Can doctors help?

Hi JohnJG,

Welcome to the Forum

Gambling addiction is not a medical matter. If you visit your doctor they would most likely refer you to our services. In order to overcome gambling addiction you would need to increase your self-awareness around your behaviour. For example, what triggers you off to gamble, what is the emotional gain from it etc. We provide counselling sessions to help you with this process and help you develop a strategy plan in order to deal with urges effectively.

Recovery is long term and therefore GA group meetings can help you stay focused and on the right track.

You may contact us and talk to an advisor about it who can provide you with more details.

Best wishes,

Forum Admin

Hi JohnJG

The way I see it is that they are someone to talk to about any feelings of emptiness and depression. The doctor can refer you to IAPT counselling which I am doing. Its just helping me get my mind and my life straight.

I know that depression leads to gambling. I know that in my case I wasnt feeling well. I thought I was half ok when infact the depression had numbed my mind. I wasnt thinking straight and I was seeking fast hits in the sort that gambling can give. I was seeking these hits just to make me feel in some way alive. For some reason I had become so numb, so jaded that I didnt want to buy things, do anything else or form human relationships.

I didnt feel alive when I lost all my money though. I felt like a walking zombie and depressed lower than ever

I have spent a lot of time thinking and talking to people close. Now the blocks are there, I have no urges to speak of now but the key point is that Im never complacent. I think Ive got a handle on the gambling problem now. I also need to deal with who I am because there is a lot that needs sorting out. For one I had become very reclusive so Im changing things slowly for the better

I could only come to the conclusion that I was mentally ill and I was finally brave enough to see a doctor. Im not scared of the term mental illness because it covers a whole range of unhealthy behaviour in the mind.

Gamcare also offer counselling which seems very good. I havent done it yet but am keeping my options open. The gamcare counselling may be more gambling focused which is a good thing

The doctors counselling is a general checkup because I want to talk about all the issues in my life. There are a lot ofr issues which surround gambling and addiction. The doctor can pick up on these

You should use every avenue and all the help on offer.

Best wishes

Thank you for your input.

I just want to say that after years of avoiding accepting that i was mentally ill and hiding behind my gambling addiction I finally visited my doctor and admitted all. I accepted that I suffer from anxiety and I accepted medication. It was the best thing I could have done. When I was suffering with anxiety I hid behind my computer and gambled my life away. I realise now that I was miserable and gambling was my crotch. I made huge life changes as well as accepting medication it wasn't easy but I honestly beleive that gambling was a result and also a cause of my problems. So in answer to your question a doctor CAN help but you also need to make big changes yourself. Book yourself an appointment and have a chat. We aren't all the same but we can all get help. X

Dear forum admin, your advice is misleading and concerning. Addiction is indeed an illness and medical help is available. Gambling is the most addictive form of any addictive entity, there is cutting edge research to back this up. I doubt how qualified you are to make the assertion that gambling is not a medical matter - the addiction certainly is. It's a travesty that you prefer to downplay it to suit your heinous agenda of sanitising what is essentially like handling a volatile, radioactive substance. Because that is essentially what any gambling pursuit is. Anyway, I digress. A visit to the GP would be highly recommended to anyone suffering from gambling problems. Counselling is not the be all and end all and some people just need medical support.

Forum admin wrote:

Hi JohnJG,

Welcome to the Forum

Gambling addiction is not a medical matter. If you visit your doctor they would most likely refer you to our services. In order to overcome gambling addiction you would need to increase your self-awareness around your behaviour. For example, what triggers you off to gamble, what is the emotional gain from it etc. We provide counselling sessions to help you with this process and help you develop a strategy plan in order to deal with urges effectively.

Recovery is long term and therefore GA group meetings can help you stay focused and on the right track.

You may contact us and talk to an advisor about it who can provide you with more details.

Best wishes,

Forum Admin

I also beg to differ with admin. My doctor agreed that gambling is a symptom of mental illness and although I agree that gambling in itself is not an illness, more often than not it is a symptom of an illness that a doctor can help with. I don't think it is any coincidence that I still wanted to gamble despite having counselling, and yet now I have medication the urge to gamble has gone. Please do not put people off getting help from a doctor. It should be the first port of call before counselling X

In my humble opinion, the admin response was covering the fact that there is not a drug to cure us. I have to strongly disagree with the last 2 posts that suggest otherwise, despite both recognising that it is an illness of the mind! Our minds can no more be fixed with drugs than they can with electric shocks...The brain needs retraining & this is what the different types of therapies afford! It's great that you have no urges now New Start but your last post is extremely misleading suggesting that the urges went because of the meds & I disagree that we all need medicating!

Suppose they made the magic anti-gambling "blue pill", would anyone actually want to take it? The addiction would just find reasons not to. "It's not for me. / I don't need it. / I can't cope with the side effects."

Medical problems such as depression respond to medical treatment but addiction doesn't. Addiction problems are overcome via a change of habits so that barriers are routine plus therapy and support to change the addict thinking. Not easy but doable one day at a time. And if there's a medical problem as well, then medical treatment is needed as well. But not instead.

CW

From a personal perspective I can offer this. My wife took me to the doctor when she found out about my gambling a few years ago and we told the doctor everything (I knew the doctor wouldn't help). The doctor simply googled "compulsive gambling" and then sniggered when she saw loads of adverts for online casinos and quickly closed the Internet browser.

Just my experience, things may be better now.

No there aren't, any better all there did was tell me what I already new and give me information on gamcare. Which I already new so my experience is there no point going too doctors

Odaat I'm not for one minute saying that anxiety and depression medication is a cure for us all. I think we've already established that as gamblers we are all different and all have different triggers. But for me, the medication has truly taken the edge off my gambling and helped me put it into perspective. There are lots of people like me who use gambling to disguise their anxiety without even realising they are doing it. My comment to admin I stand by. A qualified doctor can establish if someone needs medical help and I don't think anyone should be put off visiting the gp and asking for help X

Impulse control disorder is a mental I'll ess according to the Dsm4. Setraline works very well for OCD. However, the Admin is correct Drs can be quite annoying when it comes to prescribing the correct medication, if any at all 

Many people are scared of the term mental illness. They should not be as it covers all aspects of the brain not thinking or functioning correctly.

It does not mean that we are at the extremes of thumbing lips in a padded cell. A gambling addiction is a mental illness resulting from a mind and body craving for the drug and neuron paths the body creates

There is no shame in seeing any medical professional. I'm not saying Doctors have all the answers but secrets are no good for us and it's worth getting the words out and seeing how you feel about the response

I have experienced some form of depression and anxiety all of my life. Things get me down because I overthink matters and in many ways I'm a thinker and not a doer. Im an aimless drifter and always have the reason why my life is not good. Sometimes I think my depression is pretty normal when facing a crazy world and soul destroying jobs.....like we are told to keep a smile on our faces when everything feels like sham drudgery. However I soon became my own worst enemy when there are answers to what I was really seeking

Depression is a complex issue and the doctors can be very quick to reach for tablets...the effects of which I feel are debatable.

I had set up a very lonely life for myself and the mind compensates with a pretence that I'm OK in some way ..my outlet for the hurt inside was escape gambling from the age of twelve. it became the most powerful thing that would give me the feelings above numb and jaded. I've been a shopaholic and many things to try and get some meaning but gambling was by far the worst. 

So  gambling away my monthly income with no control Is an addiction which is a certainly a mental illness when it's destroying you.

So I say there is no harm in getting a medical checkup and telling the truth about a gambling problem to the right people. We should all be talking more about our feelings and mental stress. I understand that's easier said than done and it's something I still find hard to do

Best wishes to everyone on the forum

Yes I think Doctors can help to get the ball rolling (pardon the pun). They will listen to what you have to say and if you have never told anybody before then there is often a great relief simply to get ones issues out there and on the table. The doctor will also be able to "see you", observe your presentation and maybe pick up on any physical issues that perhaps you wern't even thinking about. They may well take your blood pressure, put you on the scales, check your blood sugar levels and so on. They will probably also ask about, smoking and alcohol and build up an overall picture of your general health

The thing is... in my opinion... gambling is like a reaction to life and how one is living it and encompasses not just the faulty thinking/depression/anxiety but also how else one is abusing onself and how this then feeds into the addictive cycle. So yes doctors can help I think.