How to help a ludopath

Games of chance and bets turn out to be activities in which many of us have participated at some point and have turned out to be entertaining to have fun with friends. However, addiction to these gambling represents a source of conflict with family, friends and, above all, with itself by distorting itself to an obsessive and pathological need for continuing to play without weighing the consequences it carries. In this psychology-online article we explain to you How to help a ludopath.

1. What is Ludopathy
2. How is the ludopathy
3. Can you get out of ludopathy without help?
4. How to help a person with ludopathy

What is Ludopathy

The Ludopathy It is a disorder consisting of the progressive alteration of behavior in which the subject experiences a uncontrollable need to play, Despite the consequences it causes.

Symptoms

It is considered by the diagnostic and statistical manual of the mental disorders DSM 5 (2013) by a disorder called pathological game If you meet four or more of the following symptoms:

1. Need to play Betting with greater amounts of money or goods to get the desired excitement.
2. Has made repeated efforts to control, abandon or Reduce the game without success.
3. Most of the time is irritated or anxious, especially when trying to reduce or leave the game.
4. LOSING MONEY IN THE BETTERS, It usually returns Another day to try to win or recover losses.
5. It is frequently Thinking about betting (Remembering past betting experiences, planning your next bet).
6. Generally Bet when it presents some discomfort or vicissitude (anxiety, depression, guilt, abandonment).
7. Lies To be able to hide how involved in the game.
8. It frequently has others to give it the money and thus relieve your financial situation.
9. Has put at risk, or even, has lost a job, an important relationship, an academic or professional career because of the game.

Guys

Ludopathy can occur in two ways; Episodic or recurring:

• Is considered Episodic when it meets the previous symptoms on more than one occasion but decrease for several months.
• Is recurrent When the symptoms are continually presented for several years.

Three forms of gravity are also recognized:

• Mild: Busy 4-5 symptoms
• Moderate: It meets 6-7 symptoms
• Serious: Fulfill 8-9 symptoms

How is the ludopathy

The treatment of ludopathy being an addictive characteristic disorder is oriented in a way very similar to addiction At substance. Here are some of the treatments for Ludopathy:

Psychotherapy

Having considered ludopathy as an addiction, the use of therapeutic techniques that have shown their usefulness in the control of alcoholism and drug addiction has been used.

Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on the identification of pathological beliefs or cognitive errors in order to replace them with those who turn out to be benefit to the health of patients. In pathological players, cognitive biases are detected that facilitate excessive involvement in the game, such as the illusion of control, superstitious thinking or erroneous perception of the calculation of probabilities.

Familiarity with bets develops an illusion of control by the sick subject, as well as a perceived self -efficiency the relationship with the greater probability of profits. For this reason, regular players have more Pathological (irrational) thoughts that occasional players, which leads them to assume more risk behaviors.

On the other hand, these subjects also usually evaluate the results of the game in a biased way: with a belief that continuous losses predict the arrival of a great imminent gain that will allow them to recover, even obtain more profits.

Cognitive behavioral therapy highlights the importance of Modification of cognitive distortions in order to reduce the desire to play and per se the game behaviors. The objective of cognitive behavioral therapy is to guide the patient to deal with irrational thoughts and establish a relationship between thoughts, emotions and behaviors, as well as to locate the self -verbalizations used in relation to the game.

Pharmacotherapy

The interest of the pharmacological intervention in the ludopathy arises from the involvement or function of some neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine, in cerebral reward mechanisms. In general, dopamine is associated with the reward and motivation system, norepinephrine to the activation and search for rewards (news), serotonin is associated with compulsion.

• The drugs that have been proven to have positive results in ludopathy act on these neurotransmission systems and these are the serotonin reuptake inhibitors (IRSS), Stabilizers of mood, atypical neuroleptics and opioid antagonists. IRSS have shown an important decrease in game desire and compulsive behaviors, and especially when there is comorbidity of some other anxiety or depression pathologies.
• The mood stabilizers Like lithium or toppiramate, they can present quite positive results in the treatment of ludopathy when used as negative mood regulators.
• The opioid antagonists, As the naltrexone can inhibit euphoria feelings associated with the game, which can reduce the desire and game thoughts (pleasure) and thus improve social functioning; Above all they are indicated when the desire for the game at the beginning of the treatment is very strong or when there is a family history of alcoholism.

At the clinical level, the use of psychopharmaceutical. Specifically drugs can become benefit as a contributing treatment to psychological therapy.

• Internment

Interning the subjects in a hospital is recommended in cases with severe acute crises, with repeated therapeutic failures and with common disorders, especially Depression and suicide attempts.

Can you get out of ludopathy without help?

Ludopathy is one of the disorders recognized by the American Psychiatric Association, and as many of the pathologies categorized in DSM 5, mainly needs a professional intervention.

Without a doubt, a social and family support It contributes considerably in the recovery of health, in the same way that it is aware of the problem and Per the need for a correction in compulsive habits or behaviors. However, these attempts on their own and with the help of nearby people are seen limited by clinical reasons that are unknown many times. These attempts are also diminished by the concomitant symptoms themselves (for example of depression or some anxiety disorder), causing abandonment to the recovery processes initiated.

For this reason we recommend that in addition to the indispensable support of the family and friends, an intervention by a health professional should be sought.

How to help a person with ludopathy

¿How to help a person with problems with ludopathy? These are the most important tips to help a friend or family member who presents a pathological game:

1. Find out

Look for information about the symptoms presented by the person with ludopathy you want to help. Informing about the pathology that has damaged the relationship with the sick person will allow us to understand not only the behavioral presentation, but also its cognitive and emotional characteristic.

2. Analyze the emotional world

People who manifest symptoms of ludopathy, frequently present underlying emotional conflicts that operate as etiology of this disease.

Observe in what moments in the patient's life the symptoms are manifested or exacerbated (for example, there may be social or family conflicts, such as a disagreement or discussion that triggers of symptoms work). Sometimes, the sick learn to use The game as a mechanism for pain evasion emotional.

¿How to help a ludopath that does not recognize it?Support, guide and accompany At the moment the sick person can be effective in recovering his health.

3. Do not continue contributing to symptoms

¿What to do when a ludopath does not want help? Sometimes, to relieve the discomfort of the sick person we prefer not facilitate evasion of the same.

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to How to help a ludopath, We recommend that you enter our category of addictions.