Gambling Addiction Treatment & Rehab in Ontario

Overview

Compulsive gambling is the uncontrollable urge to keep gambling despite the toll it takes on your life. Gambling means that you’re willing to risk something you value in the hope of getting something of even greater value.  Gambling can stimulate the brain’s reward system much like drugs or alcohol can, leading to addiction. If you have a problem with compulsive gambling, you may continually chase bets that lead to losses, hide your behavior, deplete savings, accumulate debt, or even resort to theft or fraud to support your addiction.  Compulsive gambling is a serious condition that can destroy lives. Although treating compulsive gambling can be challenging, many people who struggle with compulsive gambling have found help through professional treatment.

Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of compulsive gambling (gambling disorder) include:

• Being preoccupied with gambling, such as constantly planning how to get more gambling money
• Needing to gamble with increasing amounts of money to get the same thrill
• Trying to control, cut back or stop gambling, without success
• Feeling restless or irritable when you try to cut down on gambling
• Gambling to escape problems or relieve feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety or depression
• Trying to get back lost money by gambling more (chasing losses)
• Lying to family members or others to hide the extent of your gambling
• Jeopardizing or losing important relationships, a job, or school or work opportunities because of gambling
• Resorting to theft or fraud to get gambling money
• Asking others to bail you out of financial trouble because you gambled money away
• Unlike most casual gamblers who stop when losing or set a loss limit, people with a compulsive gambling problem are compelled to keep playing to recover their money — a pattern that becomes increasingly destructive over time.

Some people with a compulsive gambling problem may have remission where they gamble less or not at all for a period of time. However, without treatment, the remission usually isn’t permanent.

When to see a mental health professional

Have family members, friends or co-workers expressed concern about your gambling? If so, listen to their worries. Because denial is almost always a feature of compulsive or addictive behavior, it may be difficult for you to realize that you have a problem.  If you recognize your own behavior from the list of signs and symptoms for compulsive gambling, seek professional help. Exactly what causes someone to gamble compulsively isn’t well-understood. Like many problems, compulsive gambling may result from a combination of biological, genetic and environmental factors.

Risk factors

• Although most people who play cards or wager never develop a gambling problem, certain factors are more often associated with compulsive gambling:
• Mental health disorders. People who gamble compulsively often have substance abuse problems, personality disorders, depression or anxiety. Compulsive gambling may also be associated with bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
• Compulsive gambling is more common in younger and middle-aged people. Gambling during childhood or the teenage years increases the risk of developing compulsive gambling. However, compulsive gambling in the older adult population can also be a problem.
• Compulsive gambling is more common in men than women. Women who gamble typically start later in life and may become addicted more quickly. But gambling patterns among men and women have become increasingly similar.
• Family or friend influence. If your family members or friends have a gambling problem, the chances are greater that you will, too.
• Medications used to treat Parkinson’s disease and restless legs syndrome. Drugs called dopamine agonists have a rare side effect that may result in compulsive behaviors, including gambling, in some people.
• Certain personality characteristics. Being highly competitive, a workaholic, impulsive, restless or easily bored may increase your risk of compulsive gambling.

Complications

Compulsive gambling can have profound and long-lasting consequences for your life, such as:

• Relationship problems
• Financial problems, including bankruptcy
• Legal problems or imprisonment
• Poor work performance or job loss
• Poor general health
• Suicide, suicide attempts or suicidal thoughts

Prevention

Although there’s no proven way to prevent a gambling problem, educational programs that target individuals and groups at increased risk may be helpful. If you have risk factors for compulsive gambling, consider avoiding gambling in any form, people who gamble and places where gambling occurs. Get treatment at the earliest sign of a problem to help prevent gambling from becoming worse. At Metamorphosis our addiction treatment team creates personalized gambling addiction treatment program for each individual clients. Based on the input from the client prior to admission we are able to develop a personalized treatment program that will tackle symptoms of your specific addiction.

Residential Gambling Treatment

At Metamorphosis, located Wasaga Beach, Ontario, we offer intensive, evidence-based treatment programs that address the psychological issues fuelling the gambling addiction. We are also well qualified to address PTSD, chronic/severe depression, trauma or anxiety and other psychiatric disorders. You may stay at our residential addiction centre for 4,6,8,12 weeks, or longer if necessary. While in our care, you will take part in individual and group therapies. Counselling will be offered for your family and loved ones.

Gambling Addiction Aftercare

Some may think that if they have made it through a gambling addiction rehab program, then their problems are over. Completing a gambling addiction treatment program is a great accomplishment but it is only the beginning of your recovery journey. Aftercare is especially important during the first few years of recovery. As part of Metamorphosis’s gambling addiction treatment programs we offer aftercare services to make sure that upon your graduation, any kind of relapse will be prevented through our Aftercare,  and Continuation of Care.

Aftercare

Aftercare participation is a chance to interact with other clients who also struggle with addiction, practice social skills and identify relapse triggers. Our Aftercare Groups enable you to have an opportunity to check in and receive constructive feedback from fellow addicts on how you are progressing.

Continuation of Care

Clients will schedule a call with the Program Manager during the first week after discharge. Addiction counselling calls will continue each week for a period of two months. Clients can arrange calls to suit their schedules within regular business hours. These counselling calls will provide an excellent way of tracking progress and discussing any issues that may arise.