How much does compulsive gambling affect your mental health? Is there a strong link to problem gambling leading to anxiety,depression,high stress? Â Comment here if you have have struggled with the same issues
Hi
Its a complex issue in that many gamblers were already experiencing depression, stress and anxiety which drew them to the devil may care escape fix.
The addiction also causes these feelings so its a vicious circle which only spirals downwards. The addiction just makes our problems far worse so its crazy how our minds control us
An addiction so complex that many gamblers end up punishing themselves as a cry for help. I couldnt find any real happiness so I was using gambling like substance abuse. It is a drug addiction backed up by the views of the medical experts.
Gambling was my drug of choice. A drug I was totally hooked on. I was miserable with my life and always had been really. That is how it was easy for a major addiction to take hold.
Gambling was a temporary escape which was actually destroying me...the same situation as heavy class a drugs...eventually it becomes the monotony or rattle of getting another fix to stop the urges.
Of course extinction gambling causes depression but you have to look at the deep reasons why gambling was able to take hold of us. Its not only the money and there are many reasons it breaks down our barriers to destructive behaviour
Best wishes to everyone on the forum
Well yes, I think that compulsive gambling is a response to some sort of "emotional stress"... its a reaction to our emotional well being. I think for me I started gambling because I felt stressed and bored after work and felt like I had no direction or purpose in life. Gambling very quickly became an emotional "pick me up" and helped me to switch off from everything and everyone. It helped me to disappear up my own a**e so to speak 🙂
All the best to everyone
Everyone who has an addiction has some  degree of poor mental health.
It’s not a chicken and egg situation of which came first -  addiction or poor MH.
Poor MH always precedes. But poor MH is undoubtedly compounded by addiction.
Think of MH same as physical health (PH). No bright lines to say what constitutes good PH. Same with MH. Don’t need to have a diagnosable MH condition to have poor MH.
That makes much sense Cardhue. I don't think I have ever had good mental health
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