Being the most common feature in our times qualified our times to be probably called an era of anxietyowing  to  its  contradictions  and  challenges,  the  lack  of  opportunities  for  self-fulfillment,  over  stress  and  poor social  relationships  and  values,  which  leads  to  a  sense  of  tension  and  anxiety  associated  with  our  inability  to predict what will happen in the future.

Future anxiety is one of the anxieties that simultaneously emerged with Toffler’s launching of the term Future  Shock  (1970);  Zaleski  (1996)  indicated  this concept  which  refers  to  a  state  of  apprehension,  fear, uncertainty  and  anxiety  of  undesired  changes  expected  to  occur  in  the  future.  This  fear  of  the  future could include a variety of anticipated threats including physical threats, such as illness or accident, or emotional threats, for example the loss of one of the family members. These threats vary in terms of severity, and future anxiety may include the individual’s fear of failure in achieving his/her goals and aspirations.

Full story at Institute of Education Sciences

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Gambling Decisions

Gambling

The first aspect is commitment. When gambling, the commitment to gamble has been made beforehand. If the impulse to gamble comes up, what can you do? Jody, age 30 stated “I was home alone while my kids were at school and my husband was at work. Our relationship was at the stage where we were recovering from some martial issues. I suddenly wanted to take the car and head to the casino. I almost did but I stopped and thought about the hard work I had put into fixing our relationship. I called my close friend and she talked me out of wanting to go gambling. “As you can see, Jody was able to stop herself from committing to making the choice of gambling. Stopping and thinking about the negative impacts can benefit a problem gambler.

Money to Gamble

The second aspect that enables gambling addiction is money. Without any money, gambling is not a possibility. To gamble, money is extremely important. To decrease the chance of gambling, limit your credit cards, allow a close family member or friend to manage your money and to only carry a minimal amount of cash. All of these methods limit the amount of gambling that could be done. Decreasing the amount of gambling allows the problem gambler to only do minimal damage to finances. It could also help slowly wane them off the addiction.

Time to Gamble

The third aspect is time. Gambling is not possible without having time invested into it. Jared, age 38 stated “Once I realized I had a gambling problem, I started to slowly break the addiction. I started to plan out vacations with my wife. I spent time with my son who was dealing with bullying problems at school. I just filled up my time with as many things as I could to keep my mind off of gambling. I spent more time with my best friend during the time spent with him; I realized he had been dealing with depression. I realized that I had lost track of the world by spending all of my time gambling.” Jared decided to spend his free time engaging in activities other than gambling and was able to mend his relationships with friends and family.

A Game

The fourth aspect is a game. Without some activity or game to bet on, there is no room for gambling to occur. Removing possible opportunities for gambling will prevent the temptation to gamble. This ensures that a problem gambler will not continue to gamble as often. Sometimes a situation presents itself and there is nothing you can do about it. In cases like these, it is best to ask a friend or family member to hold your money. As explained in the second aspect, without money, gambling is not possible.

The four aspects that allow gambling to be a problem include commitment, money, time, and games. Now that you know these aspects, there are many steps that can be taken to prevent gambling problems to continue. If precautions are taken to prevent problem gamblers from betting their money, they can break their addiction.

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Gambling

Do you know the myths and the facts about gambling? Find out the facts and the myths about gambling addiction. Gambling includes betting on sports, scratch cards, roulette, poker, and slots in a casino or online.

Jodie’s Age 28 Gambling Myth

The first myth is that you are a problem gambler only if you gamble daily. Many clients do not believe themselves to be addicted to gambling because they do not gamble every day. A client, Jodie age 28 stated “I thought that I was not addicted to gambling because I did not go very often. I go about once a month but I realized that I would stay at the casino for many hours and lose a large sum of money. The amount I lost caused me problems and I would always end up working twice as much to make ends meet.” As you can see, Jodie did not have to gamble every day to be a problem gambler. One can be addicted to gambling even if they gamble infrequently.

I Can Afford It

Second myth is that if you can afford to gamble then you do not have a problem. Zach age 34 expressed “Whenever I gambled, I never lost enough to the point where I was in debt. I could afford to gamble so I believed I did not have a gambling problem. However, my family became increasingly upset with me because I was spending more time at the casino than with family. I started missing out on my son’s baseball games to gamble. It made my son depressed due to the belief that I no longer cared. It led to all sorts of problems with my wife and children. I may not have been ruining myself financially but I was ruining my relationships.” In Zach’s case, he had no trouble financially but gambling consumed the time he could have spent on his family.

Who is to Blame?

A third gambling myth is that the partners of gamblers make gamblers gamble more often. Many gamblers avoid responsibility and tend to blame their behavior on others. Taylor, age 46 stated “I can’t stop gambling. My wife drives me crazy with the nightmarish cycles and she always complains about how we don’t have enough money. My wife nags me to get a better job but I can’t. She makes me stressed out and I can only work so much. I have to go to the casino to try and win the extra money for her.” Taylor believed that he was being forced to gamble due to his wife being upset about their financial situation. Gambling actually creates more financial debt and Taylor neglected to acknowledge that.

Should You Help?

The fourth myth is that when a family member or a friend pays off a debt of a gambler, they are doing them a favor. This is actually a lie. If you pay off their debt, you are encouraging their behavior due to the fact that you are giving them an easy break. They aren’t able to learn from their mistakes and deal with the consequences. Eventually they will have to deal with the consequences but it is much better if you let them learn earlier than later. Paying off their debt is a quick fix but it is merely temporary.

I have found these gambling myths to be very common and to be false. If you need continuing education about gambling addictions and how to treat them, visit my website http://www.onlineceucredit.com/ceus-online/gf-gambling/continuing-education.html.

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I had a client named Joel who did not have a gambling addiction until a Casino opened up several blocks away from his home. Due to the close proximity of the Casino, Joel started to gamble and play more frequently which in turn caused him to lose larger amounts of money. Joel stated “I feel ashamed. I withdrew money from my kid’s savings and even forged my own wife’s signature on a mortgage agreement. I was so depressed I felt like committing suicide. But now I am okay.”

The Rise of Gambling

Gambling

Joel is one of the many people who have a gambling addiction. You might wonder why gambling has been steadily growing. A fraction of the reason is due to the economy. States bring in casinos to make up for their economies. Gambling gives rise to jobs and it also creates gambling addicts. Casinos may be beneficial to the economy but it is not beneficial to society. Places such as Las Vegas depend on gambling as their main source of revenue but studies have shown that there are higher chances of addicts, aggression and crimes such as burglary. Studies have shown that if states used the money spent on gambling on other things such as college education it would also benefit the economy.

Gambling and Affects on Relationships

Gambling creates damaged relationships in addition to financial debt. A client Tim, stated “My brother and I created a small business together and it was doing extremely well for several years until I let my gambling addiction take over and took the money from our company. My gambling addiction became even worse once I discovered online gambling which forced me to withdraw close to a million dollars from the business.” His brother has also not spoken to him since the incident. Tim expressed his desire to reconnect with his brother but his brother would not accept his apology. Tim’s gambling addiction damaged his relationship with his brother and also caused a promising business to collapse.

There are many others like Tim and Joel. In fact, people from all different ethnicities, ages and genders are affected by gambling addiction. However, people who have recently experienced an important life changing event such as divorce, loss of a loved one, or even unemployment are especially more likely to become addicted. Others with history of sexual abuse, neglect, addiction or mental illness are also at a higher risk of becoming addicted.

What are ways to help?

With the rise of gambling addiction, what are ways to help those affected by this problem? One way is to acquire more help for people who are addicted. There are only a very few number of states that offer councils on gambling addiction and even fewer offer treatment. Avoiding denial is also another way to help those affected. Many gamblers are unaware that they have a gambling problem or they refuse to tell loved ones out of shame or need to win more money. Some lie to themselves or they convince themselves that they are actually able to gamble responsibly when they are not able to do so. Gambling addiction is different from drug addictions due to the fact that you are unable to see or smell it on a person. While these two ways can help with gambling addictions, the government could assist in protecting society from gambling addiction. However, many are opposed to the government taking action against gambling.

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