- Susceptibility to gambling addiction
- How do you know when a gambling addiction starts?
- During gambling addiction treatment, the doctor helps patients understand themselves and change their lives
How to recognize that playing in a casino is no longer a hobby and becomes a gambling addiction - advises Ludmila Szawdyn, a psychologist and psychiatrist who has been dealing with gamblers and people suffering from other addictions for 40 years.
Susceptibility to gambling addiction
Gamblers are people who always want to win, have difficulty accepting failure. During therapy, it turns out that most of them in childhood could not cope with emotions - with anger, sadness. Their parents did not help them, raising the bar all the time. And they were unable to meet the requirements. And these are the people who are most susceptible to gambling addiction.
How do you know when a gambling addiction starts?
You can talk about gambling addiction when we notice that we are no longer in charge of our lives. Then we should not go on this path anymore. Because in a moment we will lose control and we will not be able to even name what is happening to us. When we compromise ourselves by falling into debt or even extorting money. This should be a warning sign for us.
The gambler doesn't come to my office to heal himself. At first, he doesn't want to recover, to quit gambling. He comes to me to get rid of my troubles. To somehow continue to live … and play. I don't want to get rid of playing. It is his darling, home, the greatest joy. He comes because he does not know what to do when he has already lost the apartment in which he used to live with his family and has debts of several million. He's coming to help me out of trouble. And he is very surprised to find that he has to stop playing.
During gambling addiction treatment, the doctor helps patients understand themselves and change their lives
A gambler entering treatment learns that he is not - as he thought he is - a racing champion or casino king. This pride, the lack of moderation took him somewhere far away from himself. You have to put it in his mother's emotional, family and social suit. Only then can you work with him and help him find himself again.
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