GAMBLING...HIDDEN, PROGRESSIVE, devastating.

Damon Dye, Licensed Mental Health Counselor

Gambling is a hidden, progressive, psychological addiction that ruins people’s lives, that is affiliated with high rates of suicide, mood disorders, and long term family suffering. No social, economic, cultural, or gender is immune to its devastating progression. Nearly 90% of Floridians participate in some form of gambling with little to no consequences, however roughly 5% are problem gamblers. (Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, 2009). There is a growing problem as problem gambling remains a hidden illness, contributing to the underreporting of problem gamblers and their families for help.

 

Am I dealing with problem gambling?

  • Have you ever lied to people important to you about how much you gambled?
  • Have you felt the need to bet more and more money?

(Answered yes to either question? – Skip down to Help for a qualified free assessment and consult, access to self help and professional resources. Take the next step).
*Don’t wait to get your life back. It is common to try and fix the problem alone. Isolation and denying that your family is suffering is a part of the illness. Quit trying to win it back to fix the problem. Too much is at stake!

Family

Often the people who really suffer from problem gambling aren’t the gamblers.

Problem gambling greatly affects the family.

Family members, those closest to the gambler, suffer a wide range of effects from deprivation of basic needs, to physical, emotional, and psychological abuse.

Children of a problem gambler are often the most victimized by the illness.

They are 2-3 times more likely than their peers to suffer physical and psychological abuse and neglect, by both the gambling and non gambling parent.

An overwhelming 92 % of family members of the problem gambler who contact the FCCG Helpline reported family conflict with 71% reporting neglect, and 6% reporting family violence.

Family members greatly impacted by the problem gambler automatically become entangled in the disease and are in need of help to break the cycle of unhealthy behaviors they have developed.

Children are more likely than their peers to be in need of help for anxiety and depression, alcohol and/or drug use, develop thoughts of suicide, or further the cycle by developing gambling problems themselves.

 

Does my family member have a gambling problem?

Does the problem gambler…

  • Promise to stop gambling only to return to gambling again and again?
  • Borrow money to gamble or to pay back gambling related debts?
  • Lose time from work/school due to gambling?
  • Lie about his or her gambling activities or the amount of money won or lost?
  • Hide money from you or others?
  • Stay away from home for long, unexplained periods of time?
  • Show personality changes?
  • Gamble to get money to solve financial problems?

(Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, 2009).

Help

Professional help is available for you and your loved one to create a plan to recover and protect yourself from problem gambling.

Call today to set up an appointment with a Tampa area, National Certified Gambling Counselor for a free and confidential assessment. Stop the chaos, contact Triangle Resolutions, LLC today by web:

Website: www.triangleresolutions.com

Email: healing@triangleresolutions.com

Phone at 813.714.6107