Gambling Addiction is Related to High Suicide Rates

 PATHOLOGICAL gamblers are risking more than their money, they are also three times more likely to commit suicide than non-betters. A new Montreal inter-university study has shown these gamblers are also plagued by personality disorders. These findings, published in a recent issue of the Psychology of Addictive Behaviours, may have implications for developing improved targeted suicide prevention programs.

"The World Health Organization estimates that suicide is one of the top ten causes of death in the Western world," says study co-author, Richard Boyer a Université de Montréal professor and researcher at the Centre de recherche Fernand-Seguin at the Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital. "In addition, pathological gamblers account for five percent of all suicides. These staggering statistics motivated us to study the difference between gamblers and non-gamblers."

Gamblers have more personality disorders

The study examined 122 suicides between 2006 and 2009, of which 49 were pathological gamblers. Data from the coroner's files were compiled and psychological autopsy interviews with families and friends of the deceased were completed.

"Our findings showed that those gamblers who commit suicide had twice as many specific personality disorders as other suicide victims," says co-author Alain Lesage, also from the Université de Montréal.

"These personality disorders seem to significantly increase the risk of suicide for compulsive gamblers," says Boyer. "Three lethal elements are generally recognized: depression, alcohol or drug consumption and a personality disorder. These psychiatric disorders can in-turn interact with each other. For example, the depression can lead to the alcohol or drug consumption, which in turn leads to greater financial problems, which amplifies the depression."

Gamblers don't consult health professionals

The study also showed that gamblers who committed suicide were three times less likely to have consulted a health service in the year preceding their death.

"Gamblers don't consult professionals because they believe the problem will solve itself," says Boyer. "They believe their financial or alcohol or drug problems are the result of gambling and therefore they seek a solution in gambling rather than get help."

Twelve percent of gamblers admitted to a friend or family member having spent over $5,000 in a given day. And 70 percent had borrowed the money to play.

"Parents and health professionals should be more vigilant in looking for signs of suicide among pathological gamblers," says Boyer. "The sooner this disorder is diagnosed the sooner therapy can begin and the better chances for success."

Editor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you or someone you love are in the grips of Pathological Gambling call us today for immediate confidential help.

About Coaching with Substance

We are Australia's leading award winning addiction treatment and rehab consultants for gambling, drugs, alcohol, sex, eating and internet addiction, along with eating behavioural disorders and co-dependency.

 Ph 07 56 066 315 (7days)

Email: info@coachingwithsubstance.org.au

 Webiste: coachingwithsubstance.org.au

 

Maria Pau is a 4x No. 1 best-selling author on the subjects of addiction and co-dependency and spiritual wellness. She is the Program Director of Coaching with Substance, the first registered public benevolent institution, charity and not-for profit association in Australia that focuses on wellness instead of illness, using coaching principles for peak performance. We run a cutting edge holistic addiction treatment program and outpatient rehabilitation consultancy firm that ensures you are released from the shackles of addiction once and for all.

Primary care at CWS is personalised to treat each individual using programs that integrate mind, body and soul. CWS programs are enhanced by highly effective group coaching and therapeutic processes as well as individual coaching, spiritual insights, therapy and extensive aftercare assistance.

All clients are thoroughly assessed by a highly trained and experienced recovery coach, registered provisional psychologist, ordained mystic, mental health officer and certified naturopaths (including Ayurveda and Acupuncturist). Clients may also be referred for psychometric testing and assessment, if needed. International clients welcome.

We also welcome enquiries from English speaking people from Asia, Europe, Africa, India and South America.

Alarming Gambling Statistics

What are the social and economic effects of gambling addiction? 

In 1998 the National Gambling Impact Study Commission funded a study to determine the overall cost to society posed by problem and pathological gamblers in the United States. 

The results showed that approximately $5 billion was lost annually, with an additional $40 billion in lifetime costs for productivity reductions, social services and creditor losses. Studies have concluded that two out of three pathological gamblers commit illegal acts in order to pay gambling-related debts. This places a hardship on our legal systems, prison systems and public assistance programs. 

Gambling 

The following consequences of problem gambling all result in economic costs for states, communities and individuals: 

* Job loss, unemployment 

* Debt, bankruptcy 

* Embezzlement, fraud, check forgery 

* Eviction, forced home sales 

* Crime, arrest, incarceration 

* Poor physical and mental health, suicide 

* Alcohol and drug abuse 

The families of problem gamblers also suffer greatly from physical and psychological abuse; harassment and threats from bill collectors and creditors; increased stress stemming from neglect and divorce; and the extra financial burden placed on them to repay debts. 

Sadly, children are negatively affected by gambling addiction in several ways. 

* Physical and emotional abandonment is a very real phenomenon. 

* Casino kids are left in cars or on the periphery of the gambling action while their parents gamble, or may spend hours with babysitters, thus missing the nurturing they need. 

* Children of pathological gamblers are typically abused verbally, mentally and physically by the gambler, and often even more so by the co-dependent spouse. 

* Finally, these children are much more likely to develop gambling addiction than their peers. 

Excerpted from research: Effects of Problem Gambling. California Council on Problem Gambling (Anaheim, CA); 2006. 

If you or someone you love is in the grips of GAMBLING ADDICTION please call our professionals at Coaching With Substance, Australia's leading treatment and rehab consultants for HELP. Call 1300 773 422 (7days) or  07 560 66315

 

Web: www.coachingwithsubstance.org.au

 

Email: info@coachingwithsubstance.org.au

About Coaching with Substance

Maria Pau is an award-winning addiction / co-dependency specialist and the Program Director of Coaching with Substance in Australia. We run a cutting edge holistic addiction treatment program and outpatient rehabilitation consultancy firm that ensures you are released from the shackles of addiction once and for all. 

Primary care at CWS is personalised to treat each individual using programs that integrate mind, body and soul. CWS programs are enhanced by highly effective group coaching and therapeutic processes as well as individual coaching, therapy and extensive aftercare assistance. 

All clients are thoroughly assessed by a highly trained and experienced therapist as well as a medical officer and Naturopath. Clients may also be referred for psychometric testing and assessment, if needed. International clients welcome. 

Addiction Seeps Into The Destruction of Communities

Most people, when they think of addicts tend to conjure up the quintessential image of a dirty, unkempt junkie wallowing in the gutter. But in reality that is usually not the case. ADDICTION affects people from all social strata. There are many types of addiction. Substance addictions, drugs and alcohol are the most widely recognised, yet there are Process Addictions e.g., gambling, eating, sex, shopping and many others. Let us define the parameters of what constitutes addiction. We could describe it as any activity, lifestyle or manner of conduct that becomes so overwhelming in a person’s life that it evolves into an

obsessive compulsive behaviour (as well as a thinking process) which corrupts the very core of a person’s character. And off course there is a strong neurological component.

Despite a measure of compulsiveness’, people suffering from addiction can and often do, function in society with relative anonymity. It is only when they seek help that their “cover” (so to speak) is blown. In many cases we interact daily with people suffering with serious addiction issues and never realise it. They are our family members, our co-workers, friends, clergy, and yes even our teachers, policemen, firemen, doctors, lawyers and even politicians. The people that we look up to and admire the most have just as much of a chance at becoming addicts as the poor, uneducated from broken homes.

Addiction seeps into every facet of virtually every person’s life. Even if you do not have an addiction, and no-one in your family or circle of friends (that you know of) have any addictions, you are still affected daily on some level. Consider the drunk driver on the roads putting you and your loved ones at risk or to the warehouse worker who loses your package because he/she is too busy being wrapped up in the drug culture to pay attention to their job. Negatively and positively, we all affect each other every day. There is a theory in science by Edward Lorenz called the Butterfly Effect. Essentially a small change at one place in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere.

Addiction and recovery affect more than just our social interactions. There is an economic toll to be paid as well. According to some estimates a combined $30 billion was spent or lost in 2010 on health care, lost productivity, premature death, crime and auto accidents related just to alcohol and drug abuse alone. Roughly 75 percent of all that money was paid for by public sources, which means Austalian taxpayers are footing three quarters of the bill.

With some 12 million taxpayers in Australia this means that the average sum paid by each individual taxpayer amounted to approximately $2,500. Interestingly, a study in the USA recently suggested that this could be reduced to under 1/10th of the cost when a comprehensive in-patient treatment is provided. Currently it is conservatively estimated that 10% of the population suffers from Addiction. This amounts to approx 2 million people. Sadly less than 8% of these people actually receive proper treatment. Clearly this leaves a huge GAP.

It is very clear that this is an issue that needs or attention at every level of our community. Addicts are not "THOSE" people they are OUR people. For years (locally and federally) addiction has been looked upon as an abhorrent behavior by law enforcement and as a disease with in the medical community. There is reason to lend credibility to both points of view. The police see the addictive behavior day in and day out in a person or persons who may seem erratic, violent and at times certainly unreasonable. While the medical community, on the other hand sees a person that is suffering from a compulsion to ingest a chemical or behave in a way that is clearly detrimental to their health. In some cases this behavior persists even to the point of death. There would seem to be an obvious pathology at work here.

There have been many ways we have tried to fight the issue of drugs in our community. Most notably through the self help organizations of AA and NA. So far comprehensive treatment in a facility or out-patient program offering a wide range of modalities has shown to be the most successful method of helping addicts return to a more productive and healthy lifestyle. It is widely known in the treatment services industry that the majority of those with addiction issues also suffer from some form of mental illness. This may require expanded medication or psychological treatment to go hand in hand with education and support services.

As previously noted; even small changes in complex systems can have dramatic affects. Rather than scorn, shame and ridicule as motivators for addicts to improve their lives, and the lives of those who love them, and indeed the lives of us all; perhaps to be treated as a person with a disease who deserves dignity and respect could be one small change (on all of our parts) that could improve one life, as well as all of our lives dramatically.

It is time for all of us to take a different approach to addiction, and most importantly our leaders could start the ball rolling by taking a more serious approach to this public health problem.

You can start TODAY if there is someone you love out there who is in the grips of addiction by educating yourself on how to intervene on their addiction.

PHONE 07 560 66315

 

Web: www.coachingwithsubstance.org.au

 

Email: info@coachingwithsubstance.org.au

ABOUT COACHING WITH SUBSTANCE (WINNER Best Not-for-Profit 2014)

We are Australia's leading award winning addiction treatment and rehab consultants for gambling, drugs, alcohol, sex, eating and internet addiction, along with eating behavioural disorders and co-dependency for Australasia and New Zealand. Call us on 07 5606 6315 if you want to speak to an Addiction Specialist.

Our Founder, Maria Pau is a 4x No. 1 best-selling author on the subjects of addiction and co-dependency and spiritual wellness. She is the Program Director of Coaching with Substance, the first of its kind in Australia as registered public benevolent institution, charity and not-for profit association that focuses on wellness using coaching principles of peak performance. She is currently completing her PhD on Recovery Coaching and is the first registered Recovery Coach in Australia.

We run a cutting edge holistic addiction treatment program and outpatient rehabilitation consultancy firm that ensures you are released from the shackles of addiction once and for all. Primary care at CWS is personalised to treat each individual using programs that integrate mind, body and soul. CWS programs are enhanced by highly effective group coaching and therapeutic processes as well as individual coaching, spiritual insights, therapy and extensive aftercare assistance.

All clients are thoroughly assessed by a highly trained and experienced recovery coach, registered provisional psychologist, ordained Taoist Monk, mental health officer and certified naturopaths (including Ayurveda and Acupuncturist). Clients may also be referred for psychometric testing and assessment, if needed. International clients welcome.

We welcome enquiries from all English speaking people from Asia, Europe, Africa, India and South America.

Gambling and Suicide

Gambling and Suicide

ScienceDaily (Nov. 24, 2010) — 

Pathological gamblers are risking more than their money, they are also three times more likely to commit suicide than non-betters. A new Montreal inter-university study has shown these gamblers are also plagued by personality disorders. These findings, published in a recent issue of the Psychology of Addictive Behaviours, may have implications for developing improved targeted suicide prevention programs.

"The World Health Organization estimates that suicide is one of the top ten causes of death in the Western world," says study co-author, Richard Boyer a Université de Montréal professor and researcher at the Centre de recherché Fernand-Seguin at the Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital. "In addition, pathological gamblers account for five percent of all suicides. These staggering statistics motivated us to study the difference between gamblers and non-gamblers."

Gamblers have more personality disorders.

The study examined 122 suicides between 2006 and 2009, of which 49 were

pathological gamblers. Data from the coroner's files were compiled and

psychological autopsy interviews with families and friends of the deceased

were completed.

"Our findings showed that those gamblers who commit suicide had twice as

many specific personality disorders as other suicide victims," says co-author

Alain Lesage, also from the Université de Montréal.

"These personality disorders seem to significantly increase the risk of

suicide for compulsive gamblers," says Boyer. "Three lethal elements

are generally recognized: depression, alcohol or drug consumption and a

personality disorder. These psychiatric disorders can in-turn interact with

each other. For example, the depression can lead to the alcohol or drug

consumption, which in turn leads to greater financial problems, which

amplifies the depression."

Gamblers don't consult health professionals

The study also showed that gamblers who committed suicide were three

times less likely to have consulted a health service in the year preceding

their death. "Gamblers don't consult professionals because they believe the problem will

solve itself," says Boyer. "They believe their financial or alcohol or drug

problems are the result of gambling and therefore they seek a solution in

gambling rather than get help."

Twelve percent of gamblers admitted to a friend or family member having

spent over $5,000 in a given day. And 70 percent had borrowed the money

to play. "Parents and health professionals should be more vigilant in looking for

signs of suicide among pathological gamblers," says Boyer. "The sooner this

disorder is diagnosed the sooner therapy can begin and the better chances

for success."

Editor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

If you or someone you love are in the grips of Pathological Gambling call us today for immediate   Ph 07 5606 6315 (7days) confidential help. 

A professional Addiction Recovery Coach from COACHING WITH SUBSTANCE can guide and support you deal with the problem and save further misery for you and your family.

FOR HELP TODAY info@coachingwithsubstance.org.au  Confidentiality assured.

 Web www.coachingwithsubstance.org.au