Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to begin with is an incredibly effective therapeutic measure to determine the relationship between an individual’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors. These are all interconnected and affect each other significantly. These ties are explored deeply by emphasizing on the active participation required from the client’s end.
This modality enhances one’s pragmatic understanding and problem-solving capabilities. This is done by enabling a route through education of their train of thoughts that impact their emotions that consequently produce behaviors that may not be pleasant to self and others in some cases.
HOW DOES CBT ONLINE WORK FOR DISCARDING PATHOLOGICAL GAMBLING?
Gambling is a game of uncertainty where the outcome is unknown and heavily relied upon probabilities. Gambling is the only kind of addiction that does not involve an external chemical catalyst unlike substance addiction for instance. This is a fascinating fact as it denotes that gambling is a ‘pure’ addiction, almost completely intrinsically motivated making it harder to detangle such a pattern of behavior.
This was previously addressed as Pathological gambling, now it is referred to as ‘Gambling Disorder’, a clinically diagnosable condition. This is done by carefully examining from a checklist of symptoms provided in the Diagnostic and Statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM, Vth version).
TYPES OF GAMBLERS:
- Due to explicit impulsivity, just for the experience of it, not thinking through the consequences. This is a pure thrill-seeking behavior.
- Due to emotional vulnerabilities, as a compensatory behavior to overcome something more horrific.
- As a pure habituated inclination
To sum up, gambling causes a downhill in so many facets of an individual’s life including finances, interpersonal relationships, poor mental and physical health, suicidal ideations for many, and a decline in the overall wellbeing. In addition, this also brings into picture psychiatric disorders that a gambler can grow prone to like depression and anxiety, and often severe negative rumination that can lead to significant distress.
ONLINE CBT FOR GAMBLING: THE TRUE GAMECHANGER
Cognitive Behavioral therapy is the go-to option for treating issues with gambling. This is because CBT allows for space to identify faulty or distorted thinking patterns, modify emotions and change behaviors as a consequence. This works coherently with all affect, cognition and behavior of an individual implying a holistic and perhaps a sustainable behavior modification in the individual.
Individuals with gambling issues experience cognitive distortions like struggling with problem solving, decision making and impulsivity creeping in due to the prominently apparent struggle.
CBT IN THE RECOVERY PROCESS FOR GAMBLING:
- CBT saves people as it helps them see through their negative thinking patterns and realize how that led to problematic gambling behaviors.
- Post the identification phase, efforts are made to develop practical strategies that help them minimize the gambling urges and gradually detach from it altogether.
- Working on analyzing the thought process and correcting it along the way that will ultimately create a paradigm shift in the decision making of the individual.
- The next stepping stone is to establish a detailed plan for preventing the individual from falling into the trap again, looking out for any environmental cues that can increase the likelihood of potential relapses and cutting them down.
- Psychoeducation on the cognitive distortion’s gamblers experience especially with the idea of winning and losing must be discussed extensively. This can be done by highlighting the reality of their existing no relationship between gambling beliefs and gambling results.
ONLINE CBT FOR GAMBLING: BREAKING DOWN THE INTERVENTION FOR GAMBLING
- Behavioral interventions: This is all about working on techniques of the imagined desensitization, controlling the stimulus, exposure and response prevention.
- Cognitive interventions: This is about establishing a pathway to resolve the cognitive conflicts around the pathological gambler’s irrational thoughts and beliefs around the odds of winning with the use of cognitive restructuring and motivational therapy.
- Pharmacological treatments: Medications can also be accompanied with the use of CBT to increase the pace and intensity of the recovery process. These can include the recommendation of Antidepressants, Mood stabilizers and Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. (SSRIs)
- Self-help groups: Getting a group of anonymous gamblers on board together and having them talk about their subjective experiences brings into perspective how they are not alone on this ride, there are multiple sufferers with their own stories. This instills hope and restores optimism towards the possibility of change and recovery process.
In summary, online CBT for gambling can do wonders given the aspect of will and cooperation from the client’s end to modify the problematic gambling behavior that is causing them trouble in their overall quality of life.
Why CoachForMind?
- Experienced Psychologists: We are a team of licensed RCI-registered clinical psychologists. Our team is well-experienced in various forms of therapy such as CBT, DBT, Narrative Therapy, and online CBT for gambling.
- Personalized Approach: We are dedicated to treating our clients in the best-suited way, carefully curated as per the client’s needs, and adhering to one-on-one, client-centered therapy.
- Scientific Techniques: Our treatment plans and therapeutic methods are based on highly researched scientific findings such as CBT, DBT, and Narrative Therapy among many other therapeutic techniques used in art therapy counselling.
- Quality service: We at CoachForMind ensure quality services in our treatment regime and therapeutic approaches. Our clients hold most value to us, so we ground our techniques in empathy while maintaining professionalism.
For more information, please visit our website or contact us directly at coachformind@gmail.com
