Gambling problems can happen to anyone from any walk of life. Gambling goes from a fun, harmless diversion to an unhealthy obsession with serious consequences. Whether you bet on sports, scratch cards, roulette, poker, or slots in a casino, at the track, or online. A gambling problem can damage your relationships, interfere with work, and lead to financial disaster. You may even do things you never thought you would, like running up huge debts or even stealing money to gamble.

When you think of the effects of gambling, certain things spring to mind like financial worries, relationship difficulties and other serious issues, but you might not be aware of the emotional effects of gambling, which a lot of people experience no matter how much or how often they bet. These effects start off small and often build up, causing stress in on lives. Because if you understand what’s causing stress, you can naked the pressure off yourself or help a loved one do the same.

Of course, you can also have a gambling problem without being totally out of control.

Problem gambling is any gambling behavior that disrupts your life. If you’re preoccupied with gambling, spending more and more time and money on it, chasing losses, or gambling despite serious consequences in your life, you have a gambling problem.

Effects of gambling on gamblers are as follows:

1. Emotional Stress from gambling

Gambling is all about emotions. There is the fun of winning, the enjoyment of socializing or the familiar routine of some downtime on the pokies. But there are other emotions too, like stress, regret and a little guilt, which most people feel at some point even if only briefly. It’s easy to forget about this side of gambling but these feelings often build up, even if you’re not gambling very much or very often. And from there, you can find yourself feeling a little down – often without knowing why. You might be short tempered, easily annoyed or simply stressed. Suddenly, you’re feeling the effects of gambling. It might not happen straight away, which is probably why many people don’t understand the negative effects of gambling. But it’s worth being aware that gambling is not all about the money. It’s about how it can make you feel and act.

2. You will in Debt due to Gambling

Gambling problems and financial issues really go hand-in-hand. A financial crisis is often what brings a person to address their gambling. It is also not uncommon for partners, friends or family members of problem gamblers to tell us that they did not realize their loved one was a problem gambler until there were serious financial consequences such as a court summons for payment of debt or repossession action on their home.

Financial problems can really mount up. Bills do not get paid, debts accumulate. If you have credit cards, you might max them out to pay your bills, or worse, to keep gambling. At this point, payday loans may look like a solution. But their high interest rates and charges are likely to make the situation worse. Business owners can also find themselves in debt due to using business money to finance their gambling. A common dilemma for someone with a gambling problem is how to get out of debt. For many, the chance to continue gambling in order to win it back and make everything alright again can feel overwhelmingly tempting. It might also feel as though there is no chance of repaying debts accrued through gambling unless you carry on gambling, so you feel completely trapped.

However, imagine of it another way. If you are struggling to control your urge to gamble, a win will probably not clear your debts, as you won’t be able to stop gambling to pay them off. The temptation to repeat the thrill of the win would be high. A phrase we often hear is “I cannot win because I cannot stop”. In the end, losing more money and making the situation worse is inevitable. Also, using more gambling as a way of solving a debt caused by gambling in the first place is unlikely ever to be effective. It may feel like clearing your debts gradually will take longer, but in reality, continuing to gamble will only make things worse in the long run and may leave you with a far greater amount of debt. The thought of owning up to your debt problems can be frightening, and you’d rather people did not know.

3. Gambling affect Mental Health

Gambler will experience some or all of the following health issues:

Having extreme emotions or mood swings
Feeling that gambling is the only thing you enjoyable than other things
Finding it difficult to sleep
Feeling depressed or anxious
Having suicidal thoughts

As well as the more obvious effects that a gambling problem can have on your financial situation, there can also be a serious impact on your mental health. Although a lot of people gamble to escape feelings of depression or other mental health problems, gambling can actually make these conditions worse. One reason that problem gambling can affect mental health is the way people experience highs and lows when gambling. If you gamble, you may have found the experience of anticipating “the big win” to be very mentally involving and extremely exciting, perhaps better than feelings created by any other activity. You may also have found the devastation of losing to be a massive low, leading to feelings of despair.

4. Anxiety and Depression

Lots of gambler excessively feels stressed, anxious and depressed. This can make sleeping, thinking and solving problems more difficult. If you have some of the following symptoms for more than two weeks, making your everyday life difficult, you may have below listed chronic depression:

You have lost interest in usual activities
You feel depressed, down in the dumps or irritable

Your sleep has changed for instance, you have problems falling asleep or staying asleep, or you sleep too much
Your appetite has changed
You have lost or gained weight
You feel helpless, hopeless or despairing
It is hard to think and to remember things, and your thoughts seem slower
You go over and over guilty feelings
You cannot stop thinking about problems
You have lost interest in sex
You feel physically tired, slow and heavy; or you feel restless and jumpy
You feel angry
You think about suicide

5. Problem of social Isolation

Many gamblers account that they get a sense of Communityfrom the environment they gamble in. For instance, the betting shop, or people they talk to online. Problem gamblers can lose interest in maintaining personal relationships, career or hobbies as they are preoccupied with gambling, and they can suffer from social isolation. Regular life sometimes does not hold the same appeal as the gambling high.

Arguments, strained relationships, failure to meet responsibilities, alienation, separation, divorce, physical or mental abuse can all impact someone with a gambling problem. The gambler may isolate themselves due to guilt or shame, or perhaps because they have borrowed or stolen to fund their gambling. It can begin to feel like there is no way back to the real world. There can also be a declining interest in hobbies as gambling can dominate thinking. Problem gamblers often say that they are still thinking about gambling, even when they are not actually gambling. Some have even referred to dreaming about gambling in their sleep, such is their pre-occupation with the next bet. Problem gamblers also report issues maintaining their working life or career, due to mental preoccupation with the gambling world.

6. Attempt to Commit Suicide

Rates of suicide are higher for people who gamble excessively, and for their family members. The people most likely to attempt suicide are those who also have mental health problems like depression or who heavily use alcohol or other drugs. People who have threatened suicide or hurt themselves in the past are also more at risk.

If you are thinking about terminating your life: