Ivan Vdovin
1884 3 0
Gambling addiction, disease, how to treat? Gambling addiction is a drug that attacks the pleasure center of the brain. Gambling addiction does not bring any good and usually kills a large number of people, worse than alcohol and other hard drugs. The only difference between gambling addiction and drugs is that you do not inject the substance into the blood, but simply stimulate the pleasure center in the brain.
Next, endorphins are released into the blood, and you get pleasure until the internal drug stops working. And then, all in a circle, a new dose is needed. You start playing again, have fun, and so on and so forth. about how to cope with this problem and remove the shackles of slavery , as well as be happy .
Preface
The manual contains personal experience in dealing with gambling. I have had this passion for more than 15 years. Looking back, I understand that it was a time of the most unpleasant states of consciousness, thoughts and feelings.
On the one hand, I am grateful to my passion for gaming because it allowed me to take an impartial look at myself, to see both my weaknesses and to realize my own strength.
to GET RID of the passion for gambling , because otherwise this passion will lead to degradation and complete defeat of the individual in physical, social and moral terms.
Gambling addiction is a vice, a serious personality disease. This disease can be compared to cancer, which begins to develop silently inside the body, growing over time, affecting vital organs.
Gambling addiction also operates unnoticed. A person accidentally (for example, with the help of advertising - remember the intrusive advertising of “Azino Three Axes”) or on the advice of friends ends up in a casino, a gaming machine club, or on the Internet - on a video slots site, a bookmaker’s office, a poker site. A person is captivated by the prospect of earning huge amounts of money, which you cannot get if you “work hard in a factory” or work as a doctor, teacher, or firefighter.
It is with this thought - about living on FREE EASY funds won in casinos, slot machines, poker - that the active stage of gambling addiction begins.
The thirst for big money, which can be obtained easily and simply, is a thing that hits a person’s consciousness very powerfully.
We all need money to exist in this world.
Gambling as a destructive addiction is parasitism in its purest form, only in relation to oneself. Gambling is the desire to get everything at once, “for free,” without difficulty. This is the main danger of gambling - the degeneration of the personality and its moral principles.
A person forgets about others, about mutual assistance, compassion, and begins to focus on himself, his desires and goals. The golden mean is lost when you need to remember and take care not only of yourself, but also of others.
The state of a gambler is that of being “eternally defeated.” This is a state of deprivation, loss, loss. The player loses money, loses vital energy, and loses the ability to rejoice. And for what? For the sake of ephemeral chances to hit the jackpot? The owner of a gaming site is a winner, albeit in the worst sense of the word. Because he profits from the passions of the players.
Gambling is the path to the death of a person as an individual. Therefore, it is very important to realize how dangerous gambling addiction is and begin to fight it until it is completely destroyed. No compromises, no “truces” and especially no “friendship” with this disease. Only the complete eradication of gambling passion. More information about gambling addiction – stopstrast.ru.
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I suggest giving up your gaming passion in 21 days.
If you find it difficult to adhere to all stages of the practice to overcome gambling addiction, then take from this course only what you can do.
The most important thing is motivation.
If you form within yourself a strong desire to recover from gambling addiction, then you will have done half the job.
Why does the gambling reflex not fade away, despite the losses and problems created by the game?
But here I would like to ask the readers a question. Have you ever been through a divorce or a destructive relationship that lasted for years? If yes, then ask yourself why you didn’t end your suffering over failed love.
Yes, because your body (brain) remembered the initial high from that person and kept waiting for it, waiting for it, despite the fact that in reality everything has not been the same for a long time.
Do you understand me? It’s exactly the same for a gamer. He is like the mouse from the famous experiment, he simply presses the pleasure button, without really thinking about the result of his actions. These are all unconscious decisions, absolutely, which he dresses up as rational reasons.
Preparation before practice
Keep a diary.
Let it be a notepad or notebook, a diary.
Write down each stage of your recovery in a diary DAILY I guarantee that journaling will help in getting rid of passion. It is important to keep a diary at least for the first time when you give up gambling. Make notes every day. Daily entries will help you keep control of the entire healing process of a mind infected with excitement.
Later, when the basic steps have been completed, you can deviate from the rule of making notes every day. But in general, it is a very useful habit to keep a diary. So, Leo Tolstoy made notes every day.
You can take notes on your computer, tablet, smartphone, if that’s more convenient for you. But I still recommend doing it “the old fashioned way” - writing by hand in a regular diary. When you write by hand, fine motor skills work and the activity of certain parts of the brain is activated. You give your brain a boost.
You don't have to write long posts. You can make short notes in a few sentences. Briefly and to the point - what specific actions did you take in the process of giving up gambling. Your thoughts, impressions, inner sensations.
Diary
An alternative to a regular diary is an audio diary : record on your smartphone or voice recorder thoughts about your efforts to get rid of addiction, optimistic plans and goals. In the future, you will be able to listen to your recordings to evaluate your own progress, remember your past state, and “recharge” with additional motivation.
ICD-10 code
According to modern medical concepts, gambling addiction is considered a pathology with regular and often repeated participation of patients in games.
The disease tends to worsen and cause deep mental changes: personal degradation, loss of former values and worldview, neglect of family and social contacts, the formation of deviant and antisocial behavior.
The disease has been assigned a special medical numbering - F63.0 .
Since addiction develops gradually and spares neither men, women, nor children, it is difficult to immediately detect and identify. The carriers of the disease are not only ordinary people; victims of gambling addiction are also found in higher social circles. Even successful and famous people can suffer from this form of psychological addiction. For example, actors have been noted to be prone to gambling: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Matthew Perry .
Practice of giving up gambling addiction in 21 days
STAGE No. 1. DAYS: 1-7.
Manifestation and awareness of a strong desire to stop gambling.
This stage takes place during the first 7 days of practice.
At this stage, we will form within ourselves a firm and clear desire to completely abandon the game, to clean out the space around us - at home, in the workplace, on the phone, on the computer, etc. – from all attributes and signs of the game.
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This step is the most important. This is the beginning of your refusal to gamble. This step consists of realizing within yourself the desire to gain freedom from gambling addiction.
So, first day of practice.
It is advisable that on this day you do not work or engage in any exhausting activities. If you are alone, it will be even better. Then no one will distract you, you can concentrate on the practice of giving up your passion for the game. Concentration is very important.
It will be good if on this first day you manage to go out of town, into nature, or find yourself in some secluded place - a park, square, where you can feel the silence and tranquility.
What should you do on this first day?
When you realize that you need to recover from gambling addiction, be sure to fix this point in your mind. Namely, firmly realize within yourself the decision to completely stop any game associated with gambling.
ACTION #1.
Say within yourself (that is, mentally) firmly and sincerely, with feeling: “ I have realized the harmfulness of gambling, I intend to decisively recover from gambling addiction, I want to completely give up gambling .”
For now, it doesn’t matter that you say this in the future tense - the main thing is to firmly understand for yourself that you intend to give up your gambling passion.
In addition, saying these words inside yourself works great even in the case when you DO NOT FEEL within yourself a clearly defined, firm desire to renounce passion.
Just say within yourself firmly and sincerely, with feeling: “ I have realized the harmfulness of gambling, I intend to decisively recover from gambling addiction, I want to completely give up gambling .” I recommend repeating these words every day - this way you will strengthen your desire to give up gambling. Don’t be afraid to seem funny or ridiculous in your own eyes - on the path to liberation from gambling, all means are good.
ACTION No. 2.
Now say the same thing out loud , loudly and clearly: “ I have realized the harmfulness of gambling, I intend to decisively recover from gambling addiction, I want to completely give up gambling .” Repeat these words out loud several times - 3, 4, 5 times. If you want, repeat 10, 20 or more times.
Feel the MEANING of these words for you, feel the joy, inspiration from the realization that you are changing your destiny, finally getting rid of this terrible passion, from the craving for gambling. After all, you are really starting a new life, a new stage in your destiny. The mere fact that you have decided to clear your mind of the addiction of gambling makes you a strong person. This step turns you into the real creator of your destiny.
You stop being a SLAVE to excitement. Those who made money from you, who fed on your resources, your emotions - from now on these parasites will stop draining your energy.
ACTION No. 3.
Write in your diary that on this day you decided to give up gambling. Describe your feelings, emotions, goals for the future.
Thus, on the first day of practice, you form in yourself a clear desire to give up the game, the excitement.
Spend the rest of this important day reflecting on the decision you made and the amazing freedom you gain as a result of your decision. Think about how the passion for gambling will leave you and will no longer force you to play, interfering with your normal, fulfilling life.
Remaining days of practice of the 1st stage
Start the second day of practice by analyzing your internal state. Feel what mood you have inside at the moment. Feel inside yourself a feeling of freedom, joy. Don't forget that you started the fight with passion, and victory will be yours.
On this day, as on the first day, repeat to yourself and out loud your refusal to play. Say this refusal with feeling, with enthusiasm.
Blocking game accounts
Treatment of gambling addiction.
Blocking game accounts. In general, devote the next six days of the 1st stage of quitting the game to clearing the space of numerous “bindings”, attributes of your past gaming behavior.
Open your computer (laptop, smartphone, etc.) and go to those gaming sites that have been wasting your time and energy.
You need to block your accounts. To do this, write to the support service of each specific site and state your request (demand) to close your account FOREVER .
As a rule, the most famous and large gaming sites where people play slot machines, casino games or poker, or place bets on sports - such sites act strictly according to the rules and block the player’s account at the first request.
Each site has a page about responsible gaming - “responsible gaming”, and contacts on this page where you can contact the gaming site’s support service. Write a letter to these contacts stating your request to block your account forever. Briefly explain the reason, tell us your nickname, email, under which you played before.
After such a letter, any site that cares about its reputation will fulfill your request.
A page from the gaming site 888.com warning about the consequences of excessive gambling
Unscrupulous gaming sites. Black casinos
But there is also bad news. Some gaming sites do not block player accounts even at their request. Such sites do not care about the reputation and condition of the players, only profit is important to them. They are only interested in problem gamblers with addictions constantly making deposits and continuing to play.
In this case, try changing your personal data in your account - for example, delete the data of the payment systems from which you topped up the account, change your email address to a new one.
Also change the phone number associated with your gaming accounts. Use SMS activation services to change your phone number to one that will no longer be available to you in the future.
Create a new email address in Yandex or Google, enter the most incomprehensible login and password for the new email - and do not save them so that you cannot remember. Next, when a new mailbox is successfully created, indicate this mailbox as the main one in your account on a site that does not want to block your account. If you need to confirm this new mail, go to the new mail, wait for the letter, follow the confirmation link.
After this, delete all data from your new mailbox so that you cannot access it. After this, accordingly, you will restrict your access to the gaming site.
In general, make it as difficult as possible for yourself to access dubious gaming sites.
The ideal solution would be to completely get rid of the computer (tablet, laptop) in order to completely cut off your access to the game.
But in our age of modern technology, this is almost impossible. It would be great if you could go for a while to some remote place, a village where there are no computers or the Internet. An environment in such a secluded area will “clear your brain” well, allow you to take a fresh look at yourself, and make it easier to find your purpose in life.
If it is not possible to leave, there is a compromise solution - limit your work with the computer. Switch your attention to your other things. Find time to be alone; time for reflection and analysis of your own situation.
But also don’t forget about your family and friends. Gambling takes away players’ time to communicate with loved ones. Now try to catch up with your family and friends. Many of them will be surprised and perhaps happy to welcome your steps towards getting closer to them. In addition, communication with loved ones in itself helps to get rid of gambling passion. It is a fact.
It will also be effective to reinstall the operating system - save only the files that are important to you. When you work in an updated system, the craving for the game will not have the same strength.
What else needs to be done on the computer.
If you have extensions in your browser that help you access prohibited gaming sites, remove them. You can also delete all your profiles on forums where you discussed games.
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Also, during these days of the first stage, it is recommended to reconsider the situation around you - do a general cleaning of the house, throw away unnecessary trash, and bring the environment around you into ideal shape.
Start doing daily exercise (yoga, fitness, running, exercise - whatever you like best).
STAGE No. 2. DAYS: 8-14
Techniques for working with consciousness to overcome the craving for gambling
There are effective techniques for working with the surface and deep levels of our mind. For example, meditation.
There is nothing complicated about these techniques. Regularity, perseverance, and perseverance are required.
While working with these techniques, you may get the impression that they don’t work, that you can’t do anything. This will be a mistaken opinion. If you really start using this or that technique, there will definitely be results.
Why is it recommended to use consciousness work in the process of overcoming gambling addiction? – The causes of addiction are rooted in the deep layers of our personality. To reach these levels, it is necessary to use special methods, which are the techniques described below.
Technique No. 1. Recapitulation: Returning Energy
In the process of life, a person, passing through many different people and situations, wastes his own vital energy.
One way or another, people waste huge reserves of vitality, free energy, which is stored in the cells and vectors of their past. When awareness has been gained and the experience has been completed, you can try to pull your life energy out of the past.
Thereby increasing your energy potential, prolonging youth, increasing awareness, closing various holes and attachments, an outdated past that draws strength and delays a person’s movement.
For this, the recapitulation technique is used, clearly described, in particular, in the books of K. Castaneda. (There are many similar techniques in every tradition.)
The recapitulation technique will be especially useful for overcoming gambling urges.
The recapitulation technique will be more effective with some hidden additions.
Recapitulation is performed at night, preferably in the evening or at night. For lighting, you can leave a lit candle. Only on condition that its light is soft and diffuses (does not blind).
- Sitting facing south (the south pole of the earth, the southern gate of time, another current of force), with a straight spine. Enter a light trance state, it is advisable to stop the internal dialogue, completely relax, remove all unnecessary thoughts and feelings.
- Visualize in front of you a black or gray space, endless, like an ocean or fog. This space will personify your journey, your past. Let a specific situation from your past emerge from this fog. Especially painful, difficult, where there was a great waste of energy, a situation that traumatized you, took a fair amount of vitality.
For example, you could imagine your first experience with gambling.
Remember how it happened, what thoughts you had at that moment.
Imagine this situation as a sphere. Like a bubble in which the situation remains, all the people, words, your participation, the entire conversation, the situation experienced, are enclosed in a separate sphere. It’s as if you are looking at the sphere, and in it you are observing episodes of past events, like an outside observer. This sphere glows with a soft golden light.
You can then perform the standard recapitulation technique by slowly turning your head, as if swaying from side to side, as described in the classic version. At the same time, visualize how the golden glow leaves the sphere, how exactly your energy, your soul, invested in the situation, returns back to you.
It is especially good to do this technique in places of your past, where you “forgot” yourself, left a part of yourself and now have come to take it away.
An important component of the recapitulation technique is breathing. At the very beginning, breathing is calm. Then, as you begin to work through each situation, the following type of breathing is established: turning your head to the right, you inhale simultaneously with turning your head, while turning to the left, you exhale. As you inhale, imagine how you take your energy from the situation, and while you exhale, imagine how you give its energy to the situation (or the image of the person you are working on).
As the technique is performed, the sphere goes out, it loses its glow, becomes black and white, pictures-situations freeze, all sounds, smells, colors are completely erased and the sphere dies like an empty husk that no longer has meaning.
You can spend 10 to 15 minutes of this type of breathing and recapitulation on one area of the situation. It is permissible to work on one sphere for 3-9 days, until you completely empty the sphere.
Finally, imagine how you burn and break the thin thread that connects you with the sphere and situation from the past. Cut off all connection to the situation, create a vacuum, a break, between yourself and the situation, let the sphere fly back into the fog and disappear.
According to this scheme, you gradually work through all areas, all situations and people from your past. Returning wasted energy. If you have formulas and mantras for returning vital energy, use them as a technique amplifier.
Important: during a recapitulation, people from the past can make themselves known, look for connections, call, write, come and visit. This is normal and it is advisable to ignore them completely. If you want to get rid of attachments to the past and take energy from there.
Technique No. 2. Breathing practice to work through gambling addiction
Breathing practices are very powerful cleansing and healing methods, including those associated with overcoming gambling addiction.
I will tell you about two breathing practice techniques. The first technique is preparatory to the second technique.
First breathing technique
This is one of the simplest, but at the same time powerful techniques. Sit with your back straight and close your eyes. You can use the pose for meditation.
Watch your breathing. Don't control it, just watch from the outside how your body breathes. How does inhalation and exhalation occur? Notice how the air flow entering the nostrils differs in temperature from body temperature, how cold or warm this flow is.
If extraneous thoughts appear, simply let them go and return to observing your breathing.
After practicing this technique for several days, you will get to know your body better. It is within the body that the levers that control you and your impulses are hidden.
Second breathing technique
Take a pose with a straight back, close your eyes.
Imagine a vivid emotional situation of gambling addiction from the past, during which you experienced anger, malice, envy, etc. For example, you lost a large sum of money and felt angry at the world and at yourself. Or remember with what enthusiasm and anticipation you sat down at the computer to play a gambling game.
Remember exactly your situation.
Now look where in your body, during this remembering, there is a response - maybe you feel some kind of vibration, warmth or cold in the chest, or stomach, or back (legs, arms, groin, liver, heart, etc.) .P.). If it’s difficult for you to feel, then grab hold of any sensation in your body that arises when you remember any situation from your gambling past, and hold it in your attention.
Now close your right nostril with your finger and inhale through the left. Imagine how, as you inhale, the air goes to the place you discovered. Then close your left nostril and exhale through your right, imagining how you exhale to cleanse the discovered area of your body. During exhalation, you blow through this area, stagnant energy comes out of it, clamps and any difficulties go away. Imagine how, while exhaling from the right nostril, you are blowing out and ventilating stale air from a specific area of the body.
Do several of these breaths. After this, look again at the situation from the past. Does it bring back the same negativity in you? Perhaps she has lost her strength.
This technique is aimed at removing the severity and pain from past situations so that they lose power over you. And in general, so that gambling addiction stops controlling you.
Technique No. 3.1. Meditation to create an aversion to gambling within yourself
This technique is aimed at ingraining an aversion to gambling within oneself.
We will not invent some non-existent things and introduce them into our consciousness through meditation. Well-known facts are enough.
A small digression. All owners of casinos and gaming sites actively use advertising and marketing in order to attract players. The advertisement tells the potential player what big winnings await him if he starts playing; how well a player will spend his time on their website or in an offline casino/club. In general, life will turn into a holiday.
In fact, we are dealing with zombies, blatant manipulation of consciousness.
We will respond with the same weapons and use technology to reinforce a real, objective picture of gambling in our minds.
Conditions for meditation
Nothing should distract you. Turn off your phone during meditation, close your doors and windows so that noise from the street does not reach you.
Take a comfortable position. If you have experience in yoga, take any of the meditation poses, such as padmasana. Or sit comfortably in a straight-backed chair.
Breathe evenly and calmly. Cover your eyes. You can close your eyes completely, but make sure that your mind does not fall asleep. It is important to remain aware.
Meditation technique. Inducing aversion to games
Example #1.
Imagine in your mind how greedy and greedy the owners of gaming sites must be in order to embezzle the money of millions of players around the world.
These people stepped over all moral boundaries to make their lives rich and “successful.” Imagine the faces of these greedy people.
They have an unpleasant, arrogant expression on their faces and are filled with contempt for the players. For them, players are just consumables, “meat,” resources.
Can you imagine that these people could be your friends? They deceive you, they take advantage of your weakness to ensure their life. Gambling is the same as being friends with a person who despises you, wipes his feet on you, and does not value you at all. If you get sick or lose your livelihood, this greedy person won’t care. He will find other slaves who will bring him money.
When you presented such an image of greedy, immoral owners of casinos (gaming, poker, betting sites), feel indignation within yourself, disgust for gambling, and for the gambling industry in general.
However, do not try to cultivate hatred towards casino owners. Yes, these people chose a very bad path, but who doesn’t make mistakes? Maybe someday they will change for the better.
Feel disgust not for the people themselves, but for the deeds they do. Feel disgusted by the gambling industry, by all these gaming sites.
Example No. 2.
Imagine in your mind the dark pictures of your past and present. You lost money, but dreamed of winning. You tried to experience joyful feelings, euphoria from life, from the game, and as a result you turned into an addicted depressive gambler, a gambler. Remember what troubles you experienced due to your addiction to gambling. Was the game worth the trouble?
Excitement leads to despair, to poverty and drags a couple of more passions into your life, such as despondency, alcoholism, smoking.
Feel disgusted with gambling. Experience a strong desire to change your life, to start over from scratch.
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These meditation images are just examples. You can use your images to arouse your aversion to gambling.
Technique No. 3.2. Meditation on the image of gambling addiction
Meditation on the image of gambling addiction
This technique also relates to meditation, only it is not associated with arousing in oneself an aversion to the game, but with a detailed consideration of one’s passion.
This is an important technique, pay attention and time to it.
So, create an environment for meditation, as described above in “Conditions for Meditation.”
Close your eyes, relax.
Visualize your passion. Which look will you choose? Maybe it will be some kind of black cloud that is somewhere inside you. Or an unpleasant clot of mucus that causes disgust. Or maybe it is a predatory animal - a tiger, a lion, which is constantly watching you and is ready to pounce on you.
Understand the role your passion for gaming plays in your life. How long does it take? What material and mental resources do you spend to satisfy your passion? Maybe this passion is really a constantly hungry tiger that always demands food for itself?
Assess the scale of passion and what place it occupies in the structure of your personality. Perhaps you underestimated this dependence before and did not take it seriously. Now is the time to adequately consider this harmful habit. Recognize that passion is a personality trait that needs to be carefully considered and studied.
Perhaps during this meditation you will come to unexpected thoughts, conclusions that relate to your personality or passion, and you will be able to look at yourself in a new way.
Write down in a journal your thoughts that you gleaned from these techniques.
What is the difference in the treatment of gambling addiction and drug addiction?
If we are talking about home treatment, then the difference is colossal. Putting pressure on a gambling addict and scaring him with the police, a psychiatric hospital will not work... Reducing his self-esteem and putting pressure on the fact that he is a schmuck and society disdains him is also a miss. And these are exactly the levers that work with drug addicts in the case of home treatment.
Forcibly keeping him at home, under the pretext that he is a gambling addict, is also a rather absurd idea, which smells like one thing: a gambling addict will start yelling out the window that he is being forcibly held, the police will come and let him out...
That is, no matter how you look at it, it won’t be possible to withstand a gambling addict in isolation at home for three months, like a drug addict. If you don’t isolate him, no matter how hard he tries, he will still lash out at the game, since there are a lot of things around him that provoke a craving for the game.
STAGE No. 3. DAYS: 15-21.
This stage is associated with the study of the “fruits”, the consequences that the player receives as a result of indulging his passion.
Do your own internet search to find articles about specific examples of gambling addiction. These can be either stories of famous people who suffered from pathological gambling, or examples of addiction among ordinary people.
It is important not only to read, but also to draw specific conclusions. This is necessary in order to consolidate within oneself the idea that gambling addiction is unacceptable for oneself and, in general, the detrimental nature of gambling for society.
Be sure to record your findings in a journal.
Meditation course from a certified teacher
Examples of gambler stories
These stories were told by people with problem gambling.
The story of Eduard N. (Russia)
I usually play in online casinos. I recently lost so much that I blocked myself from several gaming sites. My work involves unskilled labor in a retail chain.
I work a lot and it is really difficult for me to get money. Last week I didn't have money for food. Once, when I received a payment for a month of work, I lost my entire salary at roulette in a few hours of play. I had to borrow from relatives.
The story of Jake T. (USA)
I have been gambling since I was 18 years old. Over the past 12 months I have lost control of my addiction and ended up in debt. The last time I received my paycheck, I lost all my earnings within four days. I made a promise to my family and friends that I would quit gaming. I feel like a gambler, incapable of any control.
I can't believe I find myself in the same desperate situation over and over again. When I gamble, I don't think about anything other than the game and the desire to win a large sum of money. I understand that I should have quit the game a long time ago, but after a loss, and especially a win, I feel drawn to play again. I feel hopeless at the moment, but I want to believe that I can recover from gambling addiction.
To help a loved one suffering from gambling
- Understand this dependency. Find out everything you can about his addiction. Find a support group that can help you cope with the stress of your loved one's gambling problem;
- Find support. Support groups are available in all communities and treatment centers. Therapists and counselors can also provide support for gambling addiction;
- Strictly control his financial expenses. Take charge of all his financial obligations. This will help reduce your loved one's gambling impulses;
- Remember that gambling addiction is treatable using a range of cognitive and behavioral interventions.
Source
Mandatory conditions that must be adhered to throughout all stages
1. Do not play under any circumstances! And this is logical. After all, you have decided to overcome your gambling addiction.
As soon as the desire to play appears, destroy it with an effort of will. You can say to yourself in a harsh and strong-willed tone: “I don’t play anymore. No one and nothing will make me play anymore.” After that, switch your attention - find something that will take your energy - work, sports, hobbies.
The following follows from this condition:
2. Be vigilant. Switch your attention.
Vigilance and awareness are a key point in the process of overcoming gambling addiction. Mindfulness is difficult to maintain even when we are awake. But there are tools that allow you to master mindfulness.
For example, often ask yourself what you are doing at the moment. This is especially true when working with a computer. If a thought or the slightest desire to play or place a bet appears in your mind, immediately stop these thoughts in the bud, do not let them develop. Literally tell yourself in an imperative tone: “I forbid myself to play, I overcome my passion for gambling.”
It will be difficult at first - but only at first. Over time, it will become increasingly easier for you to overcome the desire to play. The main thing is to start working on yourself, redirect your focus, and be able to switch to other things that are beneficial for you. If you don’t “feed” your passion with thoughts about the game, with real games on sites, the passion will gradually disappear.
3. Close the opportunity for yourself to participate in the discussion of the game on any sites and forums: where to play, what to play, who lost or won how much.
Don't talk about it with your friends either. Ask your friends not to discuss games with you, tell them that you quit the game. True friends will support your decision.
4. Don't watch YouTube videos about games.
Many people like to watch various videos on YouTube or other sites, how they play poker, play slot machines, and place sports bets.
In fact, there are a lot of such videos. There are even so-called streams - multi-hour broadcasts, during which a person films his game on camera, and hundreds and thousands of viewers watch him. Such streams are very dangerous for pathological players - they awaken the desire to play. Therefore: do not watch gambling videos.
Radical solution: reinstall your browser, clear your browsing history, create a new account on YuoTube so that the video hosting site does not recommend gambling videos to you.
Overall, stop following the gambling industry.
How to treat a gambling addict at home?
To cure a gambling addict at home, he needs to be isolated from society, devices, and the computer (that is, from the place where he played) for at least three months.
At the same time, relatives need to radically reconsider their behavior and once and for all remove the manner of paying bills for it.
In principle, you can follow the instructions for treating drug addiction, only in the case of gambling addiction everything will be much more complicated. It’s much easier to keep drug addicts at home; there’s more leverage. And with gambling addicts the situation is worse...
Potential for gambling addiction
Gambling addiction is a vicious passion, but it also contains a great chance for a gambler.
How so, you ask? The fact is that any strong passion generates incredible energy inside the player. It's like a black hole in space - you know that it exists, that it contains great power, but you don't understand where it came from or for what purpose it exists. It’s the same with addiction - usually the player does not understand where it came from in him, why it exists, but this passion forces him to spend large resources on its maintenance, on fighting it, on studying it.
This is a great chance for the player. A chance to become the best version of yourself. Be aware of your passion, explore it. And use the energy of gambling addiction for good purposes - for personal development and self-improvement, to help others. When you channel the energy of passion into other things, games will fade into the background and you will discover other paths and goals in life.
conclusions
Ludomania, gambling addiction, I don’t care what to call this problem, but the problem is a problem and it needs to be solved. And if you are here, it means you have already realized the problem and want to eliminate it, and this is the right decision. I don’t know how old you are, whether you have a family, whether you are a man or a woman. But in the face of danger, everyone is equal.
But first think about what you want to get from gambling addiction? Where will you start spending your free time? These, unfortunately, are also important questions because, having freed up space from gambling addiction, it is necessary to cover it with something else. I recommend closing it with love. For this, there are various meditations that will help you with this.
And yes, treat the problem as a serious one, and don’t fight it, but you need to accept it, because you created it for yourself, no one forced you to play forcibly. The more you fight, the more you lose, since you cannot defeat your inner self, it is stronger, here you need a different tactic.
Thank you for reading to the end about what gambling disorder is, how to treat it and how to eliminate it in yourself. These methods are superficial and I will repeat once again that gambling addiction is very serious, you may not be able to cope on your own, contact specialists, they will help you solve it.
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Other Treatments for Gambling Addiction
There are different ways to recover from addiction. If one method does not work, turn to other options.
Help from a psychologist
One of the well-known and most effective ways is to consult a psychologist. This method requires a commitment of money - a qualified specialist will not work for free.
The effectiveness of this method lies in the fact that an experienced psychologist, thanks to his knowledge and experience, finds treatment methods that are most effective for a particular person. During the entire time of working with the patient, the psychologist provides comprehensive assistance, conducts a comprehensive personality study to find the origins of addiction and determine a treatment plan.
Look for specialists, paying attention not only to reviews, but also taking into account your own impression of the psychologist.
One of these specialists is Ivan Lysenko. He runs his own channel on YouTube. Here are 2 videos by Ivan on the topic of dependencies:
Ivan provides paid individual consultations via Skype. There is quite a long line of people wanting help, and your wait to get an online appointment can last for weeks (the information is relevant for the summer of 2020). Find out more through private messages on his VKontakte page.
Of course, in addition to Ivan Lysenko, you can find other specialists on the network.
What psychological reasons lead to gambling addiction?
There are many articles on the Internet that describe a variety of psychological causes of gambling addiction. And the relatives are simply confused, trying to find a sound grain in this heap of information.
They begin to feel sorry for the gambling addict and are sure that an unsuccessful childhood, loneliness, asociality, shyness, bad family relationships, unhappy love, poverty, absence of a father, etc. led him to this.
Calm down and breathe out! These are all not reasons. Because there are no psychological reasons for gambling addiction. There is the purest physiology there, the purest. And the reason for gambling addiction is one thing - a one-time big win. All. There are no other reasons, don't even try to find them.
