For a certain number of gamblers, the game goes far beyond entertainment: he becomes pathological.
The gambling addict has other names: gambler, compulsive, addicted, addict ... They define a single individual who does not control himself any longer over gambling, spending without limit, and who has only one purpose: to play again. He feeds an unusual addiction to game, which a physician calls “addiction without drugs.”
When the game becomes a drug.
600,000 persons in France suffer from game addiction. This is a psychological illness.
The gambling addict is like a drug addict. It fosters a psychological addiction to the game that prevents him from being rational. As with any addiction, he lives only to increase the frequency and the dose needed to achieve those feelings which will be more disappointing. Logic would tell him to stop this waste of time that obsesses him and makes him unhappy, but he cannot, it’s the next “shoot” that controls his will. And as such, he is ready for anything.
100% of winners have tried their luck. 100% of losers, too. Which side are you on?
If nothing is done to stop the process, the gambler is facing very serious consequences:
Financial issues: debt, loss of revenue, or crimes to wipe his losses. Loss of benchmarks: job loss, withdrawal from friends, family. Other addictive behaviors: a dependence begets another, the gambling addict can also fall into alcoholism or drug abuse ... Health Problems: The game reaches its morale. Loneliness, anxiety, depression can lead to suicide, the only way he imagines after having lost everything.
A gambler does not become addicted overnight. The gambling addiction usually develops during several phases, the famous trajectory of the gambler:
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Gain phase: the player discovers universe of game. The euphoric feelings of the first earnings are very strong and destabilizing. He begins to assimilate the game, to feel powerful, and thinks he has the answer to all problems.
Loss phase: the period of “I’m recovering again” The gambler loses more than he wins, he still plays to regain the lost money and find the spectacular sensations of his inception. The gambler is gradually isolated, anxiety replaces pleasure. It is often at this time that people start to alert.
Despair phase: the gambler does not win again, but yet he continues to play because of his addiction. He retreats into solitude, and shame vis-à-vis himself and his entourage. He realizes the darkness but not the fact that gambling is the cause of all problems. This is the phase of consequences.
The entourage of the gambling addict
The entourage of the gambler is, at the same time, a victim of the situation. On the one hand, it suffers the devastating financial losses, but its quality of life deteriorates seriously. The gambling addict exhausts his entourage by constant lies, his promises are never held and the money squandered. His close relatives live in fear of having to assume new debts and feel helpless, depressed against a gambler on whom nothing and nobody can influence.
However, the entourage can act before it is too late, provided they do not concede defeat or got caught!
The gambling addict
When the game becomes a drug.
