Gambling Addiction

How we treat gambling addiction?

Overcoming a gambling addiction can feel overwhelming, but it’s important to remember that recovery is possible. Our treatment programme is designed to be practical and supportive, focusing on harm reduction and providing a personalised approach. We work with you to create a treatment plan that fits your unique needs, giving you the tools and support to break free from the cycle of addiction and move towards lasting recovery.

How does someone become addicted to gambling?

Gambling addiction, also called compulsive gambling or gambling disorder, is the uncontrollable urge to keep gambling despite the toll it takes on your life. An individual’s need to feel ‘high’ can lead them to gamble more money than they want to or can afford to. This process can result in engulfed relationships, grave financial loss, and difficult feelings such as shame, guilt or dismay. It is classed as a behavioural addiction, as the individual becomes addicted to the process or set of behaviours associated with gambling.

There is no one single root cause of gambling addiction. Excessive gambling activates the brain’s reward system in a similar manner to drugs by releasing more and more dopamine, which draws an individual to the activity. Genetic predispositions for reward-seeking behaviours and impulsivity, environmental, psychological and biological factors all play a role in making an individual increasingly dependent upon those dopamine hits.

In addition to the financial instability often caused by a gambling dependency, it can also increase a person’s likelihood of experiencing depression, migraines, intestinal disorders, and anxiety-related issues due to the stress caused by addiction. Gambling addiction is also highly co-occurring with mental health disorders such as bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Through our combination of medical, psychological and personal care, we are proud to be the only clinic in the world that addresses co-occurring conditions and every possible root-cause of gambling addiction. In so doing, we can help you recover in a matter of weeks, rather than years or months.

What are the signs?

Gambling stimulates the brain’s reward system and releases dopamine in a very similar manner to drugs and/or alcohol, resulting in symptoms of both tolerance and withdrawal common.

Symptoms of gambling addiction include:

• Finding yourself preoccupied with gambling, constantly planning when and how to gamble, and fantasising about gambling.
• Feeling an urge to continually increase the amount of money you gamble and take bigger risks to experience a high.
• Experiencing withdrawal symptoms, such as feeling anxious, irritable or losing sleep when you try to stop gambling.
• Gambling to escape difficult emotions such as guilt, anxiety, or stress.
• Gambling in secret or minimising the extent of your gambling to loved ones.

If you are worried about your gambling, try to ask yourself:

• Do you find yourself checking gambling results or odds first thing in the morning and before going to bed?
• Do you sometimes make decisions based on a feeling of ‘luck’ or an urge to win back lost money?
• Do you continue gambling after losing, thinking you can recover your losses?
• Do you struggle to identify your emotions when you’re gambling?
• Have you missed deadlines or failed to meet obligations because of your gambling activities?
• Despite feelings of immense remorse, fear and shame, do you find yourself compelled to gamble, almost as though someone else is controlling your actions?

If you answered yes to any of these, you might be developing a gambling dependency and it is essential to solicit professional help as soon as possible. We can help guide you toward recovery.