What are the Top 25 Causes of Gambling Addiction?
Gambling addiction is dangerous in many ways. It has a huge impact on the individual and on his or her entire family. For instance, it is estimated that about 70% of the American population will experience some sort of a gambling addiction. If you’re part of the group that gets addicted, then you have a high chance of becoming a part of the global figure of about 17 million people that are addicts of some sort.
Even if you’re not one of the 17 million, it doesn’t mean that you’re safe. You could still get addicted to gambling if you are of a risk-taking nature. It can affect your credit rating, ruin your job and compromise your family. In fact, statistics show that about 100 million people are suffering from gambling addiction in America.
The American Gambling Association states that almost two-thirds of gambling addicts in the U.S. are men, while only about 21% are women. The chances are, however, that you won’t relate to this statistic if you’re a woman. This makes you the exception, but only for women who have spent all their savings on a casino trip or are supporting someone who is a pathological gambler.
The Facts on Gambling Addiction
There are stages of gambling addiction and it takes five years to go through all the phases. This means that the gambling addict has to seek help from an addiction counselor at least once every five years. That is because addiction takes its toll on the individual, too.
Immediate Risk
This is the stage where the addict doesn’t know what he’s doing. He or she only knows that something’s wrong, but he or she is not sure about what’s going on. This is why the intervention of a professional is needed. You have to go through this stage first before seeking counseling.
Panic
This is a stage where you realize that you’re already in trouble and you try to get out of the situation as quickly as possible. You try to withdraw and avoid being in the casino. You might lose your job, your marriage and your friends as well.
Feelings of Contempt and Despair
The only thing that you care about now is getting the issue resolved as soon as possible. You feel nothing about your problems and you feel only contempt and despair. You don’t care about anything and you just want this whole mess to end. You are not planning on taking any further steps. You know that you are in a tricky situation and you don’t want to deal with it any longer.
Stigma
This is the stage when you don’t want to admit to yourself or to your family that you are addicted. This is the most difficult stage to go through because it’s an emotional and psychological trauma that you are going through. Your self-esteem has been destroyed and your self-worth has been diminished.
Acceptance
The person you used to be has vanished and you’ve now become the person you’ve always wanted to be. This is the stage where you accept yourself and decide to take back control of your life. There’s no need for anyone to judge you or tell you that you’re an addict. You just need to find a professional who can help you cope with the situation.
Recovery
Your brain no longer runs on the drug. You now get a feel of what real life is all about. You’ve understood that you’re no longer a slave to the compulsion of gambling. You know that you will have to put some limits on your gambling. You might decide that the best way to deal with this is to use a casino bonus code instead of gambling.
Causes of Gambling Addiction
Here are top 25 reasons why some people are addicted to gambling:
Overindulgence
This is an indication that you might be on a gaming or a gambling spree and you’re not going to stop as long as you have an hour’s break to rest. You know that you can always stop and continue as soon as the day’s over.
Lack of job opportunities
If you have an important business project due, you’ll want to try to see how much money you can win or how much money you can lose. This will take away your focus from your work and you’ll miss deadlines and important meetings. Lack of jobs is one reason behind gambling addiction.
Malignancy
This is where the addiction has formed an ugly bond with an illness. It’s already known to be an addiction to gambling and it will transform into an addiction to something else once you meet an individual who has an addiction to something.
Less Friends and relatives support
Whenever you are in trouble and you have no place to turn, people will support you. However, it also happens in opposite direction that less support of family and friends make you feel alone and turn you towards gambling addiction.
Lack of alternative activities
What you do or what you don’t do is what matters. If you don’t have other activities to do, then you’ll most likely find yourself resorting to gambling, which isn’t good for your future and finances.
Not a Good Group of Friends
You know the ones who are always in the casino and out of your contact range. They’re always spending more money than they have and you’ll always feel uncomfortable around them.
Too much Pressure at Work
You’ve been placed in a stressful job. You’re not sure whether it’s too much pressure because the job that you have seems to have consumed you. You’ll find yourself at the casino more often because it’s a way to escape from the stress of your daily routine.
Lots of Visitors
Even if you have a lot of relatives and friends, it doesn’t mean that they care about your gambling habit. They’re likely to try to ask you why you’re always at the casino. You’ll need to bring this topic up with them. Lots of visitors can be cause of gambling addiction as well.
No Cost-Effective Assistance
There’s no point in talking about how much you need an appointment or how expensive a therapy session is. You have to overcome your addiction on your own. You can’t ask for help because it’s not the easiest thing to do.
Lack of Mental Strength
When you are so addicted to gambling, you don’t have the willpower to stop. It will eventually build up and the emotional stress might prompt you to stop. If you really want to quit, it’ll be difficult for you to do.
Unable to Give It Up
It’s hard to take up a new hobby if you’re addicted to a pastime. The fact that you’ll have to go through withdrawal symptoms will prompt you to continue gambling. It’s easier to quit when you have a solid reason to do so.
Lack of Education
This is another cause of Gambling Addiction . There’s a reason why your parents or your elders never said ‘no’ to you when you were visiting the casino, to the movies or to the theater. You don’t know what they don’t know.
Lack of Guidance
If you’re too embarrassed to ask for guidance from your parents or older people who are knowledgeable about the topic, then you can easily become a victim of a gambling addiction. This might make you think that gambling is a path that you need to follow.
Maintaining an Abusive Relationship
You love playing with money and you don’t want to stop. The only reason why you wouldn’t want to stop is because you have a strong connection with the casino. You’re always there to get more money from it. This is another cause of Addictions.
Having an Unhealthy Environment
When you live in an environment where you don’t have access to education, you are doomed to being a victim of Gambling Addiction. When you’re in a bad environment, you might not have the motivation to stop gambling.
Being Corrupt
When you are addicted to gambling, you’ll be tempted to do unethical things. This may include stealing money, renting the casino to someone else to lose, or other harmful and criminal actions.
Having a Dead-End Job
If you’re in a career where you’re trapped and you have no chances of escaping, then you are in danger of being a victim of gambling Addiction. It’s not easy to make a career change because you might lose your current job. You need a new career path to start a new path in your life.
Being Unable to Settle for Anything Less Than Ultimate Fun
Gambling gives you an adrenaline rush. If you want to, you can play games for hours on end. You can’t take it back, you can’t go back to a simpler life after you win or lose. You just want more and more of it.
Being Disappointed by Rewards and Prizes
You have very high expectations about what you’ll receive as a result of your gambling habits. You don’t want to be disappointed by the outcome. You might win a huge sum of money, but the casino may not send you the funds and the winning ticket might have been stolen. This is cause of Gambling Addiction.
Having Very Low Self-Esteem
Do you feel like you have no control over your life? You often feel like you’re the victim of everyone around you. You have low self-esteem, no confidence and you don’t even want to leave your house. You want to stay under the radar and avoid your family. This is another cause of Gambling Addiction.
Having a Faulty Intuition
You see odd things, you have the feeling of somebody having seen your numbers and you might have the tendency to drop your cards in your hands without looking at them. This can also trigger you to lose your balance and fall on the floor. This is another cause of Gambling Addiction.
Being Intimidated
If you have a friend or family member who has won a lot of money, you might think that you’ll never be able to attain such a huge sum of money. You might not have the courage to start playing. You feel like you don’t deserve to play because of the people that have won and lost millions of dollars. You are really afraid to play the casino because you feel intimidated.
Seeing What Other People Do
You might be watching other people who don’t have a gambling addiction do the same games you’re playing. You might think that you’re doing it wrong. You might start to try to copy them and you start losing because you start to develop Addictions to the same games.
Feeling Shame
You feel ashamed and worthless. You think that you’re a loser because you’re losing money and not getting good returns. You might feel trapped and you don’t want to play the casino, you want to get out as soon as possible. You start to experience isolation. This is the reason gambling is illegal because it can destroy you and your life.
Having a Life Crisis
Your life is falling apart, your financial situation is being unstable and your relationship is ending. You start to feel like your life is failing, and gambling becomes your escape. This is cause of Addictions to gambling.
How to Reduce Gambling Addiction?
Learn what your options are and educate yourself about the matter. Try and educate your family members about the problem and warn them about it. Your friends might start to notice your changes and they might notice that you’re suddenly losing a lot of money.
Tell them that you’re trying to get rid of a bad habit and try to get them to understand that you’re doing this for your own good. You need to seek professional help for this. Gambling is a sin , but you can try and beat this addiction and try to help yourself. Learn what you can do to reduce your gambling addiction and be able to recover.
