In adults, computer addiction is not limited to games - just like in adolescents, there is also an addiction to virtual communication or types of addiction typical for adults: online shopping, auctions, online casinos, studying information pages, watching movies. All this, no less than games, takes people away from reality into the virtual world. Computer addiction develops in 58% of cases within a year, in 25% - within six months, in 17% - after a year of active computer use.
What is gambling addiction
Ludomania is a gambling addiction, a pathological addiction to gambling. This means that the gambling addict is constantly involved in gaming activity. Gambling dominates his life, pushing into the background friendships and family connections, professional activities, and any other areas.
Since in such cases the addiction to games develops into addiction, the disorder is classified as a disease, which is how even the World Health Organization considers it.
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Main signs of gambling addiction
Unlike alcoholism, gambling addiction may not outwardly manifest itself in any way from a physiological point of view. The gambling addict has no speech impairments or exacerbations of chronic diseases. He may hide the truth from his family for a long time. But there are signs of gambling addiction, when they appear you need to act immediately:
- Loss of interest in all past hobbies except gaming.
- Constantly being in front of a computer or smartphone screen (you can also place bets through a mobile application).
- Irritability, aggressiveness, reluctance to discuss the current situation.
- Intense excitement and unreasonable optimism if the gambling addict wins. But if he starts losing money, the fun gives way to a depressive phase.
- Increased emotionality.
- Insomnia and sleep disorders.
- Tension if a gambling addict fails to return to his favorite pastime. The desire to play becomes irresistible, the ability to resist decreases. Any reason can provoke a relapse - a movie in which bets are placed, a conversation about a game.
There are other signs of gambling addiction. Sooner or later, gambling addicts begin to borrow money, including from microcredit organizations. Increasing expenses are one of the signs of gambling addiction. After some time, the gambling addict cannot pay off the debt. And this leads to unpleasant consequences - calls from collectors begin, which exert psychological pressure on the family of the gambling addict. Relatives often become aware of a problem only at this stage. Although you need to start fighting it much earlier.
In severe cases, symptoms of gambling addiction are observed, such as alcohol abuse, panic attacks, and provoking others into conflicts.
Structural personality changes
The stage of desocialization, when a teenager completely drops out of public life. This stage is characterized by indifference to one’s appearance, the ability to go for a long time without food or sleep, despite feeling unwell.
A dependent person becomes indifferent to the outside world; nothing pleases or interests him. If others try to talk or distract him, he reacts aggressively. Such severe computer addiction among teenagers is rare, but when the situation is so advanced, urgent help is needed.
Types of gambling addiction
There are different types of pathological gambling addiction. They are classified depending on what the gambler's interest is focused on.
Computer gambling addiction
Computer gaming addiction is a tendency to play games on a smartphone, console, or computer. The variety of games and stories encourages gamers to devote more and more time to new products. The development of e-sports, in which players who win a tournament receive astronomical sums, serves as additional motivation.
Gambling addiction associated with gambling in casinos
Gambling addiction associated with gambling in casinos is a classic variant of gambling addiction. This includes card games, roulette, and various types of slot machines. The availability of virtual casinos, advertising on the Internet, the ability to spin the reels for free due to bonuses - all this is addictive.
Commercial gaming and sports betting
Gambling addiction associated with commercial games - sports betting in bookmakers, participation in lotteries and television quiz shows. The danger of such bets is even higher than when playing on regular slot machines. In betting and sports betting there is the possibility of forecasting. If a person understands racing or a particular sport, he can make successful predictions that will be followed by a winning streak - and a dopamine reward, the release of the feel-good hormone. Getting rid of such an addiction is difficult, but necessary, because sooner or later your lucky streak will end, and the consequences of gambling addiction will take a long time to eliminate.
Gambling addiction associated with financial markets
Pathological addiction to gambling on the stock market, Forex, and cryptocurrency market. The presence of the Internet has made it accessible to a wide range of people. This trade works in the same way as any other gambling addiction in adults. The danger is that the trader gets used to perceiving wins and losses as columns of numbers on a screen. He will not be able to cope with this on his own; his family will have to draw his attention to the negative consequences of such speculation.
Health implications
Computer addiction is often accompanied by a number of somatic problems. Physical inactivity weakens muscles, deteriorates posture, and develops scoliosis. Irregular meals and fast food, which children like to snack on while playing, lead to gastritis. Finally, spending a long time looking at a monitor inevitably affects your vision.
Such problems are clearly visible to parents, but may not be noticeable to a teenager. Captivated by the game, children often do not notice hunger and lack of sleep. However, all this affects health.
Stages of gambling addiction
You cannot get sick with gambling addiction as sharply and quickly as with an infectious disease. This is quite a long process.
There are three stages of gambling addiction:
- Winning stage. At the very beginning, the player gets involved by chance. Frequent winnings contribute to the development of addiction - this is psychology. After all, the player imagines the next big wins in his imagination and begins to gradually increase the size of his bets. Unreasonable optimism arises, which ultimately lets the gambler down.
- Losing stage. If at the first stage a gambler could play for a company, now he plays alone. All a person’s thoughts are focused only on the game, especially if a losing streak has begun. At this stage, the gambling addict can no longer stop, but he does not admit that there is a problem. He hides his losses and growing expenses from friends and family. Debts grow, a person becomes irritable and unsociable. An independent struggle, even if it has begun, does not produce results.
- Stage of disappointment. A person spends all his time playing. He practically does not communicate with family and friends, loses his professional and personal reputation. As debts grow, anxiety may increase, and sometimes real panic sets in. Depending on the specific situation, depression may occur due to feelings of hopelessness. But sometimes a gambling addict has suicidal thoughts.
Why you need to sound the alarm
The presence of gambling addiction cannot be ignored. It would seem that it is not capable of causing serious harm to the child’s health, but this is not so. If the disorder is not treated, attention, memory, and thinking disorders will occur. You may even experience symptoms of depression.
Often, with gambling addiction, a teenager becomes uncontrollable and aggressive. He is unable to concentrate on anything. School performance is declining sharply. Communication with friends stops. Relationships with parents and relatives deteriorate.
Treatment methods for gambling addiction
The gambler's relatives are interested in how to get rid of gambling addiction. But first, the player needs to want it himself. If a wife brings her husband and he is not ready for therapy, nothing will work.
It is possible to recover from gambling addiction, but therapy must be comprehensive. It includes:
- Methods of mental correction. They provide both group and individual therapy. This group also includes coding methods, including through hypnosis.
- Social adaptation, when the player learns to re-build connections with other people, finds a job, and looks for ways of self-realization that are not related to the game.
- Drug therapy. It plays a supporting role - relieves anxiety, normalizes sleep, improves blood circulation in the brain.
- Maintaining the effect is preventing relapses.
Diagnosis or hobby
There is no consensus on this matter yet: computer games often become the object of criticism. But many doctors attribute the symptoms of computer addiction to a disease: a number of scientists believe that they cause addiction on a par with alcohol and drugs. If you show a drug addict a new dose or an alcoholic a bottle, the reaction will be exactly the same.
In June 2022, WHO included gaming disorder in the eleventh list of the International Classification of Diseases.
Treatment of computer addiction among adolescents today is possible in different ways. The degree of bias should be taken into account. Often in advanced cases they resort to drug therapy. However, the use of psychotropic drugs has not yet brought benefits to the child’s body. It is important to understand this and try to do without extreme measures.
Rehabilitation courses
Our clinic offers treatment for gambling addiction %%city_name%%. To get rid of gambling addiction, a rehabilitation course is prescribed, which includes various techniques, depending on the patient’s condition.
12 Steps
This program was developed in America for the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous. But it is also suitable for gambling addicts. A psychologist will tell you in more detail how to get rid of gambling addiction using this program. But we need to start by recognizing the problem.
The next steps are recognition of one’s non-exclusivity, conscious refusal to play, an objective analysis of one’s actions, reconciliation with oneself, and then with others, etc. The eleventh step is socialization, and the twelfth is helping other people.
Gestalt therapy
To help a gambling addict get rid of addiction, a whole range of methods is used - on their basis, special experiments are carried out, during which the patient develops self-awareness, he learns to control himself, control his feelings, notice the appearance of unwanted thoughts in time and suppress them.
Gestalt therapy makes it possible, through special experiments, to develop self-awareness in the patient. A person learns to observe himself, control the appearance of unwanted thoughts and tune in to the positive.
Art therapy
Art therapy is not only a treatment for gambling addiction. The essence of the method is to use creative activities to remove internal negativity and improve the functioning of the central nervous system. That is, art therapy helps to cope with depression and get rid of anxiety. To do this, you don’t have to be able to draw well or play a musical instrument; there are many interesting creative techniques, and the gamer can find a suitable option.
Individual and group psychological trainings
Gambling addiction can be treated using psychological techniques. Different approaches are used:
- Behavioral psychotherapy, in which addiction recovery is achieved through behavior change. Undesirable forms are eliminated and replaced with useful ones.
- Psychoanalysis, in which a psychologist identifies factors that contribute to the development of addiction and then helps to get rid of them.
- Psychodrama is a role-playing game aimed at studying a person’s inner world and adjusting it, which helps to rationally perceive reality and build relationships with others.
Therapeutic Community Method
This treatment method involves placing the gambling addict in a community where other people have the same addiction problems as him. At the same time, they do not have access to games; their lives are organized and structured in such a way as to exclude all factors that provoke addiction. The rest of the community ensures that a person follows this rule.
Mentoring system
This is one component of the 12 step program, but it can also work in combination with other methods. A gambling addict who begins treatment is assigned a mentor who has already been able to overcome his addiction. A person has the opportunity to contact a mentor at any time to receive advice and support. Many people perceive such a mentor better than a psychologist.
Spiritual practices
Yoga is most often used because it is not just a philosophical system that helps to find humility and mental strength, but a path to mental and physical health. Yoga classes in the morning promote the release of endorphin - the hormone of joy, which is often lacking in gamers. So they place bets. Yoga classes provide endorphins and make the process of social rehabilitation more effective.
Introspection
The essence of this method is to teach the patient to take responsibility for decisions made and look for all possible ways out of the situation. The patient must remember in detail, preferably in writing, everything that happened to him during the day, and understand the emotions that arose in him. He must learn to identify events that caused psychological stress and look for options to get out of the situation. He presents this information in a group lesson. The rest of the group gives him advice on each specific case. This results in joint work on mistakes, helping to form a rational approach.
Occupational therapy
Occupational therapy can help a gambling addict get rid of addiction. Physical labor allows you to get a specific result, and the patient has a feeling of fulfillment and satisfaction. Collaborative work is practiced to help improve or restore communication skills.
Coding
It will not be possible to completely wean a gambling addict from his addiction using coding alone. But it will help overcome addiction, creating the basis for further therapy. Encoding is carried out using hypnosis. During such sessions, an attitude towards giving up gambling is laid down. Before the session, the patient must undergo examination. Contraindications to coding are mental disorders and diseases of the central nervous system.
How to fight
Whatever activity a person does at the computer, if we are talking about addiction, then the purpose of such activity is the same - escaping reality, creating the illusion of safety and security, restoring balance and inner harmony. The more a person gets bogged down in the computer world, the weaker his ability to exercise volitional regulation becomes.
Thus, getting rid of computer addiction involves complex work, starting with identifying the specific reasons for leaving reality. These problems are individual, but all addicts are united by a weak ability to adapt, impaired socialization, the desire to avoid decisions and get away from problems, and low resistance to stress.
To cope with the problem, you need to remove the roots of computer addiction:
- Eliminate the discomfort experienced by the individual in everyday life, that is, increase resistance to frustration and stress resistance.
- Work on increasing responsibility and determination. As a rule, computer-dependent people are endowed with increased sensitivity to life's difficulties, do not know how to withstand the blows of fate, and deny their own importance in the development of life.
- Achieve a change in mental state and mood from negative to positive. That is, find interesting activities for the individual in the real world and form positive thinking.
- Develop coping strategies for overcoming difficult life situations.
It is impossible to cope with the problem of addiction on your own - the patient himself has an altered consciousness, those around him rarely have the appropriate competencies. To determine the true reasons for the desire to escape from reality and work through them, I recommend seeking a personal consultation with a psychologist.
Prevention of gambling addiction
It is necessary to eliminate factors that will provoke a relapse - make sure that the former player does not return to the old company, install a security program on your smartphone and computer. Free time should be spent in such a way that vivid emotions and endorphins compensate for what the player receives from betting - sports, picnics in the fresh air, joint creative activities, etc.
The clinic also helps patients during the post-rehabilitation period. If you suspect that a person may break down, you should immediately contact a specialist.
Features of computer games
Most games are built in such a way that a person looks at the virtual space through the eyes of the hero, that is, maximum identification with the character occurs. It is this entry into the role that causes the loss of connection with reality and with one’s true “I”. A conflict gradually develops between the virtual self and the real self.
Real life is rich in conflicts, communication with both pleasant and unpleasant people, disappointments and defeats, but there are also pleasant sides. In the virtual world, you can create your 100% most comfortable reality. There is a disguise of fear of society.
Questionnaire “False bet scale”
This is the simplest test that allows you to distinguish an addicted gambler from a person who only plays “for pleasure” from time to time. It consists of two questions:
- Have you ever felt the desire to invest large amounts of money in a game?
- Have you ever lied to your loved ones about how much money you spend on games?
You need to answer briefly - “yes” or “no”. A positive answer to one of the questions indicates a tendency towards gambling addiction.
Fact. With this test, you can discreetly diagnose gambling addiction in a teenager by asking one or both questions “casually” in a conversation.
