Bet Your Life

Here is an article that is from Australia but can be applied to an society in the world especially the United States. Anyone who is battling the compulsion gambling addiction like myself please pay close attention to the last paragraph; here is the article in its entirety;

A roll of the dice and life could look very different. By Bill Beattie.

Life is a dicey business. We're vulnerable creatures existing in intermittently civilised communities on a planet that ought to carry a sternly worded Government health warning. One of our responses to this situation has been to trivialise life's uncertainty through silly little amusements in which modest sums can be wagered on the roll of a die, the outcome of a board game or the turn of a friendly card.

Humans regularly overdo things, however, and many undergo a conceptual shift from "life's a gamble" to "gambling's my life".Among those for whom an occasional bet isn't forbidden by religion, ethics or a solid understanding of probability, gambling is one of the little garnishes on the condiment table of life.

Most of us would agree with Joe Frazer, 48, a milkman from Blackheath, NSW, who states: "I like having a bet on a Saturday afternoon when I'm having a beer at the local, just for a bit of fun. But if I don't get to have a flutter, I'm not fussed about it. The only major problem I have with gambling is that I don't win enough!"

For many Australians, though, gambling goes beyond a periodic punt on the ponies or the odd charitable donation to the manufacturers of scratchies. "The prevalence of gambling addiction was established by the Productivity Commission in a report issued in November 1999," says John Dalziel, communications director of the Salvation Army Southern Territory in Mont Albert, Victoria. "It stated that 2.1 per cent of the population was addicted to gambling and that a further six per cent exhibited at-risk gambling behaviour."

out of control

A majority of these are men (there is, after all, a traditionally macho quality to many forms of gambling, as if the card table or racetrack were the financial equivalent of a gladiatorial arena).

Studies at Yale University and other institutions, however, have found that increasing numbers of women are becoming hooked on other forms of gambling. They mightn't want to challenge opponents in a rowdy poker game, but will often find themselves mesmerised, in relative privacy, by equally rowdy poker machines.

For most of the history of gambling, an inability to curb the compulsion was considered a sign of moral decay rather than an actual illness - it's the same sort of warm, snuggly, caring-and-sharing attitude directed to those afflicted with chemical dependencies. It's now more rationally viewed as a form of progressive impulse control disorder, requiring the same sort of treatment as alcoholism or related addictions. Though not strictly curable, it can certainly be prevented from running riot.

The first step, as with all addictions, is identifying and acknowledging the problem. "Some of the characteristics to watch out for," says Dalziel, "include when a person starts lying about their gambling behaviour and where they got their money; obtains money by stealing or taking it from their business accounts; thinks about gambling every day and runs up enormous debts on their credit cards. Once the compulsion is recognised, help can be found from organisations such as the Salvation Army."

stages of recovery

Grant Brecht, clinical and organisational psychologist and managing director of Grant Brecht and Associates, North Sydney, identifies five stages compulsive gamblers pass through en route to recovery: "pre-contemplators (who often deny their problem, either defensively or because they haven't really registered how it affects them, their loved ones, and their finances); contemplators (who have thought about changing but haven't taken action); planners (who recognise the need to change and are exploring the best methods); action takers (who are engaged in changing); and maintainers (who are trying to sustain behaviours and attitudes that show control over the problem)."

Different treatment, he has found, is appropriate for different phases.

"Pre-contemplators need to be coaxed into responsibility. Contemplators need a vision for what they'd like to achieve. Planners need to know how to evaluate progress and remove obstacles. Action Takers need help to overcome old habits and reward the new. And Maintainers need to know how to recover ground, without guilt or loss of confidence, after a temporary lapse."

Acquiring wealth is rarely the goal of a compulsive gambler, which is just as well since the heftiest win will usually be tomorrow's stakes.

The real prizes are a sense of having been favoured by fortune and the brief glow of self-esteem that follows. Since a bona fide personal achievement, such as conquering an addiction, is a vastly more potent source of that emotion than a quirk of probability, the best way for a compulsive gambler to hit the jackpot is simply to refuse to play.