GBC Time presents an interview with British experts in treating gambling addiction. Jason Shiers, a Certified Psychotherapist & Transformative Coach, and Stefan Cybichowski, a Consultant in 3PGC, answered the most popular questions about ludomania. Also, the experts gave an insight into the “inside out” method, which can revolutionize treating gambling addiction.
What are the primary causes of gambling addiction right now? Why do people start to gamble and cannot stop?
It is a simple means to escape from the experience of life they are having, or basically, a desire to feel better. When people don’t feel good with their current experience of life in some way, even if it’s not blatantly obvious, gambling provides a distraction and the promise of a better feeling.
Gambling is the symptom, not the problem.
Are there any symptoms of ludomania that can be noted by a loved one or friend?
Yes, people can spot symptoms, and put in place tools, or get out options for people who are showing the signs of irregular behavior around gambling. However, this does nothing to help the problem. It is purely the management of the symptom.
What are the primary treatment approaches used to help gambling addicts across psychiatry and psychology? What are the pros and cons of each of them?
Psychiatry takes the illness approach, using diagnostic criteria from the DSM/ICD and using medication and/or talking therapy approaches with a mixture of modalities depending on the experience of the doctor.
Psychology has 5 major approaches: humanistic, cognitive, behavioural, biological, and psychodynamic. There are over 200 approaches listed as psychotherapies on Wikipedia, with almost 50 different schools of psychology. Practitioners may be trained in 1 or more than one and use a holistic approach to change.
The pros and cons are subjective; it is not possible to say they are wrong or all bad. The good is in the intention of the practitioner and their ability to be present, not the modality. The bad is that even the fields themselves admit that they have found no answers, and they are inventing new types of therapies all the time; if the answers had been found, they would not need to do this.
What is the core difference between gambling addiction disorder and other psychotic and mental disorders? Is ludomania closer to psychiatry or psychology?
The act of gambling is simply the symptom of the problem. You could call it the steam valve to let off the pressure created within the mind, the coping mechanism. All mental illness and addictions are an outward manifestation of the same thing, thought. Both psychology and psychiatry hold their own subjective perspectives of what the problem is, and its respective solutions. However, the label, whether it be directly out of the DSM/ICD or a medical term, is simply a construct to label a set of behaviours; it does not actually exist.
The holistic/integrative approach combines psychiatry and psychology techniques to achieve the best result in treatment. Does the therapist choose the preferable combination to apply, or can a gambling addict insist on more meetings or medications, for instance?
This could be true for the psychological/psychiatric world of change and understanding; however, there is a paradigm shift in our approach. The person suffering is seen as innately healthy, and that gambling addiction makes complete sense, given they are experiencing a misunderstanding of the role of thought in their reality, their moment to moment experience. So, the balance of time spent together will be figured out between both parties involved during the process.
Let’s focus on the “inside out” approach discussed by you during the recent SBC conference. What is the official name of this approach? What are the cornerstones of this explanation, and what are the differences compared to other methods?
“Inside out approach” is a term used to describe the understanding shared by Sydney Banks, known as the 3 principles. It is not a model or form of treatment, but simply an explanation of how the human operating system works.
There is no prescription of how to fix what is broken. There are no strategies or techniques to learn; there is no practice, people have insights into their true nature (their mental health), and transformation occurs spontaneously and is permanent.
As the “inside out” description insists on thoughts as the core driver of human beings state, what is the role of inherited and environmental factors on problem gambling and addiction? Are there any drawbacks and side-effects of applying the regarded method (too fast psychological changes lead to depression, anxiety, other mental disorders)?
The core meaning of “inside out” points to the fact there are no outside factors. All things/people/circumstances experienced to be on the outside and can only be experienced via the filter of an individual’s thinking.
There cannot be any drawbacks to insight lead learning; we are just uncovering what is already true for people, not teaching them any new layers to add to psychological conditioning. In fact, it’s quite the opposite and points to psychological freedom. All complexity can be understood from simplicity. In learning, no one is forced to take on a new belief but is asked to reflect on whether what is said/known as deeply true for them.
What upbringing paradigms/principles/methods should be applied to a child to avoid/decrease gambling problems in the future? What is the median age when the individual is ready to understand the “inside out” technique and use this psychological explanation in practice?
When people have a deep understanding of the “inside out” nature of life, regardless of age, gambling will not be problematic because it no longer makes sense to fix internal experience with external factors.
Children are born with this understanding, and separation is what they learn here, as they are born, given a name, and then start to be taught about boundaries, ‘yours and mine,’ the illusion of separation is then perpetuated by societal, family, religious and cultural conditioning. We begin to believe that external circumstances can have an influence on our internal feeling state; however, this is a fruitless pursuit of trying to fill an infinite void with finite objects. So there is no set age for children to unlearn and see the truth of who they are, but the sooner, the better.
Does the “inside out” approach help people in their further lives (family, relations, work) to be calmer and achieve better results? Can the considered approach become a must-learn and must-understand for everyone in the world?
Absolutely yes, one of the benefits of this approach is, it benefits ALL areas of life and leads to a deeper, richer experience of living.
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