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Gambling can surely strain your relationships; interfere with responsibilities at home and work, and lead to financial catastrophe. You become a different person altogether and even do things you never thought you would, like stealing to get money to gamble or take money meant for your children.

As defined by American Psychiatric Association, pathological gambling is an impulse control disorder that is a chronic and progressive mental illness. Extreme cases of problem gambling may cross over into the realm of mental disorders. Pathological gambling was recognized as a psychiatric disorder in the DSM-III, but the criteria were significantly reworked based on large-scale studies and statistical methods for the DSM-IV.

Gambling addiction, also known as compulsive gambling, even when they know the odds are against them, even when they can’t afford to lose, people with a gambling addiction can’t “stay off the bet. Compulsive gamblers can’t control the impulse to gamble, even when they know their gambling is hurting themselves. Gambling is all they can think about and all they want to do, no matter the consequences.

Problem gamblers typically deny or minimize the problem. It is sometimes referred to as the “hidden illness” because there are no obvious physical signs or symptoms like there are in drug or alcohol addiction. Gamblers take extreme steps to hide their gambling. For example, problem gamblers often withdraw from their loved ones, sneak around, and lie about where they’ve been and what they’ve been up to.

Available research indicates that problem gambling is an internal tendency, and that problem gamblers will tend to risk money on whatever game is available, rather than a particular game being available inducing problem gambling in otherwise “normal” individuals.

Research has also indicated that problem gamblers tend to risk money on fast-paced games. Therefore a problem gambler is much more likely to lose a lot of money on poker or slot machines, where rounds end quickly and there is a constant temptation to play again or increase bets, as opposed to a state lottery where the gambler must wait until the next drawing to see results.

Unlike other people, gamblers fail to recognize that gambling puts them at risk of losing all of these attributes and that gambling is a random process, where the odds are stacked against them, so they are more likely to lose than to win. Money is central to the experience of gambling. Gambling addicts, as with other people, attach many different positive attributes to money, such as power, comfort, security and freedom. Furthermore, when they do win, people with gambling addictions tend to gamble away their winnings quickly.

The biggest step in treatment is realizing you have a problem with gambling. It takes tremendous strength and courage to own up to this, especially if you have lost a lot of money and strained or broken relationships along the way. Don’t despair, and don’t try to go it alone.

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