So, it’s been a while since my last post. Well, a few days and the weekend. I’ve been keeping busy – a few things have come up in both work and personal life. Whilst it’s kept me busy, it’s also been hard to deal with at times. Lots of pressure. Lots of things going wrong, or all happening at the same time.
I’ve said keeping busy is good for me, because when I have time, this can contribute to me starting gambling again – it can be a catalyst for other trigger cues, or a rigger cue itself. I’m not entirely sure myself. All I know, is that keeping busy is good for me right now! I mentioned as well as being busy, so things haven’t quite gone to plan, especially in personal life. This can happen to everyone – I’m not suggesting I’m the only one with other problems aside my gambling. But interestingly I haven’t wanted to turn to gambling as a temporary fix to my other issues. Or, as I explored in a previous entry, I’m not trying to be an ‘escapist gambler’. I very much fit in the action camp of gamblers. I know the poll results were split, so you may not all be able to relate directly to my thoughts on wanting to win big, rather than escaping other personal issues, but I do believe there’s some common ground. I’ve been having a few interesting conversations over my e-mail recently with followers of my blog. The action vs escapist differentiation has been questioned. And rightly so; at least to a certain extent. The reason I say this is because one could lead to another. I started out on my ‘gambling road to destruction’ through big early wins, which gave me confidence that I could win more and more in the future. No matter the losses, I clinged on to the hope I could win it back. Gamble my way out of trouble. As you would’ve seen from previous blogs, I’m at my lowest when the realisation that I can’t win that money back sets in – when I have no money at all left. Once I’ve lost my last bet. This could quite easily then turn to me being an escapist gambler. I’m in so much trouble, sometimes I want to forget my troubles that I turn to gambling to keep me distracted. But, for me that never happened. I haven’t become an escapist gambler. Not really. At the heart I know what has drawn me back in the past is the lure of a big win, rather than using it as a method of escape or distraction. It’s important to know what type of gambler you are – I believe that’s central to admitting your problems, but also identifying trigger cues, and how then to help prevent yourself from gambling in the future. So I ask again – what type of gambler are you? If you don’t know, ask yourself why you started gambling in the first place to get your answer. If you try to answer why you gamble now, if you’re a long way down the wrong road like I am, then it’s very easy for the lines to get blurred. One of the biggest problems with gambling is stopping. To be able to just one day say ‘no more’, and to carry through with that promise. After the years I’ve said this many times, but to date I’ve never been able to get myself gambling free. It’s important to understand why we gamble in the first place. Without understanding the underlying motivation to gamble, it’s hard to identify the right path to becoming gamble free. In basic terms there are two types of gambler; the action gambler and the escape gambler. The escape gambler may gamble for relief or escape from other problems. To use gambling as a distraction from problems at home or at work. They are likely to be slightly older than action gamblers, and can be reluctant to give up gambling in the fear that they will not be able to confront the pain of outside pressures. The action gambler can be addicted to the thrill, think they can beat the odds or identify themselves as a skilled competitor with high paying wins. I’ve you’ve won big in the past, and commonly cite this win or think you can achieve that win again, you’re likely to be an action gambler. This is me. In the survey, someone asked me to look into personality traits for gamblers. I do plan to do look into this in a future blog / area of research, but hopefully the above classification gives an introduction. In the following chart, if you’re an escape gambler you’re likely to take the route down the right hand side, and if you’re an action gambler you’re likely to take the route down the left. Being able to recognise which type of gambler you are is important in helping to stop gambling and prevent relapses. Research shows that ‘trigger cues’ increase the risk of relapse (Marlatt and George, 1984). If an addict comes into contact with trigger cue of substance after a period of abstinence, they have a classical conditioning of association with that trigger, making them more likely to relapse. In my next blog I’d like to look more closely at trigger cues, relapses, and what we can do to avoid them or at least decrease the likelihood of relapses occurring. In the meantime, please do let me know what type of gambler you think you are in the following poll: |
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