Gambling: Know When to Fold 'em

Gambling is an all-American vice. What says North America more than a Fat Cat sitting at a table, smoking a big fat stogie and throwing down for a little five-card stud with his pals? Or bus-loads of sweet little grandmas being carted off for two days and nights of cut-throat jackpot stealing at the quarter slots? Or the ever-popular thug flick where some poor sucker is getting his arms broken for welching on one too many bets placed with Fat Jimmy?

Back in the day, gambling was put up on the chopping block of vices along with drinking and promiscuity. These vices were considered a triad of evil, that which would eventually unfurl the seams of social morality. I think there was something in there about burning in Hell as well. Luckily, modern day North America has become a virtual den of iniquity. Not only are previously contemptible, and sporadically illegal, behaviours indulged in, true hedonism is seen as the pinnacle of life.

We have evolved into a society that craves and worships excess. Unfortunately, for most of us, excess is beyond our modest means. We still chase the same highs, but perhaps on a lower scale. In chasing the emotional high, however, many of us mortals can fall into addiction. The key is learning how to recognize signposts that your pursuit of a thrill has turned into an addiction to that thrill.

The hidden addiction
While the signs that someone has an addiction to a substance are often overt, to those around them if not to the addict, a gambling addiction is often easier to hide. While the emotional ramifications can be very deep, the gambling addict can often figure out ways to hide the financial ramifications from their loved ones for a long time.

The nature and cause of addiction is a hotly debated topic. Factors range from the biological (different brain chemistry from the non-addict; addiction as a disease), to the psychological (people become psychologically addicted to the "high") to the sociological (environment one is raised in or lives in). Whatever the cause, gambling crosses over into addiction in the same way as substance abuse. It is a progression from recreational gambling practices to behaviours that begin to affect your social, personal, professional and financial lives.

The problem (or pathological or compulsive, depending on your preference of terms) gambler is distinct from the recreational gambler in several ways. They are often preoccupied with gambling, even when they are not actively gambling, which can lead to increased frequency and adjusting your life to accommodate your addiction. Impulsive behaviours such as increasing the amounts of money you are gambling, regardless of negative consequences or the inability to stop or set limits for yourself are also signals that you are losing control. These impulsive behaviours are paired with minimizing behaviours such as lying to your loved ones and even strangers about how much you are "up" or "down" or just the extent of your gambling. Finally, addicts show a disregard for the consequences of their gambling. This can include everything from falling behind in your bills or falling into debt, to alienating people close to you in order to feed your habit, to going to great lengths, even illegal ones, in order to raise money to gamble.

What problem gamblers are addicted to is not the money they win or lose, but rather to the emotional high, and sometimes even the lows that they get form winning and losing. It is the game, and not the prize that they seek. The feeling of power that problem gamblers get from playing and winning is offset by the helplessness they feel when they are losing control of their lives. While gambling addiction in the United States occurs more infrequently than addiction to substances, gamblers are at a higher risk of suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts.

Help
Like any addiction, a person is not going to get help if he or she does not recognize that they have a problem. Hard evidence like deep financial strife might be a way to try to demonstrate to someone that they have an addiction, but it is difficult or impossible to make someone stop if they are not ready.

When a problem gambler is ready to stop, there are several ways that he or she can manage their addiction. Because of the nature of a gambling addiction, the person living with the addiciton will need a few support systems to aid in their recovery. First, they might need the help of a physician in order to deal with depression caused by or even causing their addiction.

Second, they will most likely need a financial counselor who can help them find a way out of the financial mire they may find themselves rooted in when they hit the bottom. Recovery is stressful enough without the guillotine of financial crisis hanging over their heads.

Third, many people find support programs, such as 12-step programs like Gambler's Anonymous, important to their recovery, as they offer both a program that they can follow and succeed in and the chance to lean on others who have shared the isolating and terrifying experience of being a gambling addict.

It is important not to fool oneself into thinking that you just need to pull back and moderate your gambling. Most addicts find that going back to recreational dabbling in their previous addictive behaviour will cause a "slip" back into the pursuit of the highs they once coveted.

It is an understatement to say that it is hard work pulling oneself out of addiction and into recovery, but the cycle of highs and lows one once felt get more and more difficult to attain and the cycle can turn into a spiral, pulling you down to depths form which it is hard to imagine emerging. So, be honest with yourself about the extent to which your gambling is recreational or just plain destructive.