Is gambling a ‘learned’ addiction, whereby someone who is addicted to gambling has learnt their addiction from somebody else or has ‘self-taught’ themselves to be addicted to gambling? According to Gambling Therapy, gambling is a taught addiction or behaviour which has not spontaneously arrived like an illness arrives but has been etched into an individual’s state of being. Gambling Therapy maps out 6 stages that emerge with the gambling addiction, including:
Pro-contemplative
The pro-contemplative stage is when the gambling problem has not been identified, and the addict has no motivation to change their gambling habits.
Contemplative
The contemplative stage is when a gambling addict begins to think about whether they need to change their ways and which methods of change might be available to them.
Determination
The Determination stage refers to the decision that change is needed and the plans for making this change.
Action
Action refers to when plans for change are initiated.
Maintenance
Maintenance is the stage where barriers are established to continue the success of the ‘change’.
Relapse
Relapse refers to the addict falling victim to old gambling habits and diverting back to the pre-contemplative stage. Whilst it is not necessarily true that all individuals addicted to gambling will embark on each of these stages and may not go through the stages in any particular order, what is consistent, according to Gambling Therapy, is the power of the conscious act of decision making. For any effective change to occur with an addiction, the addict has to move from the subconscious to the conscious, where a conscious decision to do something about their addiction can be made. If a gambler has not reached this ‘conscious’ state of mind, they are unlikely to get to the contemplative stage and take action on their addiction.