Mental Health Awareness Week: Is your loved one’s gambling affecting you?

This Mental Health Awareness Week, we want to highlight that gambling doesn’t only affect the person who gambles, but also the people around them.

If someone you care about is experiencing gambling-related harms, it can affect more than just them: it can impact family members, friends and loved ones. It can also affect your mental health, so it’s important to understand these challenges and know how to seek support if you are affected.  

The impact it can have on you:

Gambling harms usually affect those closest to the person who gambles. Here are some common ways it can impact loved ones: 

• Mental health challenges: You may develop anxiety, depression, or even insomnia due to the stress caused by a loved one’s gambling.
  
• Isolation: It can feel isolating, and people may avoid discussing their problems with fear, judgment and shame.
  
• Emotional stress: You might experience feelings of guilt, shame, anger or helplessness. If the person that gambles is keeping secrets or affecting your finances, this can lead to a lack of trust and potential breakdown within the relationship.

How you can seek support for yourself:

Here are some practical tips to prioritise your wellbeing:

• Support Groups: We offer chatrooms that can provide guidance of how you can look after your own wellbeing, and support you with dealing with difficult emotions due to your loved one’s gambling, including guilt, shame, and anger. Being in this position can feel isolating, so our chatroom aims to create a sense of hope and community.
  Our Family and Friends Chatroom will run every Tuesday from 10am to 11:30am. Register here. 

• GamCare: We offer resources specifically designed to support you. Call us on  0808 80 20 133 or on live chat 24 hours a day, every day of the year. 

• Open conversations: If you feel comfortable, try opening up a conversation by expressing how you feel, for example ‘I feel worried about our finances’. It’s important to not be confrontational and encourage the person who is gambling to open up about their feelings too.  

• Setting boundaries: Protect your mental health by establishing clear boundaries, for examples by avoiding enabling behaviours like lending money. 

If you need support right now, our Helpline is available 24/7. Talk to one of our advisers free and confidentially on the phone or via live chat.