Topic: Practical methods to help addicted gamblers(2). - page 5. (Read 704 times)

Unfortunately, no advice or arguments will help a person quit gambling addiction until he himself wants to do it. There is no point in hiding your activities or deceiving, each person has his own healing path. But the first step is always to realize one’s problem and that a person cannot solve his problem on his own. The first step is always to admit that you need help.
Regarding practical advice - after a person has admitted that he needs help, then this is God. In my case, God and religion helped me get rid of many years of drug addiction. If it worked for me, it could probably work for others too.

Usually people who advise others are advice that comes from experience. So advising other people and hiding your own gambling activities? then it's as if you've never gambled in front of him? How do you know about the risks of gambling and its effects if it is not based on personal experience. A gambler who advises a problem gambler will end up with a mixed decision. Taking other people's cases, giving warnings, giving one example of failure etc. for problem gamblers is just a waste of time. The only way to make them aware of the risks of not being able to control themselves is to experience destruction first.

In a week, almost 4-5 times I listen to the complaints of problem gamblers and almost every time I try to advise them but the results are zero because they have not experienced ruin. At some point there is someone who has lost everything until he finally realizes that what I said in the past is true, then he now advises his friends not to suffer the same fate. The point is that the solution I just found for those who stop gambling is to lose everything, especially for gamblers who are aggressive, problematic and unable to limit themselves to the limits of their views on gambling.

This gambling addiction is a serious something that even if you give an addicted gambler a good paying job or place him/her on a monthly pay roll so they will stop gambling, it will shock you to know that they won't stop. They will still go back to gambling. The more a gambling addict sees money, the more the urge to gamble will sets in. At some point it's not about the money anymore but about satisfying that inner urge to gamble. Well I once had a similar case with a relative. What we did was to make sure that his phone was taken away from him. We went to the nearby but gambling hall and requested they bar him from entering the place. Though we paid them money to make it effective. We also went as far as registering him to learn a new skill, to engage his mind in a remote area with close supervision. We made sure he wasn't getting any money of his own, whatever he needs we provide it for him. After a year and six of of being there and learning the skill that gambling addiction vanished and that was the end of it.

Gambling for source of income is a choice and with no doubts, most gamblers for income do have source of earning rather they choose to give gambling a try if they can have addictional source to earn more money.

It is also a good ideal to hide your negative side of gambling while you intend to advice others who are chronical in the gambling system because it is expected to be a thing that... You should practice what you preaches so that you can be an effective role model.

So then, it does not seem pretty good if we contently live by our side effected live in gambling while we expects others to desist from it.
Respectively, of you can advice and expect anyone to change from their addictions and you are one already, then use same advisory strategy to also sort yourself out.

If you can't control yourself and becomes heavily gambler, your advice will not use for other gamblers. They will not listen you and will say that you are the same as them. We must trying to fix ourselves before we suggest other people.

It's easy to suggest to other but it is not easy to do that to ourselves. We can trying to help them if they ask us to helps but we can not force them to follow what we suggest. That will be up to them to choose what they wants.

We can trying to ask them to do other things while we also doing that things so they will not feels alone doing that. If we can besides them doing many things, they will slowly change their habits and will trying to reduce their gambling activity. If they see they can change their life to be better, they will wants to do that and will trying to reduce or stay away from gambling.

I won't hide my habit to gamble even some of my friends know that but so far i am responsible to my gambling activities and can life normal without being an addicted but indeed i have been several times give an advices to some of my friends those who are likely to experience addiction that i said it's not good to considers gambling as source income because nothing is certain in gambling but very often they ignore my advices and continue to gambling

And in my opinion i am sure if practical advices can make people who are addicted to gambling recover then there won't be many people who experience diseases like this and i have to says all things that result in addiction are harmful including gambling addiction and it cannot be healed with practical advices but maybe there is one way to get people out of addiction aside from professional help and it from the family supprt and why i says that because i think family support is very important and with the support of loved ones it can makes the addicted person more confident to get out of this situation and also people have to find new hobbies to take his mind off gambling but indeed it won't be easy because those person must be disciplined and have a strong ability to heal

At the end of the day, we all want to stay responsible and enjoy gambling, whereas the addicted gambler no longer enjoys what they are doing because they have lost control. If I were an addicted gambler, I would prefer to take advice from a responsible gambler.
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I have seen two people start the same business, and one is doing much better than the other. It's the ability of the one getting it written to tell the other how to do it that's always difficult.

The reason is because people always want to be ahead in everything. Well, in the gambling world, one who makes more wins can advise the other on how to go about it to win more, and he might be willing to obey him and follow his instructions, but advising someone to stop or play wisely might actually feel like you want to win alone or have a game plan.

To me, if one isn't doing well, teach them. Don't give them the fish, but teach them how to fish. Like the saying goes, "You no fit advice poor man if you no put small money join," despite his benefits, if there's no backup, your advice is a waste. 

Advice alone can't get a gambler to stop or gamble wisely, in as much as he needs money, he will gamble the one he has for a bigger one. 
What a gamble addict needs is been occupied with other things and staying far from a gambling platform and center, that's where you start helping out.

For someone who is so close to me, maybe we had been gambling buddies for a long time but due to him not being responsible and gambled excessively ended up addicted i might be able to convince him to stop gambling. That's if he trust my judgement about his habits. Gambling should be for fun but we shouldn't take it too far. As someone close to such person, if they use gambling as a source of income, you can give them a hand when needed but continue telling them not to gamble anymore. Also, you can find something else aside gambling for them to cover up that space of which gambling has left. It can be sport, video gaming or any other thing that is far more interesting than gambling.

If the person knows that I am gambling, I have nothing to hide because I am not addicted to gambling.

This is the main point and the reason people become addicted to gambling. If you let them realize that gambling is not what they think it is which is a source of income, they can change. Gambling is not a source of income.

There are many bad news of people that are addicted to gambling. Show the person many of the news. This could also be of help.

most times, it's mostly when an addicted gambler gets to a point where he can't help himself that an external person's opinion can become useful to him if not, an average gambler that's going about his gambling in an irresponsible manner wouldn't know that he's getting addicted untill he's lost it all.

In the real sense, it's not even about quiting gambling or not, it's about being responsible at the things you're doing and ensuring that you're schooling yourself not to be too extreme with it. Addiction can come in different form and from my little experience, people's advice don't really change an addict from his ways. You've got to know that you're doing more harm than good to yourself and forgive yourself for all the errors and carelessnes you've allowed to come in your way while reducing your gambling bit by bit untill you've reached the point of gambling when it's only necessary.

I do not completely agree with you. If I must hide my gambling activities from an addicted gambler before giving them some advise, doesn't that make me a hypocrite? There are responsible and disciplined gamblers who can acted as role models to other gamblers who are struggling with gambling addiction. We all need models to look up to because they give us a glimmer of hope. Therefore if an addict see that there is a gambler who gambles, yet is not addicted and already has their lives fixed up, they will be more inclined to listen and follow their recommendations. And it will even come more from a place a empathy because they have lived the experience.

A responsible gambler is qualified to guide or advise an addicted gambler. The goal shouldn't be to force the person to stop gambling but to gamble responsibly. It is clear that gambling is not a bad practice but it becomes harmful if an individual lacks control over his betting activities. I am sure every gambling addict wants to be free from unhealthy behavior and will be willing to receive valuable advice that will assist him in becoming responsible. I know some people will not be willing to accept the advice because you gamble also, they are just ignorant.

1- Block all gambling adverts in your phone and other devices that are connected to the internet.
2- Avoid activities that trigger the urge to gamble. This might include avoiding friends who are addicted to gambling or sports activities.
3- Don't deposit a high amount in your casino account.
4- Get a gambling plan that clearly states how much you will spend weekly, monthly, etc.
5- Seek alternative sources of entertainment.
6- Always be in a good state of mind while gambling. So avoid the use of alcohol or drugs that can distort the mind.

I'm not sure if a simple advice will work because I've tried many times, indeed, he listened but still like nothing happened. He keeps on gambling...
What I think they could help them is to bring them to the doctor as they need psychiatric help. Addicted people are mentally affected, therefore, they need a doctor to treat it, not us gamblers. Because no matter how hard we try, it won't make them stop unless they are helping themselves as well.

Honestly, addiction is the worst thing happen in gambling and it was hard to stop it.
The simple advice is not to let ourselves fall into that situation as we are just the ones who suffer the most.

I do not agree with this advice. I even think it makes your advice weightier if you are a gambler and you are not addicted to it, this shows the person that there are ways to engage in this activity without it having negative effects on you.
An addict will easily think a non-gambler cannot relate to them cause they have not gotten engaged in it and will think if they do, they will get addicted like them too.

If the addicted gambler refuses to recognize a problem at all, no other recovery steps will work.

- Jay -

Why would I hide my gambling activities? If we see that someone is in trouble and decide to give him advice, it might be better to show him by example what responsible gambling is. It's not a matter of whether I can stop or not, but that gambling doesn't cause me problems and that we can gamble without gambling causing us problems.


I don't understand this either, how can gambling be a source of income for someone? In order to gamble we have to have some money first. Some people earn a little and want to increase it by gambling, which is very wrong... If we go back to the previous advice, it is better to show someone how to gamble, explain to them how to save the majority, and use only part of the money for gambling. Simple bankroll management.



Gambling is an activity, if someone really wants to leave gambling, it would be best to find another activity, or several other activities, where they will spend their time and money.

You have to understand that addicts whether in gambling or something else usually cannot think properly and trying to knock some sense into them would be almost impossible
Well it can still come off as a good credibility since you know yourself what it is like to gamble people might actually listen to you

It's easier if it's a close friend because you can always monitor him and the way to help him is keeping him busy with something else other than gambling.
Games for example. Consoles, computer games, android games, whatever there is as long as it's not popping out gambling advertisements.
Physical sports could also be a good cure to avoid the focus on gambling. When you do sports you get exhausted and there's little chance that one person could think about gambling when he is tired.

Practical, not expensive, and I think it's the better cure because if the addicted gambler is resisting to gamble then there's always a chance for them to get back to their normal lives.

Exactly. But it would be better if we really stay away from and quit gambling to convince them to stay away from gambling and give a real example.

This is also good advice, but it would be more appropriate if we studied the addict more deeply, whether he is addicted because of poor financial motivation or perhaps there are other incentives that make him continue to gamble.
As I once saw a gambler who was addicted because of the problem of separating from his girlfriend and feeling frustrated and wanting to spend all the money and possessions he had.

Well, in this case we don't need to help the person to earn income in other ways but just give him an understanding of the problem and give him something to do to forget about the problem.

Current technological developments make it easier for someone to continue gambling online and one practical way to encourage an addict to move away from gambling slowly is simply by keeping him away from things related to gambling such as,

*Keep away from phone or computers
*Keep away from cities full of gambling industries

There's a quote goes like this "You never know what someone is going through until you walk in their shoes" which mean if you hide your gambling activities, the ones who you advise will not believe in you, because they think you're not having a same problem like them.

Not all people that gamble for money are jobless, they actually have jobs, but they didn't get paid enough. If you know there are easy jobs with high salary, then it's good, and you can share it here.

A responsible gambler and an addicted gambler are different. It would be wiser for a responsible gambler to give advice to an addicted gambler because the addicted gambler knows that the person giving the advice understands how they feel. Being in the same world means that the responsible gambler's advice will be more relatable and impactful.

At the end of the day, we all want to stay responsible and enjoy gambling, whereas the addicted gambler no longer enjoys what they are doing because they have lost control. If I were an addicted gambler, I would prefer to take advice from a responsible gambler.