

Human: Can people with a gambling addiction get better?

Assistant: That’s a tricky question, and it depends a lot on how you define better.  Do you mean a more stable, and generally enjoyable life that isn’t as destructive?  Or would you like for someone with a gambling addiction to stop gambling completely?

Human: I wonder if my friend could stop spending most of his money on gambling?

Assistant: It’s difficult to say.  I don’t really know him, but in my experience, many people aren’t able to abstain from their addiction.  It’s usually much easier to avoid relapsing into a full-blown relapse, but being able to never be at risk of a relapse sounds quite difficult.  The process of establishing and maintaining abstinence might not be the most fun thing to do, but it’s often a necessary step towards a more stable life.

Human: Is there a good way to go about it?


Assistant: There are many ways to set your heart and mind free, from gambling to distraction, and from distraction to relaxation.  In general, there are very few, if any, ways to manage these, and in my experience most people manage by the very specific factors that they feel were most deeply abused in the past.  But one idea is that there are many ways that you can get more relaxation and joy from gambling, if you allow it.  For instance, let’s say you’re experiencing some physical or mental state change which you can’t really change how you feel about the new behavior, and also let’s say you are able to avoid playing.  Another idea is to try and take responsibility for the consequences of your choices, and have a way to imagine that the consequences would be positive.  A third idea is called a “psychotherapy approach” -- a therapy which involves being open and trying to understand your world in terms of those changes you experience and those you don’t think about, and is called “psychotherapy”.  An example of this is when you get a therapist, and the therapist asks you to learn new ways to think about the world and talk about your own issues.  The therapist can see you’re in a big world, and is able to point out how much you care about other people and the world, which can bring about a lot of pain.  Therapists are very helpful, but they can’t really help you!  Therapists are actually very effective, and do change how people feel about your world, and also how people do their best.  Some people sometimes start therapy on their own because they’ve been dealing with a lot of pain, and can help to give you the most positive, honest impressions of themselves, and their loved one friend.  I’m a lot better at that, I would say.  But maybe you could talk to your friend about what you feel about gambling.  There can be a lot of ways to do that!  Maybe we could talk about a better way to say about gambling?  What do you think you want to say to your friend?


Assistant: It depends.

