How To Admit Your Addiction To Gambling

How is an addiction identified? It is a behaviour that is repeated compulsively, regardless of the damage caused to the person who suffers from it. Due to the corrosiveness of addiction, it is never just the addict who is harmed; as a rule, everything and everyone around is hit.

But what are the symptoms? How is something like this detected? Just when we’ve already lived with the consequences? The most natural thing, at an early stage – sometimes even at a later stage -, is that this is a behaviour that the person sees as natural and harmless, hence it can go unnoticed for a long time. Let us analyze the case of a person who is addicted to gambling. Playing should be an activity with the aim of obtaining a pleasant sensation, however, when suffering from pathological gambling, this sensation is illusory: the player plays not to entertain himself, but to satisfy a need to permanently escape reality.

Game = Fun vs Addiction = Damage

This leads us to think: what is the real purpose that drives us to play casino games? Is it anxiety, stress, or something we refuse to deal with? Every addiction starts with trying to fill a void. It is a behavior that inevitably gets out of control, that leads us to recklessness, as it distorts our view of the world. Because everything – in the mind of the game addict – justifies breaking the limits. It doesn’t matter if we’re in debt, how many hours we haven’t slept or even if we do something illegal: there is a feeling of helplessness, because, when we stop feeding dependence, we are filled with anxiety.

How to break this cycle?

There is no other starting point: admitting addiction. It is impossible to help someone who chooses to deny himself. But once the problem is recognized, there are steps that can be taken on the recovery journey. Treatment has to start with resolving the real situation that made us vulnerable in the first place. That is, to face the reason that repelled us from reality.

Whenever you feel like playing, talk about it. Only taboo subjects get distorted and take on a disproportionate dimension to their due, so don’t hide anything under the rug. Talk openly with someone you trust, or even a professional. However, always recognize that, despite feeling tempted, you chose not to play.

If, by chance, you suffer a relapse – something that should not be considered impossible – remember that you are now more lucid and summon all the reasons that made you want to give up the addiction. Discover healthier ways to deal with the things that affect you, don’t take refuge in self-destruction.