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Getting Help with a Gambling Addiction

There are several ways to get help with a gambling addiction. You may wish to use the following:

• The National Gambling Helpline: 0845 600 133
• The Gamcare website: www.gamcare.org.uk

Gambling addiction help available

For the compulsive gambler to get rid of his or her addiction, the first step is to realise and admit that there is a problem. Facing the truth is difficult for addictive gamblers. They have to repeatedly lie to their friends and family in order to cover up their dependency on gambling, and as a result they begin to believe their lies themselves. It is therefore important for a compulsive gambler to break the circle of lies and become conscious of why he or she has lied, and at the same time realise that he or she is in the grasp of a progressive illness and needs treatment.

The second step is for the gambler to want to stop gambling and to have the desire to get well. It takes some willpower to get out of an addictive gambling habit. The feeling of the buzz one gets when taking risks in gambling is a very strong addiction and the need to go back to the casino or the bookmakers to feel that kick again is strong. But with some willpower and help a compulsive gambler can start to discard that need and consequently to stop gambling.

Step three is to talk. In order to move on from obsessive gambling it is important to talk about it. First of all to discuss the progressive illness with their relatives and with close friends, who were affected by the gambler’s addiction. It is an essential stage in order for the gambler to see things from another point of view. Equally important, if not even more important, is it for the compulsive gambler to talk with other people in the same situation as him- or herself as part of the treatment.

Talking with people who have gone through the same problems and who therefore understand one’s circumstances is an enormous help to refrain from what caused the problem in the first place - the need to feel the buzz of gambling. It is therefore recommended that compulsive gamblers who want to stop, to join a gambling addiction counselling group.

Most countries have gambling addiction support groups for gamblers as well as for their closest relatives or friends who have been affected by a gambler’s addiction.

The best a compulsive gambler can do to stop gambling is to seek help and to join a support group together with other gamblers with the desire to stop – just like alcoholics, who want to stop drinking, do.

Gambling advice...

When gambling, play only for the amount of money you can afford to lose. And keep in the back of your head that the reason why there is so much gambling available is because the people behind it make a lot of money – the money that all the gamblers lose.

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