Initially, people gamble habitually probably because of its excitement, the connections with our dear friends, or placebo effect for our pains. The reasons behind vary from person to person, but it de facto satisfies our inner needs. However, gambling continually harms our work/study, health, family relationship, and even self. This may make you rely on gambling more and fall into the vicious cycle. For example, you may desire for stress relief through gambling, but it leads you to financial crisis and indebtedness. Besides, being preoccupied in gambling thoughts consumes so much of our energy that our work and family relationships are affected. Gambling not only misses our initial aim of stress relief, it even increases our worries and frustrations. You most likely realize the negative impacts gambling have, but you cannot let go of the benefits brought by gambling behaviour, such as the hope of chasing losses back.
In fact, we can fulfil our living, emotional or social needs using more effective and healthier ways. This session’s worksheet “New path” is to help you find out your triggers of gambling disorder and your expected results. Please write down what triggers you to gamble in Column A “Triggers”, including time, venue, people, events, emotions, etc. And please write down what you expect from gambling in Column B “Expected effects”, such as relaxation, forgetting about your sadness, etc. Each expected effect could be induced by more than one triggers. Number of items also vary person from person. Finally, please write down what other activities can bring you the same effects in Column C “New path”, such as doing exercises, listening to music and taking care of your diets, etc.
If you feel anxious in the process or hope to talk to our counsellors about your situation, please contact us via EC Quick Dial 2827 4321, WhatsApp 6770 5599, or Live Chat. We are grateful to walk this journey of change with you.
(Please write down what triggers you to gamble in this column)
(What do you expect to gain from gambling?)
(Besides gambling, what other activities can give you the same effects?)
