Gambling is an activity that provides similar feelings of pleasure as drugs; however, gambling may cause significant negative side effects which could endanger both your family and career.
Young men and boys, especially, are at greater risk for gambling disorders. People may begin gambling as early as age 14 and continue well into adulthood.
Identify Your Triggers
Recognizing the triggers that trigger gambling behavior can help you manage or break unwanted habits. Triggers include situations, people or feelings that elicit instinctive and potentially impulsive responses – such as walking past a gaming venue or seeing advertisements for football matches on television – or more complicated influences, like remembering past gambling experiences or recalling past slips ups.
Once you understand your individual triggers, it can become much simpler to avoid relapse and adhere to your recovery plan. Setting financial boundaries to prevent impulse spending; using website blockers to limit gambling websites/apps; decreasing financial risk factors like credit cards/loans/carrying large sums of money etc; as well as socialising at gambling venues less frequently as well as using gambling as an escape from stress or negative emotions is also helpful in keeping away relapse.
Take steps towards accountability by sharing your trigger list and recovery goals with someone who won’t judge. Learn mindfulness and relaxation techniques that can reduce stress and anxiety that might trigger urges.
Avoid Your Triggers
Recognising what triggers your gambling can help you manage and overcome urges to gamble. Triggers could range from specific situations or thoughts or feelings; for example, if your urge increases on payday or after withdrawing money from an ATM machine, try avoiding those situations to help alleviate urges to gamble.
If gambling helps ease boredom or loneliness, try filling your time with social activities or discovering new hobbies. If gambling helps manage stress, anxiety or depression symptoms, identify their source and look for healthier solutions like exercise, talking therapy and meditation as potential solutions.
If someone you know appears to be struggling with gambling, encourage them to seek assistance as soon as possible. It is crucial for them to recognize that their behavior is abnormal and has the potential to negatively affect those around them. It may be necessary to stage an intervention but this must take place in a controlled and secure setting.
Delay Your Decision
Gambling is a form of risk-taking whereby something of value is put at stake in order to win more. Compulsive or pathological gambling, also known as problem gambling, can result in severe financial strain and emotional strain – leading to high levels of anxiety, depression, strain relationships, self-esteem issues, as well as other compulsive behaviors like shopping or substance abuse to cope with their situation.
One way to overcome your urges to chase is to put off making decisions. Once you decide, your brain’s reward pathways begin activating and may give a short-lived sense of achievement and satisfaction; but this often wears off quickly.
Cognitive behavioral therapy can be an invaluable way to identify unhealthy thought patterns that drive gambling behavior. Therapists can teach skills to resist urges and manage your stress more effectively, as well as helping replace problematic gambling habits with healthier ones, such as new hobbies or physical activities.
Reward Yourself
Gambling can be an enjoyable way to spend money, offering similar adrenaline rushes as participating in sporting events. But for some individuals, gambling may become an uncontrollable addiction that leads to financial stress and emotional strain.
To break free from compulsive gambling, it’s crucial to understand your motivations and triggers. Recognizing environmental cues, routines and rewards that encourage this behavior will allow you to gain control over it and begin making changes that will enable you to overcome it.
Reward yourself by visualizing the goal you wish to attain – whether that be saving some money or going seven days without gambling – and rewarding yourself when that milestone is reached. This helps reinforce new behaviors by associating them with positive emotions in the brain. You could also try rewarding yourself through activities that stimulate all five senses, like meditation, yoga or deep breathing exercises. AcademicLiveCare offers 24/7 virtual counseling and psychiatry appointments available exclusively to CU Boulder students, staff and faculty experiencing gambling problems.
