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  • Q&A with Australian Health Practitioners

    What is the best way to recover from gambling addiction?

    Related Topics
    Addiction Gambling
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  • Mary Jane Beach

    Counsellor

    Family Therapy is my passion, I worked at Redbank House for 10 years, working intensely with families, primarily with children with behaviour difficulties. Then and … View Profile

    To recover from gambling addiction, as with any addiction, the more support the person has the more likely they are to be able to change that behavior. They need to go and see somebody who is very experienced in dealing with gamblers, because they need to be able to confront that it actually is a problem. Often, when I first see gamblers they will say, “Well, I do gamble, but it's not really a problem.” But it is a problem.

    First of all, they have to admit that there is a problem, and then one of the most effective ways of managing gambling is to have a contract with them where they hand over their access to money to their partner, if they have a partner. It is a very difficult addiction to treat. They are usually highly intelligent, so they are very clever at working around all sorts of weird and wonderful ways to access money.

    It is treatable, and people do recover from gambling addiction if they want to, if they're willing to be involved in the problem.

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  • Bruni (Brunhilde) Brewin

    Counsellor, Hypnotherapist

    Bruni Brewin is President Emeritus of The Australian Hypnotherapists’ Association (AHA), the oldest and largest National Registration Body for hypnotherapists in Australia founded in 1949, … View Profile

    We need to find out why the addiction is there to know why it is causes such a dilemma that even though on a conscious level you know it is having a detrimental impact on your life, yet you have this urge towards continuing it. 

    Whilst we can point to an fRMI as showing the reward system lights up in the brain when you gamble - remember that it does the same with other activities like smoking, alcohol, drugs, winning at sport, having sex even.  All of which we wish to repeat if we got a buzz out of it. 

    The problem is mainly about feelings and emotions.

    So some questions to ask yourself are -
    Has it become a problem because you won big at one time and keep wanting to repeat that?
    When did it first start?
    What was happening around that time or before that time?
    Was there past psychological or physical abuse involved in your life?
    Did it start after a break-up, death, or injury?
    Was it role modled?
    Do you think there is no reason - do you feel it is just a habit?
    If it is just a habit - was it a small habit at one time and now its is big - how/when did that change?
    What causes you to gamble more / less?
    Have you ever tried to stop - what worked - what didn't?
    Is it a way of wanting to get away from something you wish to avoid?

    From a hypnotherapist's perspective, I would ask you to list your background family history and answer the questions and any others that come to your mind.  I would then question you about the intensity of feelings around that/those issues - get you to give it a 0-10 (10 high) intensity,  and release any feelings that need to be released,  I would then work with your emotional subconscious to release any associations/links, cravings and withdrawal issues and replace these with what you would prefer to put in its place. (that having been discussed and a contract made with you before entering hypnosis.)

    I hope that helps.  Feel free to ask anything not clear to you about the process.

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