How to recognize a gambling problem?
When a person on a daily basis doesn't have the ability to control the gambling, when most of the money goes to play or remedies the consequences, if he has neglected his work, manipulates and lies - that is the point where the social gambling situation becomes pathologic or person becomes addictive.
Gambling addiction is a specific addiction because it is not an addiction of a substance but of a behavior.
The man in the problem denies that there is a problem.
Ones a psychiatric from Zagreb that cures people with gambling problem explained me the situation.
'Only when everything's lost he recognizes that there is a problem, he confesses but even then he just wants to repair the consequences of the gambling and not give up the gamble itself. He gambles for adrenaline because his life has meaning only at the moment when the roulette spins.'
And when the roulette is rolling, it unfortunately turns around for a lifetime. The very concept of treating addict is actually the concept of reducing harm because the gambling addict can only be kept under control. Never actually cured.
In institutions, psychiatrists work on two fronts, one is the establishment of abstinence, and the second - endeavor to encourage an immature person to become a man who takes responsibility.
No need for discrimination, women gamble too!
To be honest, men gamble more often, but there are women gamblers as well. The difference is that men gamble in groups while women are gambling alone, and often their gambling is worse.
Men are more addicted to betting and roulette in younger years, and women are addicted to slot machines in the forties. Women enter in it as an attempt to resolve some of their internal crises, and men more often as being a part of the group of friends.
Although there is no accurate record of the number of addicts (because it is not easy to trace), one thing is certain, the number of cognitive addicts increases from day to day.
Even if you win a large sum of money, in this case, it is impossible to win.
Betting offices are full in Croatia, and even if it is still sociable acceptable, there are a lot of addicts that would sure be recognized in this text.
Addiction affects families and society
Any kind of addiction destroys families, so it does not affect just one person but many others around him. For them, it's often a lot worst because they don't know how to react. And everybody that has come in a contact with an addict knows that it is really hard to talk to that person let alone to get a confession and acceptance to treatment.
You should never give up, to talk and to try to include addict in the treatment process.
And not just gambling, it's the same problem in alcoholism, and unfortunately any other addiction...
Society and family do not need to rule out an addict because it is a disease like any other, but without adequate support from experts and of course the family, there will be no results.
Trust me, I know...
