The correlation between problem gambling and mental health issues is complicated. Sometimes gambling can lead to mental health problems, and sometimes the sequence occurs in reverse order. Picture This: You’ve been suffering from anxiety and panic attacks for five years. The addiction has negative effects on one's physical and mental health and it proves to be detrimental to one's social, personal, and professional life. On giving a serious consideration to the negative effects of gambling, we realize that it is best avoided.
Mental health problems can cover a broad range of disorders, but the common characteristic is that they all affect the affected person’s personality, thought processes or social interactions. They can be difficult to clearly diagnose, unlike physical illnesses. According to data from SAMHSA, 20 percent of people in America suffer from a form of mental disorder, and 5 percent suffer from a disorder severe enough to affect school, work, or other aspects of daily life. If you think that you or someone you know has a mental disorder, call us today at .
What Are the Types of Mental Health Disorders?
Mental health disorders occur in a variety of forms, and symptoms can overlap, making disorders hard to diagnoses. However, there are some common disorders that affect people of all ages.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is characterized by an inability to remain focused on task, impulsive behavior, and excessive activity or an inability to sit still. Although this disorder is most commonly diagnosed in children, it can occur in adults as well.
Anxiety/Panic Disorder
Anxiety disorder is defined by intermittent and repeated attacks of intense fear of something bad happening or a sense of impending doom.
Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder causes a periodic cycling of emotional states between manic and depressive phases. Manic phases contain periods of extreme activity and heightened emotions, whereas depressive phases are characterized by lethargy and sadness. The cycles do not tend to occur instantly.
Depression
Depression covers a wide range of conditions, typically defined by a persistent bad mood and lack of interest in pursuing daily life, as well as bouts of lethargy and fatigue. Dysthymia is a milder but longer-lasting form of depression.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is not, as commonly thought, solely about hearing voices or having multiple personalities. Instead, it is defined by a lack of ability to distinguish reality. Schizophrenia can cause paranoia and belief in elaborate conspiracies.
What Causes a Mental Health Disorder?
There is no single cause for mental health disorders; instead, they can be caused by a mixture of biological, psychological and environmental factors. People who have a family history of mental health disorders may be more prone to developing one at some point. Changes in brain chemistry from substance abuse or changes in diet can also cause mental disorders. Psychological factors and environmental factors such as upbringing and social exposure can form the foundations for harmful thought patterns associated with mental disorders. Only a certified mental health professional can provide an accurate diagnosis of the causes of a given disorder.
What Are the Signs of a Mental Health Disorder?
Mental health disorders exist in broad categories: anxiety disorders, mood disorders, psychotic disorders, personality disorders and impulse control disorders. If someone you know experiences erratic thought patterns, unexplained changes in mood, lack of interest in socializing, lack of empathy, inability to tell the difference between reality and fantasy, or a seeming lack of control, that person may have a mental health disorder. This is, by no means, a complete list of symptoms.
Emotional Symptoms of Mental Health Problems
Mental health problems can cause a wide variety of emotional symptoms, some of which include:
- Changes in mood
- Erratic thinking
- Chronic anxiety
- Exaggerated sense of self-worth
- Impulsive actions
Physical Symptoms of Mental Health Problems
Mental health problems typically do not cause physical symptoms in and of themselves. Depression, however, can indirectly cause weight loss, fatigue and loss of libido, among others. Eating disorders, a separate class of mental health disorders, can cause malnutrition, weight loss, amenorrhea in women, or electrolyte imbalances caused by self-induced vomiting. This makes eating disorders among the most deadly of mental health disorders.
Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Mental Health Instability
In the short-term, mental health problems can cause people to be alienated from their peers because of perceived unattractive personality traits or behaviors. They can also cause anger, fear, sadness and feelings of helplessness if the person does not know or understand what is happening. In the long-term, mental health disorders can drive a person to commit suicide. According to the National Institute for Mental Health, over 90 percent of suicides have depression or another mental disorder as factors.
Is There a Test or Self-Assessment I Can Do?
It is hard, bordering on impossible, to accurately diagnose yourself for mental disorders with an online questionnaire. You do not have an objective view of yourself and are bound to answer questions inaccurately. Also, online tests are not comprehensive, so they do not check for all possible symptoms. Only a face-to-face session with a qualified mental health professional can begin to diagnose a mental health disorder with any degree of accuracy, because that professional has an outside viewpoint and can pick up on subtle cues.
Medication: Drug Options for Mental Health Issues
Fortunately, prescription drugs can be used to treat mental health disorders in conjunction with behavioral therapy or cognitive therapy. Antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and antipsychotics are the broad types of medication prescribed to treat mental illness.
Mental Health Drugs: Possible Options
Depending on the disorder, different medications will be prescribed. Antidepressants such as Paxil, Zoloft, Prozac, and a variety of SSRIs, SNRIs and MAOIs can be used to treat depression. Mood stabilizers such as lithium tablets are used to treat bipolar disorder, as are anticonvulsants like Depakote. Antipsychotics like olanzapine or clozapine are used to treat schizophrenia or psychotic depression.
Medication Side Effects
Some of the side effects of mental health medication include nausea, headache, changes in appetite, dry mouth, increased urination, change in libido, irritability, blurred vision and drowsiness. Other side effects can occur; each person’s body and brain chemistry is unique, and it is impossible to predict with certainty how a given medication will affect you or how well it will work. People who are prescribed these medications should regularly communicate with their doctors and notify them of any side effects.
Drug Addiction, Dependence and Withdrawal
Some mental health medications are known to cause physical and psychological dependency due to their changes in brain chemistry. Over time, dependency can become an addiction if the person isn’t careful. The withdrawal process can exacerbate the original mental illness because of the brain’s sudden loss of some chemicals such as serotonin, dopamine, and other endorphins. In severe cases, the person may need to be placed in a drug rehab facility to detox from prescription medication.
Medication Overdose
It is possible to overdose on medication in an effort to get the same effects as initially received, and this is more common when users are dependent on medications. Some signs of overdose can include seizure, coma, slowed heartbeat, or extreme paranoia. If these signs are present, immediately call 911 or your local Poison Control Center and have the prescription on hand if possible.
Depression and Mental Health
Depression often coexists with other mental disorders, or certain disorders may have caused depression in the first place. For example, 40 percent of people with post-traumatic stress disorder also have depression.
Dual Diagnosis: Addiction and Mental Health Disorders
In drug rehab facilities, counselors are usually trained to identify dual diagnosis issues. This is because addiction is itself a type of mental health disorder, or the addiction can be the symptom of some other disorder. People may, for instance, turn to recreational drugs to combat depression or to help stabilize mood swings associated with bipolar disorder.
Getting Help for a Mental Health Issue
It’s important that you or your loved one should seek help to treat mental health issue. First, a physical checkup can rule out physical illnesses. An appointment with a mental health professional will usually include an interview and subsequent evaluation to determine the most obvious symptoms and to ascertain the type and severity of mental disorder. In certain cases, an intervention may be required from family and friends. If you or someone you know needs help, call us at to get more information on treatment.
Q. Does gambling promote poor health?
A. Yes! Gamblers are willing to substitute time spent exercising with time spent gambling, leading to obesity and overall poor physical and mental fitness. Blocking online gambling may be your best bet to recovering your health.
Are you gambling away your good health?
When I was a child growing up in a neighborhood saturated with other children, at dinner time, my mother would yell out of the kitchen window attempting to beckon me home. It was tough getting me in the house, away from my friends and the arena of kickball, basketball, and baseball. And for the sake of this article, I’m not referring to the types of sporting gamed being played with controllers and 64-bit operating systems. Are video games bad for you? Possibly.
How Mental Health Affects Academics
As one grows in adulthood, sports participation becomes less prevalent. As you mature, individuals tend to be more concerned with other things including holding a job or finishing their education. Only in ones free time, can individuals proactively seek out activities that promote well being and physical health. Unfortunately, physical fitness turns into a chore like many other of life’s activities. The biggest obstacle standing between individuals completing their chores is time allocation.
Online gambling is a time bandit
ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE YOU TO ONE OF THE BIGGEST TIME BANDITS IN EXISTENCE: THE WORLD OF ONLINE GAMBLING.
Why use the internet for gambling? The accessibility to online gambling allows individuals to gamble anytime they wish. In addition, the lure and addictive nature of gambling typical result in gambling sessions lasting for sometimes up to twelve consecutive hours. Typically these “sessions” are accompanied by other activities that are proven to be associated with health warnings such as alcoholic beverages and cigarettes. How much healthier would one be if they left the computer and walked outside for 20 minutes?
Common sense would lead one to deduct that online gambling reduces ones allocation to physical activity. This can result in such things as an elevated body mass index (BMI). Long term, an elevated BMI this can lead to developing certain diseases, including cardiovascular disease. Studies have shown that a reduction in body weight helps to keep the BMI in a normal range and can stall the symptoms associated with many ailments.
What about mental health?
The roller coaster associated with online gambling will reap havoc on ones mental health. The good… A single “session” may include instances of elevated adrenaline associated with a winning pot.
The bad… A single “session” may also be littered with extreme negative financial swings causing feelings of sorrow and regret. Gambling can make an individual seemingly successful in many aspects of life feel inadequate, second guessing their ability to win.
Who am I?
Most online poker players tend to create multiple identities. The one associated with their virtual game playing, and the one you see on the street. It is hard to separate the two, and overlap does occur. The devastation associate with a bad “session” can lead to individuals taking mental health days with their employees. The roller coaster ride also seems to affect personal relationships. Relationship problems in juxtaposition with a financial hardship (also typical of online gamblers) is a recipe for disaster.
So now what?
Take a step back and look at yourself in the mirror. Transport yourself to a time before you gambled online. Are you happier now? Do you now have more energy? Do you like yourself now more? If any of those questions are answered with a “NO”, it may be time for a change. Here is my last suggestion on this topic, ask yourself these questions as you take a nice walk outside. You’ll feel better.