gambling addict

A few years ago, the figures on the prevalence of compulsive gambling or gambling addiction in our country, published in the study “Gambling behaviors, associated psychosocial factors and pathological gambling”, drawn up by the Responsible Gambling Corporation of Chile, made the news. According to the report, 80% of players in Chile were women . Y si bien estas cifras han variado de acuerdo con la última medición realized en 2022 por la organization, la diminution de mujeres que sufren de un a dicción al juego según los según los especialistas ne cesariamente se debe a que menos personas viven con este problema sino que clara For the rise of young men who entered the world of online gambling in recent years. This means that the proportion of women is lower than the national total. But, according to Angela Carmona, psychologist and specialist in addictions, founder of the Association of Actors in Therapy (www.ajuter.org ), Gambling among women continues to be a serious mental health issue, rendered invisible and shrouded in stigma.

The specialist explains that in compulsive gambling, we generally distinguish three phases of addiction: gain, loss and despair. Angela adds that problem gamblers are in the losing phase, which is when betting or gambling begins to involve constant spending of money that is not recovered — when the players have already passed the phase of despair. There, many are already able to visualize how this belief that “what was lost could be recovered” is not real and that the problem is deeper.

When Alejandra (not her real name) attempted suicide, she had already gone through the first two phases of addiction. “I made the decision to kill myself and if I am here it is thanks to God and my husband,” she says today, almost a decade after entering the world of pathological gambling. Alejandra felt like she had hit rock bottom, but no one around her knew what she was going through. Even though he was using money that didn’t belong to him to gamble, he managed to keep his problem a secret. . “For me, addiction was an escape,” says Alejandra. She says that in 2014, when she started playing slots at the venue run by a friend, she did so because she felt lonely and overwhelmed by the illness of one of her parents who required constant care. From neighborhood machines, he moved to casino slots within 6 months. “ You lose money and you leave crying but you never think it’s a problem. You automatically start thinking about how you could get more money to get back what you lost,” he explains.

At that time, Alejandra was 53 years old, she had no children and lived with her husband, who was the one who found her. after the suicide attempt. He was also the one who pushed her to ask for help. “I had seen a report on television one day on AJUTER (Group of actors in therapy)”, he recalls. However, I didn’t have more information about the group nor about the treatment of compulsive gambling than what he vaguely remembered from that note. With this single reference, Alejandra’s husband decided to investigate and that’s how he arrived for the first time at a meeting of addicted gamers that was being held at the time at the Gruta de Lourdes sanctuary to asking for help for his wife. And it is that, as happened to Alejandra, many drug-addicted women they don’t know they are living with a disease Rather, they view their behavior as a lack of control or discipline and something they should be able to handle.. “The only thing I thought about was the economic aspect, but I didn’t consider it a disease because I didn’t know it was,” says Alejandra.

Suicide rates among the population with gambling problems are much higher than among other groups. “Between 22 and 81% of individuals have expressed suicidal thoughts and between 7 and 30% have attempted suicide.”

The idea of ​​seeing the addict as some sort of villain or selfish character capable of anything to satisfy his addiction is particularly prevalent in compulsive gambling. Specialist Ángela Carmona explains that the consequences of gambling, unlike other addictions, They do not weigh exclusively on the player and they are not as visible as the physical deterioration experienced by an addict. The game is not only self-destructive, but it is also a atomic bomb exploding in family Angela explains. “When the situation is revealed, the drug addict becomes a scoundrel, a thief. Very little is known that it is a disease like drugs and alcohol,” he confirms. But the problem in our country goes beyond addiction itself and the stigma attached to it. It is thorough because it is not a condition recognized by the health system. For this reason, not only do many people live unaware that they have an illness, but even when faced with the most serious diagnosis or consequences of this addiction – as happened to Alejandra – they cannot not receive treatment through the public health system. At least none were aimed at treating compulsive gambling. “What usually happens is that patients go into treatment for depression” said Angela. Once the person receives psychiatric support, they also begin to be treated with group psychological therapy. The creator of AJUTER and former president of the Responsible Gaming Corporation would like to point out that the Gambling addiction affects women from all walks of life and that many of them cannot access psychiatric treatment through the private system. It is in this case that the role of groups like Ajuter plays an even more key role in the recovery.

According to a study conducted by a specialist at the Center for Drug Abuse Research, Control and Governance at the University of Helsinki in Finland, Data shows that suicide rates among the population with gambling problems are much higher than among other groups. “In clinical populations and in treatment services dedicated to gambling addiction, between 22% and 81% of individuals have demonstrated suicidal ideation and between 7% and 30% have attempted suicide,” explains the document. . This study and others indicate that pathological gambling is the addiction with the highest rate of self-inflicted deaths. In the case of Alejandra, for example, the cost in terms of relationships with those close to her was the highest price she paid for her addiction, and the moment she hit rock bottom was precisely when where she attempted to end her life. “The person isolates themselves so much that all they want to do is play,” he says. Now a member of AJUTER and treasurer of the organization, she explains that For gambling addicts, there comes a time when money is no longer an attraction. “Of course you want to win. But when you win, you don’t go away and don’t stop playing.” , account. Because for many women like her and Verónica, the game responds to problems related to loneliness and the feeling of abandonment. As Ángela Carmona explains, a significant percentage of women who end up becoming addicted to gambling are heads of households and, contrary to the usual representation of addicted men, it is older women and not young people who develop this problem.

Verónica Cocio (63) remembers that almost 7 years ago she first heard about AJUTER when her problem to go to the casino and bet had reached a critical point. “It was the girlfriend of one of my sons at the time, who had known us for a long time, who started to investigate when she saw that I was in trouble,” Varónica recalls. For her, the addiction lasted just over two years and started gradually as, until then, she frequented casinos sporadically and never aroused greater interest in gambling.

“Usually we went to restaurants with my husband or with cousins ​​who visited us from abroad,” says Verónica. But their nights at the casino had always been spent as part of a social gathering and I never thought she would end up going alone , sneaking around and betting the money he borrowed. “When my children called me at the weekend, I said that I was at a friend’s,” she says. They were little lies that became Verónica’s routine and aimed hide your addiction problem . “I used roads without tolls so that my husband would not realize that I had gone to the casino,” explains Verónica. So, little by little, what started out as entertainment and a disconnection mechanism became a problem that led her to spend all her savings and even borrow money from loved ones in hopes that they can recover what has been lost. “When I found myself in a situation where I had nothing, I started asking for money,” he recalls. “Everyone lent me money when I asked for it because people had a completely different view of me who I really was at the time.” But this caricature of the drug addict as out of control, living on the edge, or loving to party and go out, not only kept others from noticing his problem sooner, it even prevented him from to think she was living like a disease. . “There’s a magical thought that drives you to keep playing to try to make up for what you’ve lost, but the game doesn’t work like that,” says Verónica.

This game, according to a report presented by the Sports Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, is the third most common addiction in our country after alcohol and tobacco. This information has been raised in the context of legislation which prohibits the advertising of online betting houses in sports events and clubs, but it is still far from being an effective measure to combat the increase in this addiction. Ángela Cabrera explains that even in neighboring countries such as Argentina, the issue of bets is posed as a topic that can be so harmful like smoking from a public health perspective and therefore more than a game, digital platforms or casinos are legally obliged to present themselves as a risky activity that can generate addiction.