What is Pathological Gambling?

Gambling and betting can be a playful experience that provides arousal or pleasure. However, for some people, gambling stops from being just an entertainment and becomes a dependent behavior. Those people are called 'pathological gamblers'.

A 'pathological gambler' is someone who starts having problems in a progressive and reiterative way in his/her attempts to resist the urge to gamble. His/her excessive involvement with gambling creates problems in his/her personal, familiar, social, and professional lifel.

These persons present a maladaptive gambling behavior, that is persistent and recurrent. The have the need to gamble with greater and greater amounts of money in order to achieve the desired degree of arousal. They may present a history of repeated failures to stop gambling. If the gambling activity is interrupted or prevented, they show great irritability and uneasiness. Gambling becomes a strategy to escape from problems or difficulties, or to relief feelings of hopelessness, guilt, anxiety, depression, etc.

When these persons have loses in gambling, they use to return the next day to try to recover them. That makes them enter in a vicious circle. Depending on the degree of involvement in the gambling, these persons may lie to their families or other people, in order to hide their degree of entanglement with it. They may commit illegal acts to finance their gambling. This pattern of behavior interferes importantly in their relationships with friends, family, co-workers, employers, etc.

Persons suffering from pathological gambling use to have other problems that they have to face. Pathological gambling uses to be the "iceberg peak". Underneath the surface there are a broad range of social problems such as alcohol, tobacco or other drugs consumption , depressive disorders, anxiety problems, or somatic complains. The use of alcohol, tobacco or other drugs use to be associated to gambling either to increase the arousal and experiencing a higher sensation while gambling, or either to diminish awareness of the loses and of the problems that gambling is provoking. In its advanced phases, pathological gambling uses to lead to social isolation and to a null implication in work, social a family relationships, etc

An important aspect that deserves to be highlighted is that the gambler's family is dramatically damaged by the gambling, and they suffer to the greatest extent the consequences of gambling in the social, economic, legal, and affect areas. The couple and children are the most injured, and a high rate of psychosomatic and depressive disorders has been found among the gamblers spouses. The are also difficulties in communication and unsatisfactory sexual relations. Regarding the gambler's children, they become a risk population for other problematic behaviors, such as drug addiction, anxiety, depression, school problems, etc.

It might be that while reading this site you identify yourself with the descriptions of the problem provided above. The Test questions inquire about the presence of some of its features. Although they do not substitute the assessment process necessary to establish a clinical diagnosis, they might be considered as a first approach and a preliminary screening of the problem.

If you also experience a significant distress, or any area of your daily life (leisure, work, school, family, etc.) has been affected by this problem, you might be suffering from pathological gambling. However, remember: this is just a first approach to the assessment process needed before starting any treatment. If you think you might have this problem, seek professional advice so you can decide whether you want or not to receive treatment.