The Stages of Pathological Gambling

A gambling addiction may often come in certain stages. Often times, a lot of people who have gambling problems or mental disorders related with gambling do not even realize that they have a problem until they find out too late - when they have started to lose a huge amount of their savings, lost their precious home, or have been left alone by their family and abandoned by their friends. The three stages of a gambling addiction of a person must be identified in time in order to keep this problem from worsening.

Usually, during the early stages of gambling, a person would most likely start to experience a large win or gain in profit when he or she gambles. He or she may probably find that he has had many wins in a row which in turn, would give them a false sense of security and an unreasonable sense of optimism as they think that they will just keep on winning regardless. Maybe a lot of them may even think that luck is most likely on their side. Such a way of thinking may make these people feel a blood rush and thrill in the act of gambling. They start to feel very excited upon playing a game, or even the thought of playing a game, and would then start to raise their wagers, sometimes, to an exorbitant and ridiculous amount. This is the start of the danger.

After the player or gambler becomes overconfident and thinks that he will win all the time, he finds out as time goes by, that it is not quite the case at all. He would then start to lose some games and start losing money, which are at times, big amounts. Notice how a lot of gamblers would always talk about the times that they have won a game, but would seldom or never talk about the times that they have lost? Some of them would start to feel ashamed that they have been losing a certain amount of their money. Some would feel rather embarrassed at the fact that luck may not always be at their side after all, and yet there they are bragging to their peers about winning.

Such a feeling of embarrassment may lead that person to begin to gamble on his own to avoid hearing what other people might say, or to avoid being shamed. Some would go to the extent of borrowing money be it in a legal or illegal manner. Such is not a good way to go as soon enough, it would only lead to far more problems until it starts to affect his social life with regards to his family and friends. Various anti social behavior start to develop during this stage as the gamblers starts to feel more anxious, and unhappy. Soon enough, these people would start to find themselves with a big debt that they are not going to be able to pay.

Finally, these people begin to feel desperate as they try to win back or gain back the money that they have lost previously, by gambling even more. They end up being buried by their gambling addiction, and are always in self-denial of their faults.