Understanding Online Gambling Addiction

By 23 July 2021

If you have gambled on online casinos, you probably understand the thrill that one experiences, especially when on a winning streak. While this is good for your happiness, you ought to know that it is a precursor for addiction. This gets worse when you start losing and you want to end the streak. Read more on http://www.online-casino-dollar.co

How Online Casinos Encourage Addiction

Online casinos encourage addiction more than the brick and mortar casinos. Don't get it twisted, the convectional casinos are also addictive. Nonetheless, the ability of finding your favorite games just at the click of a button without moving a foot means that the chances of getting hooked are higher especially in the following ways:

  1. Online casinos are ever available
  2. Online gamblers can do it without notice increasing chances of addiction
  3. Underage gamblers are not shielded

While on the online scene, there's far much greater comfort than a gambler would find in visiting a brick and mortar store. This encourages the use of drugs such as alcohol while playing the games and this proliferates the problem. In this state, there's higher propensity of making rash decisions while wagering.

Signs of Online Gambling Addiction

How do you know that you are getting hooked? Its quite straightforward if you are honest with yourself. You will not find it hard to notice the signs such the urge to spend more to increase your winnings. If you also occasionally find yourself thinking of a past gambling moment, you could be right on the addiction path.

Those hooked are unwilling to emancipate themselves from the practice. Expect to find behaviors such as cheating to get money for gambling. Also, addicts do not admit that they are hooked and they'll actually lie about the time that they spend gambling. Constant dependability on others for financial bailouts after spending on gambling is a sign of addiction.

Detecting a Hooked Friend

If your friend of family member is hooked to online gambling, it will undoubtedly also affect you even if you do not gamble at all. They are likely to become dependents and it's therefore advisable to highlight the issue early. If they are constantly boasting about winnings and making progress, that's a sign of an addict.

Also if your friend, family member or partner is constantly scheduling meetings to spare more time for gambling, they are treading on dangerous waters. How do they handle a crisis or upset? If they rush online to place a bet, that's an addiction candidate in the making. Also, mood swings in times of wins and loses speak volumes.

Available Treatment Methods

Is it all gloom for online gambling addicts? Not at all, but an early diagnosis is imperative before everything goes berserk. So what is the solution? First of all, there has to be admittance of an addiction on the part of the individual. Once this has happened, the following measures can be undertaken:

  • Pursue counselling from professionals
  • Participate in support groups

There are extreme cases of online gambling addiction that might require a more complex way of handling. If you dealing with a compulsive gambler, Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the way to go. This is targeted at identifying the underlying causes of the behavior by the victim. Once this has happened, avoidance of the precursors is possible.

Are there chances of relapse?

It is quite sad that online gambling addiction is similar to almost all sorts of addiction such as alcoholism and masturbation. The recovery process is therefore quite challenging especially if the right support is not availed to the victim. There's the risk of a relapse and they are quite more dangerous than the original behavior.

Relapses are more profound with online gambling addicts given that there is availability of an internet connection at almost every location. Access to internet enabled devices is also capable of encouraging a relapse. The secret to a successful recovery is grounded on the ability of the addict to identifying the cause of the compulsion to gamble.