About 15% percent of the population (about 20 million people in Nigeria) have gambling problems and experienced hardships associated with gambling. If you or a loved one needs help avoiding gambling, consider these seven tips.

1. Understand the Problem
You can’t fix something that you don’t understand. To eliminate gambling from your life, you must learn about the issue and admit you have a gambling problem.

The Psychiatric Association identifies gambling as a mental health disorder similar to addictions triggered by alcohol and drugs. You might have a gambling disorder if you have:

The powerful need to gamble with larger amounts of money
Feelings of restlessness or irritability when not gambling
Made repeated and unsuccessful attempts to quit gambling
Found yourself completely preoccupied with gambling
Noticed you gamble to manage stress
Continued gamble to “get even”
Lied to friends, coworkers and loved ones about gambling
Lost relationships or created conflict about gambling
Needed financial support
Be honest with yourself when you look over the symptoms of gambling disorder, or even better, ask a loved one about their opinion of your gambling for a clearer understanding. Stop denying and start seeing the negative effect gambling has on your life.

2. Join a Support Group
Now that you have recognized the problem, you can seek assistance from a support group. Support groups are organizations maintained by people with similar experiences and pasts. Though support groups lack professional interventions, they are free to try out in person or in online chat rooms.

Gamblers Anonymous is one support group specifically built around the needs of people with gambling problems. The group is based around the familiar 12-step approach used by other support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous.

For more information on support groups for gamblers, you can contact Oluwatobi (08118635751)

3. Avoid Temptation
Gambling is a temptation, but seeing gambling as an addiction is a significant step because it permits you to use skills from addiction recovery and relapse prevention. For someone in recovery, avoiding people, places and activities linked to gambling can help them avoid a setback. By avoiding these triggers, you can avoid the thoughts and feelings that encourage gambling.

So, if driving by a casino after work sparks thoughts of gambling, take an alternative way home. If watching sports makes you want to bet on it, consider watching something else. Cut up your credit cards and let your spouse handle the checkbook.

It may seem like an inconvenience, but just as a person with a drinking problem should not go into a bar, you have to identify and avoid your triggers. Work with a loved one on your list of triggers and find ways to avoid the temptations to reduce the risk of gambling.

4. Postpone Gambling
With addictions, there are cravings. Cravings are strong urges to complete the desired behavior. As a gambler, you could have cravings to call your bookie, go to the casino, cash your paycheck or other behaviors linked to gambling.

Cravings are intense, and while you are in the middle of one, it feels like it could last forever. It will not, though. All cravings have a beginning, middle and end. So as long as you can postpone your gambling, you can maintain recovery.

An excellent way to approach this issue is by paying attention to your cravings, what they feel like, what you think about during the craving and how long it tends to last. By studying the craving, you begin to take away its control over you.

Once you build an understanding of the situation, you can list a set of thoughts or actions to distract from the gambling. Perhaps, deep breathing or calling a friend when a craving hits will be the best ways to postpone gambling.

5. Find Alternatives to Gambling
Avoiding triggers and distracting during cravings are great ways to deal with gambling, but to improve your state, you’ll need to find healthy alternatives to gambling. By replacing gambling behaviors with positive ones, you shift the focus away from the bad and towards the good.

Some gambling alternatives include:

Physical activity (e.g., going for walks, weightlifting, team sports or yoga)
Meditation
Spending more time with friends and family who do not gamble
Volunteering at a hospital or animal shelter
Exploring new hobbies
Traveling
Just think of the fun, beneficial alternatives you can explore with the extra money you have from not gambling.

6. Think About the Consequences
Shame and guilt are strong feelings for anyone in recovery from addiction. Shame and guilt can be dangerous because too much of them can encourage people to relapse, but some levels of shame and guilt can motivate you to stay in recovery.

Think about the consequences of your past gambling to avoid gambling in the future. Think about:

The emotional pain you caused your loved ones
The financial hardships you put your family in
Any lies you told to disguise your addiction from others
Try not to dwell on past behavior, and only use it for motivation to avoid gambling in the future. Too much shame or guilt can be counterproductive.

7. Seek Professional Help (08118635751)
If your gambling is severe, consider seeking professional help as soon as possible. Professional treatment from a mental health or addiction specialist could be the difference between a life of financial uncertainty versus living in financial stability.

Professional treatment methods can teach you ways to stay away from gambling as well as refining the skills you are already employing. With professional counselors and therapists widely available, the only thing holding you back is your reluctance. Even better, you can seek professional help while participating in a support group.

If your gambling addiction co-occurs alongside a substance use disorder, contact the experts One telephone call can change your life for the better. Don’t hesitate, call today for a confidential, personal assessment with one of our representatives.

You might sometimes feel you have tried a lot to caution this effect but to no vail, closed accounts (I did it countless times), blocked ATMS, stopped for a day, week, month or even year but still fell into the same trap, Not to worry our sequence follows through on you supports you on a guide to walk past this life and start something new, I once used all of school fees, project money and even savings of others for gambling, I have stopped though I still play N100 to N500 bet9ja ticket once in a while but all for fun, you too can come out of it and not be a disappointment again to family and friends. For more info call/text:- 08118635751

Repent from it

To deal with gambling addiction, you need to understand the cause of the addiction and why you would like to stop playing. For example, if the cause of addiction is a psychological disorder, it is better to leave as soon as possible. If the reason for leaving is because you don't know how to lose, then you should leave too. I play on the fairspin site for fun and don't have such problems because I can control myself.

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