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What causes or
precipitates gambling addiction?
While it may appear that addictions are pleasure-seeking
behaviors, the roots of any addiction can usually be
traced to a wish to suppress or avoid some kind of
emotional pain. Getting lost in hours at a casino table,
at the horse track, or in the fantasy of how one will
spend those millions if winning the lottery may provide
relief from an unhappy life. Addiction is a way to
escape from reality, from something that is either too
full of sadness or too devoid of joy. Emotional trauma
in early life may be at the source of many addictions.
Gambling provides a chemical rush, a feeling of
aliveness and excitement. If a person has numbed out
emotions that have been too painful to process, other
feelings have become dulled as well. Because the brain
craves novelty and the body wants to feel alive, it is
not surprising that risky behavior such as gambling
creates that emotional charge, and that the rate of
adrenaline pumping through the body results in an
intense high that becomes more and more desired,
addictive as many kinds of drugs.
How can you break the addiction to compulsive
gambling?
As in any treatment program, the primary step to take in
the path to recovery is to accept and not refute denial,
a defense mechanism that addicts frequently employ and
that effectively stops them from accepting treatment.
Once this obstacle is conquered, treatment can be
performed more effectively than it would otherwise. If
you are grappling with this addiction, seek professional
treatment. Once you admit and address the
problem, other
pieces of your life will fall back into place. According
to the Mayo Clinic, treatment for compulsive gambling is
similar to therapies for other forms of addiction. Your
doctor or mental health professional may use these
approaches:
Conclusion
Psychotherapy in the form of cognitive-behavioral
therapy that focuses on identifying unhealthy,
irrational and negative beliefs and having you replace
them with healthy, positive ones.
Gamblers Anonymous
provides peer support and a 12-step program patterned
after Alcoholics Anonymous. Residential treatment
programs organized and staffed to provide both general
and specialized non-hospital-based interdisciplinary
services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Residential
treatment programs provide environments in which
assistance is provided by personnel trained in the
delivery of services for those with behavioral health
disorders or related problems. Impatient treatment
programs providing coordinated and integrated services
in hospital settings.
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