Gambling is a fun pastime for some people; for others, gambling is more like obsessive behavior. You have to gamble, if you don't gamble you become unhappy. In that case, you have a gambling addiction. If you must gamble and find it difficult to stop doing so, there are all kinds of temporary solutions possible to actually stop, such as hiding your wallet, but eventually you need something that will make the urge to gamble disappear.
Therefore, in this article I will discuss the treatment of gambling addiction and how self-hypnosis can help you stop gambling.
What is a gambling addiction?
Fortunately, the risk of gambling addiction is low. Only 0.4 to 1.6 percent of people worldwide are addicted to gambling. That's about 1 in 100 people who may suffer from chronic compulsive gambling. The advent of online gambling does make it increasingly easy to become addicted, so we need to keep checking.
You really have a gambling addiction if you spend more money on this than comes in or by then having to cut back on other things in your life, such as food, paying the rent/mortgage or other bills.
In a study of treating gambling addiction with self-hypnosis, participants spent about $350 per week, which is as much as $1,400 per month, on their addiction (1). This is actually unaffordable for many people which can cause real problems with rent, mortgage, phone subscription, health insurance, car insurance et cetera et cetera.
In addition, you also have a gambling addiction if it consumes much of your time. For example, if you stop going to work to gamble or neglect your relationships just to gamble, you really have a problem.
The following characteristics also belong to a gambling addiction:
- Trying to get money illegally.
- More go gambling to "make back" lost money.
- Lying to get money.
- Disrupted relationships with family and friends.
- Restlessness and quick irritability when you're not gaming.
- Relive and plan gambling experiences.
- Taking more money each time for the same feeling of happiness in gambling.
- Don't go to work and neglect other relationships, put at risk, to gamble.
Precisely because the consequences of gambling addiction are so far-reaching and can lead to isolation, it is important to seek help. Up to only a quarter of people can stop gambling on their own if they are gambling addicts. So it is very important to also seek outside help before you go bankrupt or into debt restructuring, just to be on the safe side.
There are multiple ways to stop a gambling addiction or at least reduce it to the point where it no longer causes problems. Finding a treatment that suits you is the first step you can take.
Hypnosis and self-hypnosis can support and enhance this treatment.
What treatments are available against gambling addiction?
There are mainly psychological treatments for gambling addiction, such as group therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy. In 50% of the cases treated with cognitive behavioral therapy, it leads to the cessation of gambling and that it does not return in the long term.
The duration of those successful treatments can vary, though. For some people, a few therapy sessions work while others need months of therapy to change the connections in their brains such that gambling no longer gives the good addictive feeling.
Techniques that can be used include controlling stimuli and slowly desensitizing to addiction.
Stimulus Control
Stimuli can also be controlled, making you less likely to have the incentive to gamble.
One way to confront yourself with gambling addiction is to list different ways of gambling and then make a list of which form triggers the most urge to gamble and which the least. For example, you may not find playing blackjack at all addictive, but playing scratch cards is (or vice versa).
Desensitizing to addiction
In addition, you can also visualize the situation in which you would be gambling to learn techniques that will influence your behavior in such a way that you do not give in to the addiction and may even have totally different thoughts than not feeling the urge to gamble at all, even though the opportunity is there.
It is then especially important to learn relaxation techniques that allow you to suppress the urge to gamble. This technique is also used for anxiety.
So in desensitizing the urge to gamble, relaxation is important, but also being able to control your thoughts (more), or at least recognize thoughts that don't help you stop gambling. This is very difficult to learn, and that is where self-hypnosis can be a supporting factor in stopping gambling.
How does self-hypnosis help against gambling addiction?
Hypnosis has all kinds of benefits in treatment. For example, hypnosis reinforces the feeling that you can do something, such as not gambling.
In addition, it shortens the duration of treatment and also the effort you have to put into treatment as a patient. Also, hypnosis enhances the effect of treatment based on visualizations and suggestions, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, among others.
Self-hypnosis helps as a result, too. Self-hypnosis is actually the homework you get from your therapist.
There are two ways of using self-hypnosis to enhance the effects of therapy. Rapid waking self-hypnosis and the more traditional form of self-hypnosis where you relax and close your eyes.
Waking self-hypnosis means that if you as a patient want to use a suggestion you can apply it at any time and time outside of therapy. This allows you to use relaxation exercises more quickly, for example, if you notice that you have the urge to gamble. So in this form of hypnosis you do not enter a trance, but very consciously activate hypnotic suggestions.
For example, it is important to stop thoughts that stimulate you. The technique with this form of self-hypnosis is to have a rubber band on your wrist. Then you pull on the rubber band for a moment, causing it to return to your wrist with a pang. The "snap out of it" to put it briefly and then think "Stop, relax, pleasurable alternative." This pleasurable alternative is something you can best fill in for yourself.
With the more classic relaxed form of self-hypnosis, you actually ensure that suggestions that deal with internal thoughts and self-confidence are placed in the subconscious and cause you to feel an improved sense of being able to do so. This form of self-hypnosis thus enhances waking self-hypnosis.
Self-hypnosis against gambling
One of the first steps of self-hypnosis is to relax properly and have a connection with your body. That connection with your body allows you to recognize physical reactions to a gambling stimulus and do something about it.
With mindfulness, you can perform a body scan to learn about it.
The technique used to relax is to relax your muscles. During a therapeutic session, you can learn how to recognize that your muscles are tense. If you then recognize this during daily life, you can very consciously start to relax your muscles.
You can do this by tightening and consciously relaxing your muscles 1 by 1 from your feet to your crown.
In addition, this waking form of self-hypnosis can also allow you to stop thoughts that are not helping you during a stimulus.
Self-hypnosis exercise example
A homework exercise you can take away from your therapist is the following exercise. Note! Not every gambling addict has the same cause or beliefs that led to addiction. This self-hypnosis exercise against gambling addiction is an example and is not a treatment in itself.
You can do the gradual relaxation of the muscles before performing self-hypnosis in the more traditional way. Then when you have that relaxed state you can begin the self-hypnosis exercises given to you by your therapist.
These can make sure, for example, that illogical beliefs no longer affect your gambling behavior, such as a special sign that makes you think you are going to win.
These can include suggestions you can repeat for yourself, such as:
"X doesn't mean that luck is on my side right now," he said.
"I can calm myself down without it costing money."
"I am loved."
Based on the personal situation of someone who is a gambling addict, a therapist can give different suggestions that you can repeat during self-hypnosis that work better for you than these more general suggestions.
Research shows that self-hypnosis can work very well alongside normal cognitive behavioral therapy against gambling addiction to stop gambling. After treatment, almost everyone who had participated, nearly 95 percent, had stopped gambling. In the long term, in this study, even everyone who had used self-hypnosis alongside treatment stopped.
Want to learn more about hypnosis and other techniques to help other people? Then check out Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' training courses or come to a seminar.
Sources:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207144.2013.841474
