Gambling Addiction & Problem Gambling Q&A
5 experts · 19 questions answered
Latest Q&As
Compulsive Gambling: What's the Payoff?
This is a powerful question with no easy answer. You are not alone; families all across the country have had to ask me the same question in one form or another countless times. You love your son, and you want him to stop gambling, while at the same time, you resent the behaviors of the compulsive ga
Answered by evan jarschauer
Multiple Addictions
Hi there and thank you for your question. The short answer is no - I'm not aware of a program that targets both addictions. My truth though is that to a certain extent, addiction is addiction is addiction. The only addiction that is unique is food addiction because that's something a person has to d
Answered by Jim LaPierre
Hitting Bottom
Unfortunately too often the addict will not hear when we say they have a problem. I used to have a little poster depicting a guy running down the street with a big pointed finger shooting a lighting bolt behind him. It said We don't change when we see the light, we change when we feel the heat. It s
Answered by Donna Hunter
What makes for addiction
I guess it is not difficult to get addicted to something. And bingo is a good opportunity to look at what makes it tick.The social side of things is always really important. Many people learnt to take marihuana because it was something they did with their mates and smoking was a rite of passage. It
Answered by Jill Edwards
Lying is More Concerning than Gambling
Hi there and thanks for your question. My heart goes out to you. It's difficult to gauge from this limited information whether or not he has a gambling problem, but the fact that he lied to you about it is a red flag suggesting he does. More importantly, he lied to you and that's likely to undermine
Answered by Jim LaPierre
Gambling Addiction = Betting Your Life
A lot of folks tell me they're hopeless, a lost cause, or otherwise too chronic, too far gone. Look, here's some tough love - if you didn't have hope and didn't want to believe then you wouldn't have asked the question. My guess is you're fighting a losing battle to resist temptation. Just avoiding
Answered by Jim LaPierre
Getting a life
I am addicted to slot machines. I crave that in the zone feeling. How can I get that same feeling without gambling? Real excitement comes from living an engaged life and it rises and falls naturally. Clearly you have a craving for the chemical results of being strongly aroused by the risks and excit
Answered by Jill Edwards
My brother is a gambling addict. What's best kind of treatment for him?
If your brother will commit to some kind of treatment it needs to include Gamblers Anonymous attendance. He needs the support of other gamblers. He may also benefit from a family type of meeting, where everyone who has enabled his gambling and has been hurt by his gambling come together to let him k
Answered by Donna Hunter
To help or not to help
It is very hard to define hard to quit. It is true that the adrenaline rush involved in gambling can be part of an almost chemical addiction, but gambling is based on experiencing the fantasy of success and the fear of failure and like most addictions brings about a very low self confidence, which i
Answered by Jill Edwards
It is hard to stand back
I hear that you have tried to talk to him and he won’t talk to you, that he does not think he has a problem. I hear you have asked him to stop but he has not. I understand that you know about gambling because of the experience you have had with your father and I agree with you that your son appears
Answered by Jill Edwards
When the Chips are Down
Addicts often make changes covertly instead of openly and directly communicating what the change is and how expectations might change. We are impatient people. Folks in Recovery often say to me, "I've been good for XXXX amount of time, why don't they trust me? I then ask them how long were they untr
Answered by Jim LaPierre
How do I know it is a problem?
I would imagine that someone who lost 3000 from my savings would be having a relationship problem with me and this would be a lot worse because it had been hidden from me. I think you probably feel surprised, angry and perhaps hurt. I think you need to attend to your own feelings as they may be a go
Answered by Jill Edwards
When is gambling a game and when is it gambling?
What an interesting question. One of the significant facets of addiction is the situation where you get a very quick positive response to what you do. I dont know video lottery terminals, but I suspect that you can very quickly pay the money and play the lottery and then potentially get big or small
Answered by Jill Edwards
ADHD: Concerned About Brother's Gambling
For many people gambling is a fun, enjoyable and harmless activity. For others, gambling becomes a coping mechanism to help with stress, anxiety, depression and other stressful things they may experience. And for others gambling becomes a compulsive and problematic process addiction where there is l
Answered by Colleen Koncilja
Gambling- The black pit of debt
It sounds like you know that you are not going to become rich by gambling. That is a start. It also seems that you are beginning to see the connection between gambling addiction and the craving to use despite the negative consequences. The gambling at this point has triggered off a response in your
Answered by Donna Hunter
I have a real gambling problem... Will registering for a self-exclusion ban help?
Signing up to ban yourself does not change you. It only puts you a stop further from your addiction. While that can be good for the short run, it does not solve the physical, mental emotional and spiritual crisis you are experiencing. With gambling- there is no amount of money that solves this probl
Answered by Donna Hunter
Gambling addiction "in moderation"
Even in the world of alcoholism there are programs that support moderation or harm reduction. This is about taking steps to mitigate the disastrous harm an addiction will cause, i.e., using clean needles instead of dirty ones, not keeping alcohol in the house etc. What I am hearing is that you have
Answered by Donna Hunter
Children online, and predatory advertising
People who advertise will do anything to keep you buying their product or in this case keep you on their website. That is their job. Offering toys and prizes to children would of course keep them in the game. As far as advertising will go , we are the consumers, even for our children. If we don't li
Answered by Donna Hunter
Is the gambler ready to handle money?
Your son should be commended for going to rehab and following through with GA. Hopefully he is actively working on the12 steps, has a sponsor and has created a relapse prevention plan. Regaining trust is not a simple task. Of course there is a desire to help him now that you see that he is helping h
Answered by Donna Hunter