“I want to help!”: advice from a specialist in the fight against gambling addiction. Part 1

Pathological gambling addiction or gambling addiction affects 0.2–5.3% of people [1] in each country. The more different betting shops, slot machines and casinos there are, the more people fall into this trap.

In Russia, gaming establishments are prohibited at the legislative level: the gambling business can only operate in 4 special zones. However, online casinos are thriving despite the bans. Gamblers no longer have to sneak into underground gaming clubs under the cover of darkness - you can open the casino page on any computer or phone, all you need is access to the Internet.

The underground gambling business has a good income: according to the analytical company Mediascope and RBC magazine, in the largest online casino Azino777 in Russia, the annual volume of bets ranges from 6 to 15 billion rubles.

Read our article about the dangers of online casinos and how to help a loved one give up gambling.

How to help a loved one overcome addiction

Solution

Why are online casinos dangerous?

1. The hobby of online betting looks quite innocent, but virtual coins are bought with real money. According to surveys, up to 28% of players note that it is easier to spend money on the Internet.[2] Electronic payments allow you to transfer any amount with one click.
2. Finding out about casinos is very easy: aggressive advertising with the promise of millions in winnings is inserted into pirated versions of popular films. Almost everyone knows about the possibility of betting on the Internet.
3. The desire to get “easy money”, colorful pictures and round-the-clock availability tempts you to make the first bet. At the start, many sites promise bonuses: double winnings, a minimum amount in the account, etc. The excitement of anticipation of winning becomes a kind of drug, which is very difficult to refuse on your own.

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Why are bets more dangerous than slot machines and roulette?

Let's start with the last question. Sports betting gives players the illusion that they can beat the bookmaker with their intelligence, analysis of a sporting event. Most casino players understand that there is a certain probability of winning, and they are either lucky or not. But betting on sports, from the point of view of most players, is not luck, but an accurate, correct calculation.

It is precisely this feeling that attracts: you understand something better than the bookmaker, you caught him on it, you managed to hit a good jackpot. This feeling is much more difficult to fight than the usual addiction to roulette and slot machines.

Here you can object: there are players who really consistently win money at bookmakers by conducting good analysis. Yes, there are such people, but there are only a few of them. And for them, betting is an ordinary job, which is devoid of emotions of joy and disappointment. Most often, such analysts do not even follow sporting events - they simply find out the results later.

If you place a new bet in full confidence that you have found the bookmaker’s weak point, then perhaps this is the first sign of gambling addiction.

Signs of gambling addiction

If your husband suddenly “stops paying” his salary, he is always sitting on the computer or phone, and you suspect that he has taken out loans - it is quite possible that he has developed an addiction.

A gambler can be recognized by the following signs:

• a person constantly lies and tries to cheat;
• thinks about the game all the time;
• after a loss, there is an obsessive desire to win back;
• spends more on the game than he can afford;
• borrows money from friends, relatives and even strangers without paying off debts;
• cannot stop playing, is irritated if he is forced not to play;
• feels guilty.

The more a gambler depends on gambling, the more money and time he spends on it.

Relationships with loved ones, career success, health - everything fades into the background.

Among those who have a pathological addiction to games, several groups can be distinguished:

• "Running from problems." They want to “forget”, relax, take their mind off stress. They often suffer from other psychological and physical addictions: alcoholism, drug addiction, overeating, etc. As a rule, such people are depressed.
• “Lucky” (“about to hit the jackpot”). A typical representative of this type is an active man about 30 years old, aggressive and assertive. Such people consider it their duty to defeat others and strive to deceive the system.
• "Brilliant mathematicians." They are confident in the existence of a certain sequence and are trying to calculate the winnings. Like other groups, they have low self-esteem and a tendency to obsessive states.

The feeling of happiness in anticipation of winning is associated with an increase in the level of dopamine, the pleasure hormone. [3] In this case, the random nature of the reward serves to reinforce the habit. Subsequently, this pushes the person to seek the thrill of the game again and again.

Who is at risk?

There are activities that cannot be called gambling directly, but the mechanisms in them also cause gambling addiction. Investments in the stock market and cryptocurrency market, buying lottery tickets, sports betting, etc.

The main sign that a hobby develops into an addiction is the devastating consequences for a person’s normal life. The desire to place a bet is so strong that it crowds out other values, and a person, overwhelmed by excitement, does not notice how he begins to spend large sums on bets and spend all his free time in online casinos. Relationships with loved ones, career, health and other areas of life suffer.

Keep track of time

Computer games are an exciting process.
We may not even notice how we spent several hours on it. It's quite easy to get lost in fantasy worlds and plot twists that will keep you glued to the screen for "another 10 minutes." Psychologist John M. Grohol believes that time tracking can help in this case. Write down what time you start playing and what time you finish. At the end of the week, calculate how many hours you spent playing games. Most likely, this figure will make you think again.

How to help a loved one overcome addiction

Gambling addiction can ruin your entire life. Finding himself face to face with a problem, a person withdraws into himself, limits his social circle, and in the end everything can end in tragedy, even suicide.

It is almost impossible to overcome the pathological craving for gambling on your own; the addiction progresses, and the person needs professional help. Therefore, the first thing you can do for your loved one is to support and offer to find a way to solve the problem. Remember: even if the addiction of a gambling addict is already obvious to everyone around him, he may not see the problem point-blank.

To begin with, you can ask if he has the feeling that his passion for gaming has turned into a problem, and make it clear that you are very worried. Don't blame or judge. Explain that you do not blame him, you just need to change his behavior pattern, and assure him of your readiness to go to the end together. In most cases, with timely treatment, gambling addiction can be overcome forever, without the risk of relapse.

The following arguments may help here:

• The gambling business is based on mathematical calculations that do not allow the player to have an advantage over the casino. The probability of winning is low. It is impossible to repay existing debts.
• Gambling is a monotonous activity that does not require intellectual work.
• A whole army of marketers is working to ensure that people continue to play and spend their money. Don't allow yourself to be manipulated.
• There is no shame in asking for help. Admitting a problem is a sign of strength and wisdom, not weakness.

If someone in your family suffers from gambling addiction, you can try to combine the budget, share access to bank cards, and control expenses together. If a gambling addict is your friend, you can also offer him to temporarily transfer control of the budget to you and allocate money only for certain purposes. One of the solutions for fans of online casinos would be to restrict access to gambling sites or use blocking programs.

What not to do:

• play with an addict,
• deny the problem
• cover up lies
• lend money.

Reasons for the development of gambling addiction

There is no universal way to treat gambling addiction. In each individual case, the psychotherapist must work to study the patient’s life and identify the causes of the development of the disorder.

The following factors can lead to the development of various types of gambling addiction:

• heredity. Cases of gambling addiction are most often observed in people whose relatives also suffered from this and other types of addiction;
• biological factors. In some cases, addiction to gambling is explained by the development of the patient’s central nervous system;
• somatic pathologies can also provoke the development of gambling addiction. This occurs in the case of a deficiency of substances that regulate the mechanism of control over human action and thinking at the intercellular level;
• psychological factors. The risk of developing gambling addiction is much higher in children raised in families where the most important aspiration is to achieve material wealth. In addition, addiction can develop due to the tendency to perform rituals (performing repetitive movements). And if there is a gambling addict in the family, then the child can simply copy his behavior.

Most of us have gambled at least once in our lives, placing bets in casinos, slot machines or horse racing. But not everyone develops pathological dependence. People who are in a state of extreme loneliness are at risk. With the game they try to fill the spiritual emptiness, dispel melancholy and drive away boredom. Typically, lonely people are very dissatisfied with life; with the help of various gambling games they strive to realize themselves.

The development of gambling addiction can also be provoked by the thirst for easy money and the desire to receive vivid emotions. Experts also noticed a certain pattern: people who have other types of pathological addictions or suffer from various psychological disorders often become gambling addicts.

Most often, men suffer from gambling addiction; the main reason for the development of this addiction in the stronger sex is personal problems. Women start playing out of simple curiosity, although some of them strive to gain financial independence in this way.

Solution

Gambling addiction is a serious addiction, not just entertainment. To overcome the craving for money gambling, it is important not only the support of family and friends, but also the help of professional psychologists.

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Drug therapy can be used to relieve acute symptoms, but if the behavior pattern remains the same, then the addict is likely to return to gaming again.

The 7Spsy behavior modification course will help you get rid of gambling addiction. It is a scientifically based method of treating pathological gambling addiction and has been proven to be effective.[4] Behavior modification courses last from 2 to 6 weeks. Every day, the addict completes tasks from the course and works to change his behavior pattern. Tangible changes will come very soon, the main thing is to consolidate the results obtained, bring awareness to actions and bring them to automaticity.

As a result, your loved one will learn to enjoy life without gambling and return to healthy values ​​- family relationships and full-time work.

List of sources:

1. Jazaeri, S. A., & Habil, M. H. (2012). Reviewing two types of addiction - pathological gambling and substance use. Indian journal of psychological medicine, 34(1), 5-11.
2. Gainsbury S. M. (2015). Online Gambling Addiction: the Relationship Between Internet Gambling and Disordered Gambling. Current addiction reports, 2(2), 185-193.
3. Rutledge, R. B., Skandali, N., Dayan, P., & Dolan, R. J. (2014). A computational and neural model of momentary subjective well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(33), 12252-7.
4. Oakley-Browne MA, Adams P, Mobberley PM. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2000;(2):CD001521. Review. Update in: Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2000;(1):CD001521.

It is important to recognize your addiction

Hegumen Luka (Stepanov):

– If a person is aware of his addiction and is ready to fight it, then it’s a win-win situation. If he often confesses, reproaches himself from the heart and exerts the will to expel this harmful addiction from his life, God’s help will not be delayed and the addiction will be rejected. If the damaged person considers himself happy with the opportunity to achieve the next stage of degradation for successfully completing virtual tasks, then things are bad. All that remains is to pray for him, and if you have power over him, simply prohibit the use of these soul-crushing devices.

Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev:

– The Scripture says: “Everything is lawful for me, but not everything is profitable; “Everything is permissible for me, but nothing should possess me” (1 Cor. 6:12). And any painful passion or addiction is dangerous for a person. For, as is well known: “Whoever is overcome by someone is his slave” (2 Pet. 2:19). In other words, when a person himself becomes a console for a computer game, then this is already an illness and a problem.

Relevance of the problem in society

Gambling addiction is the scourge of modern society. Bookmakers actively offer their services via the Internet. Access to betting and casinos is open to everyone with virtually no restrictions. In the heat of excitement, a person is completely immersed in the gaming process, which stimulates the pleasure center in the brain, causing euphoria, which feels similar to intoxication. The attraction to pleasant emotions intensifies, gradually forming an addiction comparable in strength and destructive effect to chemical stimulants (addiction to alcohol, smoking, psychotropic substances).

Gambling addictions are socially dangerous phenomena. Passion for games and casinos takes away people’s time, strength, energy, interest in progress and personal growth. The problem is gaining momentum. In the world, more than 5% of the population is already faced with gambling addiction, and the numbers will grow. Young people find themselves in a particularly vulnerable position; the percentage of gambling addicts among teenagers and young people aged 18-25 is the highest. Adults are more stable, but they exhibit an addiction syndrome, especially in the presence of predisposing factors and a specific mental structure.

Prevention of gambling addiction and timely treatment of pathology are ways to protect society from the epidemic that threatens it.

Help from loved ones

Support from relatives is a necessary condition for recovery and recovery from gambling addiction. Doctors at the Vozvraschenie clinic try to find reliable support in their relatives in order to ultimately help the person through joint efforts.

The task of relatives is to provide a sincere and warm attitude, to create conditions for the formation of new guidelines. Their mission is complemented by the need to motivate and explain to a person how addiction ruins his life. Show that real life is filled with interesting and joyful things, and that going into a game deprives you of the opportunity to experience them.

Close people must back up their words with actions and personal example. Motivate a gambling addict to fight anxiety and doubts. In addition, their task often comes down to controlling and minimizing access to bets and games.

An important stage of recovery is the emergence of new activities, responsibilities, and a change of environment. Only relatives and close circle can contribute to this.

Go on a game hunger strike

Not everyone can suddenly give up video games for a while. But sometimes it works. If you feel that it’s time for you to return to reality, try deleting all the games from your computer or collecting all the discs and taking them to one of your friends for safekeeping. For example, for two weeks or a month.

You will have more time for important things and meetings with dear people.

You will understand that real life is much more interesting and games will not replace it for you.

How long does gambling addiction take to be treated?

It is impossible to name a specific period in this matter. The terms are set based on the experience of gambling and other individual characteristics. But in any case, you should not think that the treatment will be quick. No, you have been addicted for a long time, and it will also take a long time to get rid of it. For some people, even a month is enough to cope with their trouble. But for many, several years of treatment will be necessary.

What will help cure gambling addiction faster:

• Motivation.
• Family support.
• Doctors' experience.

Remember that gambling addiction is a serious addiction that requires medical intervention. Cases in which an addict copes with an illness using his willpower are too rare. The longer the addiction, the more difficult it will be to cure it. Only qualified and experienced doctors can make sure that a person never returns to addiction. It’s good that now such clinics exist and they employ valuable personnel who can also carry out the coding procedure.

When choosing a clinic, pay attention to reviews. Look at diplomas and licenses. Try to come there and see in what conditions the dependent person will be. Find out about treatment methods if you choose a coding method - be sure to find out if the patient has any contraindications! Look at how the staff treats patients. This is very important, because a person should feel comfortable.

Treatment regimen for gambling addiction

The treatment regimen is greatly influenced by the age of the gambler, based on which the therapy is based:

• 20-40 years. Patients of this age are highly susceptible to treatment, and it is easier for them to get rid of addiction. To treat gambling addiction in young people of this age, meditation is used, as well as various relaxation techniques. To cope with excess adrenaline, which previously “burned out” during gambling, young people engage in extreme sports.
• 40-50 years old. Middle-aged women and men are also susceptible to various meditation techniques, but neurolinguistic programming techniques and group therapy come to the fore in terms of effectiveness in treatment.
• 50 years or more. Adult women and men, as a rule, have had gambling addiction for a long time, which means it is most difficult for them to recover. In addition to psychotherapy, such patients are most often prescribed special medications.

In adolescents and children, gambling addiction is treated with drug-free therapy; it is easiest for them to get out of it, but even here a psychologist is needed to know how to get rid of gambling addiction once and for all.

Set a limit

Set a timer to help you with this. Even if you continue playing after his signal, you will still know how much time you spent. And knowledge is the key to your salvation. Perhaps it will help to develop a rule, for example, to play only with friends or only on certain days.

There is no need to limit yourself too much, this will make the situation worse.

In addition to the time limit, set a monetary limit. Determine how many games per month you can afford.

Prevention of gambling addiction according to doctors

To prevent the development of gambling addiction, certain preventive measures should be taken:

• Start an interesting hobby, try to occupy your free time with useful active activities. Reading books or watching movies can also help.
• Play sports to keep your body healthy, and at the same time tune your brain in the right way.
• Try to get away from activities that cause stress.
• At the first symptoms of gambling addiction or other concomitant diseases (for example, depression), consult a specialist.

Also, you should not focus your main attention on gambling, because this is the main thinking mistake in the formation of gambling addiction.

What can a person do to get rid of addiction?

Make an important decision.

In order to take the first step towards a life without addiction, it is important to realize that gambling addiction is a disease, which means it requires treatment. You need to find the strength to decide not to play anymore. Without this, no other methods of fighting will give the desired effect.

Organize your time.

Every person trying to overcome gambling addiction goes through a stage when they need to give up their “drug” and begin to adhere to a strict regime. Be tough on yourself, set clear rules and enforce them yourself.

Start living in the real world.

Dependent people often lose communication skills, it becomes difficult for them to work, make new acquaintances and maintain old ones. Experts recommend asking yourself the question: how will the game help me on the path to my dreams? You can spend your free time from games on really useful activities, such as sports, and the money you save can be spent on traveling to exotic countries. And then you will understand that the most interesting adventures are possible only in the real world.

Activities of bookmakers in the fight against gambling addiction

Bookmaker websites offer the following tools:

• information sections on responsible gambling;
• special options when registering an account: you can set the maximum amount of money deposited per day, the number of allowed bets, and the time of playing live;
• links to the websites of special international organizations that provide assistance to gambling addicts - Center for Ludomani, Gambling Help Online, Gambling Therapy, GamCare, etc.;
• Players under 18 years of age are not allowed.

The operating principle of bookmakers:

How bookmakers work: what they are, how they work and how they make money

How to treat a gambling addict (computer addict)

Having recently read a list of signs of chemical addiction, I was struck by how much they coincided with the manifestations of computer addiction in adolescents. In addition to dilated/constricted pupils, all other manifestations are obvious: the exclusion of other interests, the inability to occupy oneself with anything else, the whole life is subordinated to the game (“dose” - high - waiting for the next portion), children begin to study worse, they may lose weight, so how they forget to eat, steal money for new games or to visit a computer club. Unfortunately, parents rarely realize the gravity of the current situation; they say that “it’s all out of laziness, he just doesn’t want to study,” and try to change the situation with soul-saving conversations. While we must honestly admit: gambling addiction (computer addiction) is the same form of addiction as any other.

Compared to “troubled” children, “computer maniacs” look like angels: they don’t wander around on the street, the house is quiet and clean, and their parents know where they can be found at any time. What is the problem? Here's the thing. Gradually, the game crowds out all other activities, first the child stops going for walks, then all contacts “in real life” are reduced to nothing, only chats, online games, and call-backs are left for completing levels together. There’s nothing to say about studying: I go into the 10th grade during a lesson, the teacher talks in almost complete silence. Only a strange rustling is heard, and the boys scream somehow out of context. Every second person has portable gaming consoles under their desks. What physics, God bless you!

The mother of a 12-year-old “computer-addicted” boy says: “He lives from game to game. We have strictly limited the playing time to one hour a day, and for “deuces” we also deprive you of a computer. So he literally hits the walls, can’t do anything else, first he waits until he can play, then he struggles so that the time will pass quickly and he can sit back down. Friends came to his birthday party - so they quickly swept away the treat - and to the computer. One plays, the rest are sick. I already hate this computer, I’m ready to throw it away.”

If primary and secondary schoolchildren simply sit their pants down to the detriment of physical activity, then the problem is completely with teenagers and young men: they lose motivation for any other activity except computer gaming, including communication with the opposite sex, sex, going to college and work. This is where parents begin to sound the alarm: the army is shining, and their beloved child, instead of preparing to enlist, is killing orcs around the clock. Boys no longer react to girls leaving; they may simply not notice that a friend has not called or come for two weeks. An 18-year-old boy told me that while playing, time flies so quickly that you can sit down for half an hour and get up the next day. Sounds like what casino visitors say, doesn't it?

Stages of addiction development

Gambling addiction is a chronic progressive disease. It is impossible to become ill with gambling addiction as quickly as to contract an infection. The development of the disease occurs progressively, usually it is a long process. Gambling, or gambling addiction, is divided into several stages in various classification systems. One of the main systems is the Kekelidze-Shemchuk stage classification, which distinguishes 4 main stages in the development of gambling addiction:

• Preclinical - at this stage, changes in behavior are of a faded, implicit nature. At this stage you can get rid of the growing need at this stage with the help of correct prioritization, preventive conversations and logical judgments.
• The period of clinical personality changes is the stage of development of mental dependence, the emergence of obsessive thoughts about the game and the formation of search behavior (the desire to find an opportunity to play in any situation).
• Clinical dependence - this period is characterized by changes in the psycho-emotional-volitional sphere, impoverishment of emotions occurs, character traits such as callousness, rigidity, and indifference towards relatives appear.
• The stage of structural changes in personality - at this stage emotions become even more flattened, rational thinking is lost in favor of magical, symbolic ideas. A gambler notices “symbols” and “signs” that help predict the outcome of the game. A dependent person becomes indifferent to what is happening around him. Emotions of bright colors arise only during the game.

The overall picture of the development of gambling addiction consists of behavioral, psychological and physiological changes in the human body. Let's consider the main stages and symptoms of addiction to computer games.

Slight infatuation

This stage is characterized by the emergence of interest in games, obtaining information about possible winnings, gameplay, and meeting like-minded people. A person forms his own idea of ​​possible benefits, and motivation arises. During this period, the gambler can control himself, and participation in gambling is episodic.

At this stage, the provoking influence is exerted by random wins, victories that cause emotional outbursts, excitement, adrenaline, and euphoria. The more often a player is involved in the process, the more he wants to experience such emotions. Fantasies about the game, groundless optimism and a premonition of a big win appear.

Passion

During this period, a psychological dependence on the game process is formed. This stage is characterized by the emergence of fantasies on the theme of play. A gambler experiences unfounded optimism, confidence, or a premonition of a big victory or gain. At the same time, social maladjustment is growing, financial problems appear, and conflicts arise in the family and at work. The hobby has not yet acquired a pathological character, but the symptoms are clearly expressed:

• priorities change - the need to play comes to the fore, all other matters are “pushed to later”;
• the mood changes dramatically - from euphoria to aggression;
• The first health problems appear - sleep disturbances, changes in diet, headaches and muscle pain, etc.

Against this background, the game displaces the basic needs of a person - communication, food, sleep, active recreation, physical activity, love, sex, etc.

Addiction

The chronic stage of the disease, when all of the above symptoms manifest themselves in a more aggressive form. Against the backdrop of financial problems, a gambling addict is ready to commit crimes in order to obtain funds for the game. At this time, there is a decrease in acquired gaming skills, uncalculated moves are made, unjustified risks appear, as a result of which the number of failures and losses increases.

The patient shows aggression if there is an attempt to limit his addiction, and withdrawal syndrome appears. Health problems are constant and increasing in nature - depressive states, migraines appear, memory, vision and attention deteriorate, and suicidal tendencies may appear. In case of further progression of the disease without specialized help, the patient develops a compulsive manic desire. Attempts to protect him from the game process cause physical suffering, withdrawal symptoms, and aggressive behavior towards himself and others.

Drug treatment - medications

Drug treatment is prescribed to experienced gambling addicts and those with an advanced stage of addiction. The following medications may be used for treatment:

• neuroleptics;
• tranquilizers;
• anticonvulsants;
• antidepressants.

Also, depending on the specific clinical situation, more potent medications may be prescribed to make the treatment as effective as possible.

In particularly advanced cases, when the patient has severe depression with strong suicidal tendencies, the gambling addict may be admitted to inpatient treatment in a clinic or special center.