would’ve never imagined getting involved in, such as stealing to gamble and even staying submerged under massive debts.
Gambling addiction has been known by various terms like compulsive gambling, pathological gambling or even a gambling disorder. It is basically a disorder of impulse control. Compulsive gamblers find it very difficult to control their gambling impulse, even though it has so many negative effects on them, their friends and families. Gambling addicts find themselves gambling whether they’re flush or broke, down or up, and they continue to do so without thinking of the aftermath.
One may obviously have a gambling problem that doesn’t go entirely out of their control. Problem gambling is basically a gambling behavior which disturbs every aspect of your life. If a person stays way too occupied with gambling, and spends a lot of time and money on it even though he’s aware of its grave consequences, he might be suffering from a gambling problem.
Problem gambling or gambling addictions are often found to be associated with several other types of mood and behavior disorders. Gambling addicts are often found suffering from stress, anxiety, depression, substance abuse problems, bipolar disorders and even unmanaged ADHD. It becomes necessary for the addicts to address all of these problems, as well as other causes in order to get rid of a gambling problem.
Signs and Symptoms of Gambling Addiction
Many professionals have regarded an addiction to gambling as a “hidden illness.” This is because people may not show very obviously visible signs or symptoms physically as would be the case in an addiction to alcohol or drugs. In fact, there are many problem gamblers who might even usually try to minimize their problem or deny it to others, as well as themselves. However, people with such an addiction can be identified by the following:
- When gamblers feel like they need to be secretive about their gambling, they might have a problem. They might lie about how much they have been gambling or gamble in secret, thinking that the others might not understand
- Someone who’s not able to control their gambling might be addicted to it. People who are addicted might not be able to walk away once they’ve started to gamble. They might even feel obligated to gamble until they’ve spent all their money, and then find themselves increasing their bets to win what they’ve lost.
- People, who are found gambling even when they’re broke, might be addicted to gambling. They keep gambling until they’ve lost every dollar. Next, they move on to the money that they’ve kept for paying bills, their credit cards or even for buying things for their families at home. When it worsens, they might even feel the need to steal or sell things for gambling.
- If a person has an addiction to gambling, their friends and family might stay worried about them because they keep denying and this keeps worsening the problem gambling. Gamblers must listen to their worried friends and families, as well as ask them for help.
Top Ways to Overcome a Gambling Addiction
For the purpose of sustaining abstinence, it is essential to follow effective steps for recovery and to avoid any relapse. Following are the top 10 ways to overcome a gambling addiction:
1. Admit that you have a Problem:
Just like with all other types of addictions, among the initial steps for overcoming a gambling addiction and recovering from it is to admit that this is a problem and that something is wrong. According to research, there are very few individuals who seek help and treatment until it’s too late.
2. Join Support Groups:
After admitting to having a problem and understanding it, it’s a good time to seek help from certain support groups. These are basically organizations upheld by various people who have had similar pasts and experiences.
One such example of a great support group is called Gamblers Anonymous. It has been particularly created for all those people suffering from gambling addictions.
3. Make Plans to Prevent Getting Bored:
People who have been involved in gambling previously are so habitual of this kind of an active addiction that they usually find themselves fighting intervals of severe boredom all their lives. They must try and plan ahead so that they don’t find themselves bored and therefore, tempted to kill time by gambling again. Research proves this as well since it revealed that people who are addicted to gambling do tend to get bored rather soon. Whenever they’ll have a dull job at hand, they won’t complete it and would rather avoid it.
4. Professional Help:
If a person is suffering from a gambling addiction that is extremely severe, then they must consider getting professional help immediately. Finding great professional treatment from an addiction or even a mental health specialist can save you from a life of financial instability and help you lead one of financial stability.
There are many certified therapists and counselors available widely. All you need to do is overcome your hesitancy.
5. Living One Day at a Time:
It is important for people trying to overcome their gambling addiction that they live one day at a time. What this really means is that they need to forget the events from the past, their losses at gambling inclusive. This is because thinking about the events at casinos might make it difficult for them to be able to concentrate on their recovery problems. It’s also vital for them to avoid thinking about what the future has in store for them. They need to focus on the present day and what can be done on this particular day to help them overcome their addiction.
6. Do Something Entirely New and Different:
Gamblers’ brains become habitual of functioning in a specific way while gambling. But now that they’ve stopped gambling, they need something to keep their brains stimulated constantly. Setting new goals and jobs every day is a good idea for doing that. Focusing on problem-solving processes can help gamblers deal with their longings to gamble when they arrive.
7. Revive an Old Hobby:
Obviously, gamblers do lose all interest in their activities and previous hobbies since their gambling addiction keeps increasing. Once they’ve quitted gambling, they need to make sure that they’re reviving their old hobbies so as to enhance their self-esteem, as well as remind themselves about their new, better way of life. It is rather essential to look for a healthy, positive hobby to substitute the negativity of addiction. This way, gamblers find it easier to concentrate on the advantages of a new way of living instead of on what they’re missing out.
8. Be Attentive to any Upcoming Special Occasions:
According to a research, gamblers find it rather difficult to deal with the regulation of their impulses, as well as with deferring the satisfaction. They need to identify the need to strengthen their resolution especially when any special occasions come up. For sports gamblers, special occasions such as the European Championship, Football World Cups and the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament, etc., might be specifically challenging, for instance. Such gamblers would require avoiding all the social media hype created around such events.
9. Figure Out Ways that can assist you in Dealing with Stress Better:
Stress levels can indicate how well we’re able to deal with our sentiments and they can also contribute greatly in the relapse of a gambler from recovery. It is essential to figure out healthy, new methods for dealing with this stress. These could be meditation, physical exercise, or even talking to someone they trust. When individuals are more stressed out, their gambling temptations will be stronger and difficult to handle.
10. Tell yourself that Gambling is losing:
Gamblers need to keep reminding themselves that if they gamble again, it means they’ve lost. They need to remind themselves that without discipline, they’ll obviously lose the money even if they’re using a good enough strategy. At a time of any financial crises, the longing to gamble might be extremely tempting, particularly because gambling might look like an offer to win immediate reward in the form of money. Gamblers need to tell themselves at a time of such a temptation that once they begin, they won’t be able to quit again.
11. Recognize your Self-Sabotage Triggers:
The time that gamblers spend staying clean is precious. Gamblers must see any desires to gamble as a brief hazard and they must stay ready for such hazards to appear especially before special events like wedding anniversaries, birthdays or even exam time.
12. Imagine your Casino with a Negative Motto:
If ex-gamblers try associating their casinos with negative slogans and connotation along with a nasty image in their mind while thinking of the logo, they might be able to impinge gambling as a negative activity in their sub-conscious. That might even serve as a reminder about how desperate and miserable they felt when they stopped.
13. Maintain a Daily Gratitude Journal:
It is important to stay aware of how great life really is even without gambling. This is a good approach for any kind of relapse prevention. One may even achieve this by some kind of a spiritual practice, which is even better. With a generally grateful attitude for all the blessings of life, people don’t always keep looking for excitement.
How to Give Up on Gambling for Good?
There are many gamblers who are addicted to gambling who don’t find it a huge challenge to quit gambling. Instead, they find it more difficult to stay in recovery and stay committed to their resolution of keeping away from this gambling addiction. The problem is that today, the internet has actually made all the platforms for gambling a lot more accessible. Therefore, it has become more difficult for the recovering addicts to prevent relapse. There are so many online bookmakers and casinos that are open every day, all day long and so are accessible to anyone who owns a smartphone or a computer. However, it still is possible to maintain recovery from this addiction by staying with people that you’re accountable to, avoiding websites and environments that might be too tempting and involving yourself in other healthier hobbies as a substitute for gambling and eventually getting over it.
Conclusion
It’s best to catch a gambling addiction earlier in the cycle for it to be easier to recover from. Hopefully, this article would’ve educated you about how one can recognize a person suffering from a gambling addiction or problem gambling, as well as the various ways of overcoming such an addiction.