Gambling your life away



Pasted Graphiceriksonian hypnotherapy



A few weeks ago one of my clients, John (name changed) from Kendal in Cumbria came to see me about his problem with gambling. This gentleman was suffering from a life which had been destroyed by his inability to look beyond his infrequent wins. He was completely addicted to the idea of horse racing (real and virtual) and over the course of a number of years had managed to lose over £50,000. This was clearly a serious problem for him. Not only had it ruined him financially but it had also taken away his life socially and personally. His inability to walk past the temptation of maybe being able to ‘win this time’ had meant that he was alienating him self from every relationship and was even being stopped from seeing his own children because the relationship with his partner had broken down to such an extent. The desperation on this man's face was clear when he first came to see me. Attending gambling anonymous had not helped and simply talking about it in some kind of counselling context had been equally ineffective. What could be done?


John’s problem is very common indeed and in fact affects over 40% of the adult population based on data as recent as 2014. With any addict the problem is always associated with the emotional feelings created by an artificial release of a powerful hormone into the system called dopamine. The problem with dopamine is that once it gets into your system and gives you that thrill feeling you require twice as much next time to get to the same level you experienced the first time. It is the surge of excitement associated with the initial thrill which leads to the need for gambling strengthening and eventually becoming addictive. Unfortunately once someone is addicted, then the priorities in a person’s life shift and person can become isolated and detached to the point where they are unable to see clearly or make rational judgements.


Through the treatment I was able to offer John we were able to disassociate him from the emotions that he felt around the idea of winning a particular horse race and therefore neutralising the release of dopamine. In effect there was no longer any thrill associated with the idea of winning so therefore the thought of gambling very quickly lost its interest. This approach is highly effective for this particular addiction if the person can engage with the creative process. Hypnotherapy and hypnosis as well as a combination of other psychological tools like neurolinguistic programming are powerful when it comes to dealing with limiting behaviours like gambling because they make the shift back to rational thinking effortless and automatic. Thankfully ‘John’ is now in a much better place and is managing to his life back on track, looking forward to making this a very positive year (2016 at the time of writing this blog). This was what he had to report recently.....


“ I have my head sorted out with thanks to yourself, am in a good place and think about things in a different perspective, to what I use to, am am busy taking my father for his treatment at this present moment in time, thanks for all your help if I ever need you I will be in touch, and I will highly recommend you to people, thanks again “


With a decade of experience The Cumbria Hypnosis habit change clinic serves the entire Cumbria and South lakes region, including Kendal and Lancaster. If you would like to find out more about the power of hypnotherapy to deal with an addiction like gambling then click
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