Chorobné hráčství neboli gambling je psychická porucha srovnatelná se závislostí na drogách. Postihuje zejména mužskou část populace prakticky v každém věku. Tento text informuje o osobních osudech hráčů, způsobech léčby a nabízí i možnost prověření vlastní náchylnosti ke hráčství.
Igor Dostál
219521@mail.muni.cz
The poorly lit room is filled by a cigarette smoke. In long mirrors on walls all around reflects not only winking manycouloured lights of slot machines but also distressed face of a young man. He is smoking and drinking a beer. He looks really forlorn in his dirty jeans and jacket. ”That was my usual day. I have to be kicked off my parents house to realize that it’s an illness and I couldn’t stop it,” says Michal, 34, now recovering gambler.
He is one of many victims of rush of slot machines that came to Czech republic after velvet revolution in 1989. According to informations of Ministry of finance there are 56,000 slot machines in 3046 places in Czech republic now. They have brought 52.8 billion crowns to their entrepreneurs last year. This is how looks the other side of situation which brings to one group of people money and succes and to the other people financial ruin and breakes their families.
Gambling is defined as mental alienation which manifests with uncontrollable craze for playing hazardous games, that grow into an addiction where the focus is not on winning, but on enjoyment of the game itself. As an issue of medicine was gambling marked in 1980 by American psychiatrical society. In Czech Republic the term pathological gambling is used since year 1994. Gambling is usually compared to addiction on cocaine – in both cases is subject passed through phase of euphory and phase of physical exhaustion.
Clinical psychologist Dobrila Hrůzová, 61, has worked with gamblers in addicts rehabilitation centre in Kroměříž for the past fifteen years. On her department are about ten patients under teratment. ”Most of them are men, because women haven’t such a strong disposition for risk. It’s determinated genetically. If the gambler isn’t psychotic or agressive it’s mostly quite pleasant person. Other psychichal problems come hand in hand with stress connected with debts and lowered care of hygiene. When I started, my patients used to have debts in tens of thousands. Recently it use to be in millions. It happends because it’s easier to get a loan from bank and a lot of usurers and also owners of casinos started to specialize on lending money.”
”It was something new, when I saw the first slot machine in a bar in our town,” Michal explains. ”I was twenty and I wanted to try it and started to play. It was innocent entertainment. I have played away few crowns that day. But I had to return back next day and another and another. Finally I had to borrow money from my family and friends. It was just like obsession. I’ve believed that I have to win my money back next time. I have lost about 120 thousand crowns. Actually break up of my family, when my parents lost patience with me, was the last drop that made me to look for professional help,” recalls Michal.
Doctor Hrůzová says: ”We use cognitive-behavioral therapy, which consists of training to stand by a slot machine and to overcome longing for the game. That’s the most natural way of treatment. We don’t use any pharmaceuticals, because gambling isn’t physical disease. The gambler could not be totaly cured, he can only abstain for the rest of his life.” Length of treatment is two month.
One of patients passing through the cure is also Václav. ”It is really difficult for me. We are sent to the centre of city in pairs with notebooks to write down our feelings. We have to go around gambling clubs and record what impressions it cause to us. But I know that it is no renunciation without temptation,” narrates Václav, 22. ”We organize periodical sittings of current and former patients usually four times a year. It helps to aour patients, when they can hear that it’s possible to live without playing and it is also good way to ascertain how successful we were, because we don’t have another retroaction,” mentions Hrůzová.
Beside institutional care, those in need can use some of help programs which are often established by ex-gamblers, like Parents of Young Gamblers or Gamblers Anonymous, an international network that has its czech branch in Prague. ”Gamblers Anonymous is a self-help program and thousands of people with a desire to stop gambling attend our weekly meetings,” says the international executive secretary of Gamblers Anonymous, who is only identified as Karen H.
In present, and that is also prognosis for future, gambling shifts more and more to the internet, where it is much more easier to get into addiction. Experts say that the first step which potential addict has to do, is to name and wise up to his problem. To this purpose Gamblers Anonymous has made special questionaire. Most compulsive gamblers will answer yes to at least seven of these questions.
1. Did you ever lose time from work or school due to gambling?
2. Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy?
3. Did gambling affect your reputation?
4. Have you ever felt remorse after gambling?
5. Did you ever gamble to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties?
6. Did gambling cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?
7. After losing did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your losses?
8. After a win did you have a strong urge to return and win more?
9. Did you often gamble until your last dollar was gone?
10. Did you ever borrow to finance your gambling?
11. Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling?
12. Were you reluctant to use "gambling money" for normal expenditures?
13. Did gambling make you careless of the welfare of yourself or your family?
14. Did you ever gamble longer than you had planned?
15. Have you ever gambled to escape worry, trouble, boredom or loneliness?
16. Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to finance gambling?
17. Did gambling cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an urge to gamble?
19. Did you ever have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few hours of gambling?
20. Have you ever considered self destruction or suicide as a result of your gambling?
No comments:
Post a Comment