Why people can’t realise that they are addicted to gambling? These people believe that they have no problem because they have lost touch with reality. Their only thought is how to bet in order to win. They feel sufficient through gambling. The people that are addicted to gambling follow the triangle of addiction that includes personality, environment and the object of addiction. More specifically personality is formed by our genes and the environment, where one depends on an ideology or a person. Furthermore environment contributes to addiction when parents don’t allow children to take initiatives and make them passive receptors. Gambling as the object of addiction reinforces the specific behavior as there is a constant preoccupation with the making of profits. All these elements dominate in our consuming society where quick and easy profits are at the forefront.
How can you help these people? You need to focus on changing their behavior. More specifically, these people emphasize on making profits and what they could do with it. You could discuss with them and explore their expectations, what they would do with those profits, relate their desires with the current reality.
Additionally they could focus not only on what they think before, during and after betting but also on how they feel in order to realise the connection between thoughts and feelings (how these affect their behavior). In this way they become aware of the factors that lead them to gambling and understand the consequences of their behavior.
Of course all of the above require strong desire for self-discipline, high motivation for change and a strong supportive network to help them escape from the vicious cycle of addiction.