ADDICTION UNCOVERED
Can You Stop? Gambling Addictions
Our Society: Addiction and More Uncovered Ch 20
Hear the voice of everyday people — collection of stories and experiences
by Gabriella Kőrösi, PhD, MN, RN
Paige describes that she has not seen much gambling issues with her clients at work. She does have a co-worker who has major issues with gambling. She had been in treatment a couple times.
It was very sad for Paige to watch.
She describes her co-worker as very smart, intelligent person. Paige would know where her co-worker is at lunch time or if she is late why she is late. She was gambling to a point that she could not make her mortgage payments. It was very sad to watch.
I know of someone who had a good business, sold it and then gambled all the money away. He was tricking his family into giving him more money to live, he would tell them that he has nothing to eat, then he would use the money for gambling. This was hard for the family to find out especially when they had many expenses of their own and were raising two kids and worked hard to earn money.
Era tells me about a friend who she thinks has a gambling problem. She told Era she has credit cards to play the games. Era was wondering why this person needed credit cards when they have good pension and social security. Era is retired as well as her friend, so she was wondering at her age why she needed a credit card, no need for big items to buy. It did not make sense to her, so she is thinking there is some addiction going on. She thinks it might be affecting her friend’s life financially.
She asked her why she is doing it, her friend told her because she feels alone.
She thinks that there are other people she knows who are dealing with the same thing. It is very private Era asserts.
I might have played in a casino few times in my life but always used a limit of let’s say 20 dollars and if I spent the $20 then I left.
Looking at machines that are designed with pretty colors and flashing lights to get attention it makes me think of candy and sweets with all the colors that designed to get attention too.
It is an illusion. Hiding something bad in a pretty cover.
Tracy describes a lot of gambling in her family. Her grandparents had a lot of gambling debt as well as her mother. This was all coupled with the drinking in her family. She feels she did not develop any addictions; she went the opposite way because of what she grew up in. She wanted nothing to do with that lifestyle.
Dolores tells me about some patients she has who gamble. She had noticed that those patients have an associative disorder from PTSD. She explains it segue ways with the gambling addiction so that they kind of get lost in the process. She tells me they become different people when they are gambling, it is very interesting. This is just her experience and observation. She was surprised to find that there was a trauma-based issue that caused the gambling. When she figured it out with the patients it really helped them. She talks about gambling, getting a thrill and people can’t stop.
Has gambling effected your life or others you know of?
Thank you for reading,
Gabriella
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This book is dedicated to the memory of
Bagóczky József my uncle who died at age 19 — alcohol-related car accident
and to everyone else who has been hurt or lost related to addiction
Many people had been supportive and inspiring to me so I could create this book. Both of my wonderful children told me, just write that book, mom. My mom. I could have not done this without all the stories provided and the encouragement love and caring from my family and friends, nurses, doctors, counselors, teachers, professors, friends who are dealing with addiction and staying sober; and children, wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers of people who are dealing with addiction currently. Thank you for speaking up, sharing your stories and life experiences. Thank you to all the people who read this book while in progress to provide feedback, ideas, and encouragement for me to continue writing. I would like to say special thanks to my friends and family for believing me and encouraging me to go on.
Front cover acrylic painting created by Andrea Mihaly October 2019
Our Society: Addiction and More Uncovered. Hear the voices of everyday people — a collection of stories and experiences.
Copyright @ 2020. 1st addition on Amazon KDP. 2nd addition Jan 2021 Barnes & Noble. By Dr. Gabriella Kőrösi. All rights reserved. Dancing Elephants Press.