Addiction can be described as a searching disease, addicts always looking for something. The addiction attempts to fill a hole inside them. Addicts look for something without finding it, so they find it in drugs, alcohol, shopping, or gambling. Gambling serves as compensation, this is the same with all other addictions. Instead of turning into a gambler, the person could suffer the same from alcohol, bulimia, cocaine, or the internet.
One of the keys during addiction therapy is to discover what it is that a patient is looking for. An interpretation is that addiction is a hunger disease, addicts want more and more but they never feel filled and satisfied. It is important to understand that as a gambler a patient attempts to feel a vacancy inside and process traumatic childhood experiences. This is closely related to bulimia, it is eating and throwing up disease. You eat loads of food to fill the emptiness and then throw it up in shame and guilt.
In the course of treatment, therapists deal with many different causes of addictions one by one. Not processing childhood experiences is one of the root causes of addiction. With all the patients, it is a combination of several reasons which ultimately led him/her to addiction. Addicts try to keep their addiction secret and do not want others to see it. In the beginning, addicts feel great. As time passes, they start to feel ashamed about what they are doing. They start giving up social contacts and relationships with friends and even with their own family.
Addiction is also considered as any behavior that attempts to avoid pains and fears. At a certain point in life, the rush that gamblers get from risking their money helps in easing their pain. As a child, they played poker with their buddies for the first time may be winning or losing a few dollars, and they discovered how relaxing this could be and then they repeat their actions whenever they are under stress, or when they are ashamed of something. They learn that they feel better after and use gambling to ease their pain to cope with the sadness of being alone.
This alone is not an addiction, but if they increase the dose and lose control over their behavior, all they can think about is gambling. So if you or someone you know is going through gambling addiction or any other addiction, you can get the best treatment for addiction at our rehabilitation centre. Contact us to get more details.