Published on 01/14/2009

Addictions Problem Counselling - Gambling Addiction Treatment

Gambling addiction is an obsessive and compulsive behaviour which involves a person being addicted to gambling. Whether the gambling involves betting on horse racing, casino black jack tables or slot machines, the sufferer falls victim to compulsively seeking the ‘high’ gained from gambling.

Why do people become addicted to gambling?
Gambling addiction is like any other addiction. As with drug addicts and alcoholics, gambling addicts suffer from a disease – it is incurable and progressive. Yet with treatment and a daily programme of recovery, it can be arrested and maintained.

When a gambling addict engages in gambling and the related behaviours that go with it, they experience an escape from their feelings. Addicts are individuals who very often do not know how to cope with their feelings and emotions. Thus follows behaviour to take them away from the present, leaving their emotional capacity hollow. The disease of addiction can be described as a “hole in the soul” – a spiritual void which gambling addicts attempt to fill with destructive behaviour and short-term highs.

Surprisingly, many gambling addicts describe the pull of gambling addiction as involving losing at gambling more than winning, although winning does provide an incredible high. The loss of money and possessions fills them with a desperate need for hope of gaining control again, leading them to act out compulsively on gambling behaviour over and over again.

What happens when a person is addicted to gambling?
Unable to control their obsessive and compulsive gambling, addicts are taken to a very dark place, which grows increasingly worse over time. Losing families, jobs, houses, cars and all other possessions, but mostly self respect, the gambling addict is left in a place of total unmanageability where their life has suffered complete destruction. Suicide is common amongst gambling addicts as they see no other solution to their habit and loss of livelihood. Even though they want nothing more than to be free of their compulsion to gamble, they cannot stop, they do not know how to stop, and cannot see a life free of gambling.

How does a gambling addict recover?
As with any addiction, for a person who is a gambling addict to begin recovery, they will need to stop their gambling behaviours in order for healing to begin. However, the problems which a gambling addict needs to deal with are in fact, not gambling. The obsessive and compulsive behaviours are not the problem – they are a symptom of the disease of addiction, revealing that something is very wrong within the person. As with drug addicts and alcoholics, the behaviour is caused by the addiction. The behaviour is not the cause. Yet a gambling addict will need to stop the behaviours to begin recovery, as the behaviours provide the escape from their problems which they seek, allowing them to avoid the true problem.

Moving to other cities or locations (known as geographicals), staying away from casinos and other places associated with their addiction and other external elements which can be blamed may seem the right route to wellness. But the addiction is within the gambling addict and will surface wherever they are, no matter what they do, unless they treat the underlying problems and issues.

Gambling addiction and rehabilitation centres
Many gambling addicts are admitted to in-patient treatment facilities or out patient therapy programmes, depending on the severity of their problem. One on one therapy and group therapy in a nurturing environment is a highly successful treatment method for gambling addiction, allowing the gambling addict to address their underlying issues.

Treatment in a rehab facility is also beneficial as they are able to heal in a nurturing environment with other sufferers who can provide support, insight and relate to their problems and feelings. In a treatment facility, a gambling addict is able to learn a new way of life, without the need to use gambling as a way of escaping their problems.

However, learning a new way of life in a facility is just one part of recovery from gambling addiction. For a gambling addict to maintain abstinence from gambling, a programme of recover needs to be adhered to on a daily basis. As mentioned before, gambling addiction is an incurable and progressive disease. It will not ‘go away; but can be arrested and maintained through daily recovery and vigilance.

The Twelve Steps of Gamblers Anonymous
The use of a Twelve Step Programme as used in the Twelve Step fellowship dealing with gambling addiction Gamblers Anonymous (GA), as well as intensive therapy is a highly successful method of treating gambling addiction, whilst allowing the sufferer the introduction to continued recovery and abstinence they need. Relapses do happen, but with a Twelve Step programme of recovery, a gambling addict is able to harness tools to help them cope with daily life, the problems and feelings they have been avoiding and difficult times without reverting to the destructive obsessive and compulsive behaviours which accompany gambling addiction.

About the Author:
Oasis Counselling Centre is a registered in-patient treatment facility in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa which provides treatment for gambling addiction through individual and group therapy, plus endorses a Twelve Step programme of recovery as well as a healthy lifestyle and the tools needed for a gambling addict to remain abstinent and regain their life back permanently.