Gambling

Play is a recreational activity subject to rules that corresponds to a vital impulse of living beings. Man and almost all animal species play simply for the fun of it.

When the game includes a wager and there is both the possibility of winning and the risk of losing, we speak of gambling. Most people find in this type of games fun and entertainment. But for some people gambling ceases to be a pleasurable activity and turns into anguish, anxiety, depression and isolation. These people are or may end up being problem gamblers.

The vast majority of players do not cross the barrier that separates gambling as fun and gambling as a necessity and for them it is still a choice, among all the existing ones, to occupy their moments of leisure and social relations.

Pathological gambling

Experts define it as a disorder consisting in the imperious need to play, even above the will not to play. The game becomes the central axis of his life.

It does not have a single triggering cause but is a multifactorial problem in which there is a complex network of predisposing factors that constitute the essential core of the disease. Generally, the gambler uses gambling as an escape from problems, internalizing it as the most effective way to deal with them.

Symptoms

• You feel a frequent preoccupation with playing or getting money to play, reliving past experiences or planning the next adventure.
• You often play for more money or for longer than planned.
• You must increase the frequency of bets to obtain the desired excitement.
• You feel irritated or uncomfortable when you can't play or try to interrupt or stop the game.
• You continue to gamble despite your inability to pay your debts, despite knowing that they may increase with gambling.
• You have made repeated efforts to slow or stop the game to no avail.
• You have misled family members, therapists or others to conceal the extent of your gambling involvement.
• You have committed illegal acts, such as forgery, fraud, theft or breach of trust to finance gambling.
• You devote to gambling the time when you are expected to be fulfilling your professional or social obligations.
• You have risked or lost significant interpersonal relationships, work and/or educational or professional opportunities because of gambling.
• You use gambling as a strategy to escape from problems or to relieve feelings of hopelessness, guilt or anxiety.
• In short, if you don't have fun playing, sometimes your anxiety occurs before, during or after playing. When you go to play, you intend not to spend too much, but then, when you start to lose, you can't stop and you run out of the last coin. You live in another world, you forget yourself and others can be affected by this disorder.