Gambling

When gambling becomes an addiction, it mirrors many of the symptoms of other forms of addiction, including alcoholism. A person will often continue to justify the behavior until the person has had a great enough loss on either a financial or relational level to realize that significant losses will continue to occur until their behavior changes. Until then, a person is not as committed to the recovery process and will continue to justify the behavior. Listed below are some of the signs and symptoms used to identify pathological gambling as well as a GA Assessment Tool that can be completed to determine whether gambling is problematic or not.

According to helpguide.org, gambling addiction is sometimes called the "hidden illness" since there are not any visible symptoms.

There are 2 main types of gambling:

• Action gambling
  The act of gambling becomes the drug along with the thrill that comes from risk-taking.

• Escape gambling
  The main desire is to get away from current or past stressors.

Signs/Symptoms:

According to the American Psychological Association, there are 10 diagnostic criteria. A person must meet at least 5 or more of the criteria to be a pathological gambler or 3 or 4 must be met to be seen as a problem gambler.

1. Preoccupation---person is preoccupied with thoughts about past gambling experiences, planning for the next venture, and/or thinking about ways to get more money for gambling purposes
2. Tolerance---person increases amount of money used in order to maintain excitement level
3. Loss of Control---person has unsuccessful attempts of trying to quit or cut back
4. Withdrawal---person is irritable or restless when attempting to cut back or quit
5. Escape---person gambles to escape current or past stressors
6. Chasing---person continues to go back in order to make up for losses
7. Lying---person lies to family and friends to cover up level of involvement
8. Illegal Acts---person has committed illegal acts to support gambling ie: forgery, fraud, theft, embezzlement
9. Risked Significant Relationship---person has jeopardized or lost a significant relationship, job, or educational or career opportunity because of gambling
10. Bailout---person relies or has relied on others to provide money to relieve desperate financial situation caused by gambling

GA Assessment Tool

Gamblers Anonymous (GA) has created 20 questions to ask yourself to help assess your level of gambling.

1. Have you ever lost time from work or school due to gambling?
2. Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy?
3. Did gambling affect your reputation?
4. Have you ever felt remorse after gambling?
5. Did you ever gamble to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties?
6. Did gambling cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?
7. After losing did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your losses?
8. After a win did you have a strong urge to return to win more?
9. Did you often gamble until your last dollar was gone?
10. Did you ever borrow to finance your gambling?
11. Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling?
12. Were you reluctant to use "gambling money" for normal expenditures?
13. Did gambling make you careless of the welfare of yourself or your family?
14. Did you ever gamble longer than you had planned?
15. Have you ever gambled to escape worry or trouble?
16. Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to finance gambling?
17. Did gambling causes you to have difficulty in sleeping?
18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an urge to gamble?
19. Did you ever have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few hours of gambling?
20. Have you ever considered self destruction or suicide as a result of your gambling?

If you answer 'yes' to 7 or more of these questions, you most likely have a compulsive gambling problem and should be further assessed.

Resources

Gambling Problems Resource Center

In-Patient Treatment

Project Turnabout/Vanguard