Pathological gambling is a type of addiction that psychologists and psychiatrists define as behavioral addictions. They are addictions because they meet a number of criteria that are very similar to addictions to substances, such as alcohol or drugs.
These criteria are as follows:
- The impact that gambling has on life: the amount of time invested in gambling, i.e., the amount of mental effort and time spent thinking about it.
- Gradually, the person plays more, investing more time, money and effort in the game. It is exactly the same with substance addictions, where more and more is consumed.
- The person tries to make an effort to control how much he/she gambles, but usually fails and finally, he/she usually invests more money than he/she initially thought. This indicates lack of control, even though attempts are made by the gambler to control it.
- Repeated attempts are made to stop gambling, but there are frequent relapses.
So, what differentiates gambling from pathological gambling is that in pathological gambling there is no control, because there is compulsive gambling in which it is difficult to stop, although the person knows that it can have very negative consequences.
Factors that contribute to a person suffering from compulsive gambling
The first and most important factor is a cultural factor. This factor is the exposure to sources of gambling (machines, casinos, online betting, sports betting…), because the more exposed and the more this type of leisure activities are encouraged, the more this becomes a risk factor to fall into pathological gambling.
A person who gambles insistently is more likely to get hooked, so the less he/she plays, the safer he/she will be. And the fewer gambling opportunities there are, the safer it is. In this sense, the type of tools and applications that are now available for betting through the Internet is a problem, because it makes it very accessible and very easy to get in there.
Another important factor is the existence of a level of dissatisfaction in the person who gambles. If the person feels dissatisfaction, frustration, boredom or emotional discomfort, it is likely that the person will discover, by chance, that through gambling he or she disconnects from these problems and ends up getting hooked. Although initially he may not see it that way, unconsciously he ends up discovering that while he is playing, he is not bored and is not thinking about problems.
On the other hand, there is the factor of social normalization. The more normal gambling and gambling is seen as normal, the more risk there is. But this has more to do with a social factor.
Finally, there is a very important factor that is a personal factor, which is the type of personality of the player. There are personalities that tend more towards the search for new sensations and these people, who are usually also those who have compulsive or addictive behaviors of other types (risky activities, risky sexual practices, extreme sports, consumption of different substances), have a higher risk of falling into any addictive behavior, including pathological gambling.
How to get out of gambling addiction
The ideal would be to prevent the fall, through a lot of education. But once the person is in a gambling addiction process, the appropriate therapeutic approach is cognitive-behavioral therapy. This type of therapy is based on a behavioral re-education program, so that the person learns to resist or change certain behavioral patterns related to gambling that have already been installed.
Generally, this therapy starts with a money control by a trusted person, at least during the first weeks. It is also very important that the person prohibits himself/herself from accessing casinos and gambling websites. In this way, the person develops new habits and learns to mentally detoxify from gambling.
Afterwards, the recovery period is concluded, once the person has been unhooked and has not gambled for a few months. In this way, if there were factors of frustration, dissatisfaction or anxiety in daily life, which were escaped through gambling, the patient is helped to find alternative resources that are healthy for him/her.
What are the risks of pathological gambling?
Gambling addiction can end up, mainly, with problems at the interpersonal level and also in a deterioration of the patient.
The problems at the interpersonal level usually come, because when there is an addiction to gambling, as in all addictions, it usually increases progressively. Then, there is a moment in which the person begins to have financial problems and consequently, begins to ask for credits, borrow money to relatives, even to commit crimes (frauds, robberies…) to cover debts or to continue playing.
This deteriorates personal relationships. In addition, by producing a lot of stress, it can also end up developing other psychological problems such as anxiety or depression in the gambler, derived from the first problem he/she had with gambling. This added to some other complementary addiction to substances, because it usually goes hand in hand with the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and some other substances. But in general there is a global deterioration of the person and his or her personal relationships.