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Gambling Addiction Rehab Treatment Centre

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Gambling addiction, also called compulsive gambling or gambling disorder, is the uncontrollable urge to keep gambling despite the toll it takes on your life.

Gambling stimulates the brain’s reward system and releases dopamine in a very similar manner to drugs or alcohol. It is a progressive addiction, meaning the user will develop a tolerance and continually need more and more to get a ‘fix’ which means needing to take bigger risks and receive greater wins. Gambling addiction can lead to symptoms of withdrawal when separated from the thrill, much like an individual with a substance abuse dependency struggles when separated from their drug of choice.

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Symptoms

Gambling addiction

Gambling addiction, also called compulsive gambling or gambling disorder, is the uncontrollable urge to keep gambling despite the toll it takes on your life.

Gambling stimulates the brain’s reward system and releases dopamine in a very similar manner to drugs or alcohol. It is a progressive addiction, meaning the user will develop a tolerance and continually need more and more to get a ‘fix’ which means needing to take bigger risks and receive greater wins. Gambling addiction can lead to symptoms of withdrawal when separated from the thrill, much like an individual with a substance abuse dependency struggles when separated from their drug of choice.

Symptoms of gambling addiction include:

  • Finding yourself preoccupied with gambling, constantly planning when and how to gamble and fantasising about gambling.
  • The urge to continually increase the amount of money you gamble to experience a high.
  • Feeling anxious, irritable, or losing sleep when you try to stop gambling.
  • Gambling to escape difficult emotions such as guilt, anxiety or stress.
  • Gambling in secret or minimising the extent of your gambling to loved ones.

Like any addiction, people can lose control of their gambling behaviour. The need to feel ‘high’ can lead them to gamble more money than they want to or can afford to. This process can result in destroyed relationships, grave financial loss and difficult feelings such as shame, guilt or despair.

Deciding to go to a rehab or clinic for gambling addiction is never an easy decision. At Paracelsus Recovery, our gambling addiction treatment programme is built upon our pillars of harm-reduction, addressing psychological and physical imbalances and providing you with the specific psychotherapeutic treatment you need.

We believe that working with individuals in an effective, non-judgemental manner in surroundings where they feel comfortable is key for successful treatment. As such, when an individual begins to excessively depend on an external substance or behaviour, they can be suffering from excessive internal imbalances. These include biochemical imbalances, emotional issues, trauma, relational issues or unsustainable volumes of stress. Our dedicated and empathic team will work exclusively with the client to identify these issues and help restore their wellbeing.

We provide gambling addiction treatment in both Zurich and in London.

FAQs

Excessive gambling activates the brain’s reward system in a similar manner to drugs by releasing more and more dopamine. Dopamine alone is not enough to create an addiction, it is just enough to allure people to the activity. Genetic predispositions for reward-seeking behaviours and impulsivity, environmental, psychological and biological factors all play a role in making an individual increasingly dependent upon those dopamine hits.
We use a unique, holistic approach that treats the entire person, body, mind and soul. We begin by identifying the underlying cause of gambling addiction, which is often an interplay between psychological, physical, social, spiritual and biochemical issues. We will then create an individualised treatment plan designed to address these specific imbalances. Although not mandatory, primary family members are encouraged to attend couples or family therapy sessions during the course of treatment. We can also provide an extensive aftercare and relapse-prevention programme at an additional cost.
In addition to the financial instability caused by a gambling dependency, it can also increase a person’s likelihood to experience depression, migraines, intestinal disorders and anxiety-related issues. These side effects are linked to the stress caused by addiction.
Until recently, there was much debate over whether gambling was an addiction or an impulse-control disorder. In 2013, after 15 years of research, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) officially recognised gambling as an addiction in the DSM-5. However, it is highly co-occurring with mental health disorders such as bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Yes, gambling addiction occurs when an individual becomes addicted to the process or set of behaviours associated with gambling.
Jan Gerber, MSc CEO
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