Gambling Addiction Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is a popular option for people wanting help with their gambling problem. The aim is to address the addiction but especially the underlying problems that are the cause of the addiction.

Many people gamble occasionally for fun, such as at the football world champion chips or at a horse racing events. For the majority of people occasional gambling is not a problem.

For others it is and it is life changing and breaking. There are various types of gambling such as betting, going to a casino, online betting and of course slot machines. People gamble for many reasons and one of them is the fact that it’s exciting and stimulating and while doing so one can forget many other problems in life. Certain emotional feelings can easily lead to a gambling addiction. These can be the feeling of being depressed, of being anxious, of having very low self-esteem or not having any idea what to do with life. It gives people who gamble a sense of self-worth and of feeling alive and being distracted from unwanted thoughts. Most people distract themselves with activities such as watching TV, reading books, playing football or gardening, etc. Gamblers feel the need for risk.
It often takes a while to realise that there is a serious problem. It can often be recognised by the fact that it is difficult to stop gambling, that most thoughts are about gambling, lying becomes more common and usually spending money that isn’t there, relationships becoming difficult, gambling to get out of financial trouble.
Unfortunately, many relationships break down as partners find it difficult to cope with serious financial issues. It will affect work as many gamblers find it hard to concentrate and can result in losing the job.
Hypnotherapy can be very helpful and effective in working with a gambling addiction. In trance we can find out the deeper issues for these behaviour patterns, as well as using hypnotic suggestions to re-programme the sub-conscious mind in order to make the changes easier and permanent.
Recently, I had a client who was very successful in his career. He earned good money, loved his job but never had any money, lived like an impoverished student and had plenty of debts. Most of his relationships had broken down and he was terrified that his colleagues at work would find out who he truly was. Though he had looked for help by going for counselling it didn’t seem to work for him to only be talking about his problems.

Often it left him feeling even more frustrated. Together we worked out where this need to make money came from but also combat the initial need to gamble. He explained it was like a red mist. The moment he wanted to place a bet there was nothing that could stop him. Afterwards he felt disgusted with himself and this became a vicious circle. I used a number of methods to free him from his old habits such as regression to release some of his anxiety but also hypnotic suggestions to make the change easier for him. Thankfully, he broke this circle and he is now rebuilding his life, free from his old addictions.