ADHD & Gambling addiction: Preventing this common combo from ruining your recovery. 3 Steps to help yourself
Good self-awareness and self-knowledge are variables that impact heavily on a person’s ability to remain in addiction recovery. This may sound obvious, but very often when I hear gamblers who have linked aspects of their personality to their addiction, suddenly some good and useful traits gets perceived as bad. Being ourselves is not so much about being either good or bad. It is about being who we authentically are. If we are not that – then we are for sure going to struggle.
Regardless of what vulnerabilities lie beneath the addiction, it is important to see those traits for what they are and learn how to work with them
I mention this because having ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) underlying a gambling addiction is a bit of a double-edged sword. I wanted to shed some light on the link between these two. If you are thinking; Having a diagnosis of gambling addiction feels bad enough – do I know need to explore this too? No, you don’t have to. Certainly not from a diagnostic perspective unless you feel that the impact is very severe or that you would require medication to help yourself. For the rest of you – I am not writing this to make you feel worse about yourselves or for you to rush to the Psychiatrist to obtain a diagnosis. Unless you feel that it would help you of course.
Knowing how you function, why certain things happen the way they do, and learning how to use your traits to your advantage is brings true personal power. While ADHD certainly comes with some disadvantages and vulnerabilities that may make gambling addiction (and other addictions) more likely- I also want to tell you that it comes with advantages.
Image credit: @robertbye Unsplash
Some of the many advantages of ADHD:
creativity & ability to think outside the box
hyperfocus
more passion
high energy that rubs off on others
risk-taking (yes, even that can pay off sometimes!)
great sense of humour
always something happening
You just need to learn how to channel your tendencies in the best possible way. This is of course easier said than done.
Attention Hyperactivity Deficit disorder ADHD (or ADD – without the hyperactivity)
Out of the people who come into treatment for gambling addiction– there is a clear overrepresentation of ADHD. Research has estimated as many as 25% of problem gamblers meet the criteria for ADHD (read the diagnostic criteria here) For some of these individuals, a diagnosis has never been considered. For others, a diagnosis is already in place but due to not having learnt how to manage the symptoms well, it is still causing big problems. For another cluster of people, the traits are sub-clinical, but the interplay between symptoms and gambling addiction is still significant enough to warrant more attention and understanding.
I am writing this article to share information about some of the common issues I come across in my clients, and also of course to give you some ideas for how to begin to manage yourself better.
It is worth mentioning that some of the pathways to gambling addiction are strongly linked with some of the symptoms of ADHD such as impulsivity, impatience, distractibility, high reward sensitivity (needing stronger rewards/more excitement to feel stimulated), proneness to boredom, short attention span and inattentiveness, inability to shift focus when excited and absorbed about something and many other ones. There is often competitiveness and a liking for taking risks which plays directly into gambling.
What are some of the common behaviours seen in clients with ADHD?
PROCRASTINATION The tendency to put things off, to leave tasks that don’t feel stimulating undone causing a ‘build-up’, only to end up stuck with a backlog that creates anxiety. I have written a post on procrastination before here. Procrastination is not just symptomatic of ADHD but is also a major problem for people with addictions in general. It is also linked with depression and anxiety disorders. Even in the general population procrastination is not uncommon, however often not at the level where it interferes with daily functioning.
Being poorly organised in general- many get a bit anxious at the thought of writing things down, keeping logs or having to attend to too much detail. Weirdly, there is also often the opposite. I see many super-organised, often compulsively so, individuals with ADHD. I get the impression that the fear of not keeping things in order has driven them to be obsessively focused on keeping order around them.
Lack of balance in all areas of life. Things get taken to the extreme or don’t happen at all. All-or-nothing thinking applies to all areas of life. I also see this as tying in with heightened competitiveness and a need to be the very best. This in turn makes it harder to maintain motivation at tasks where accepting mediocracy or patient learning is required.
Obsessional; in every meaning of the word! Tendency to fixate on certain topics or activities and find it difficult to let go when absorbed. Also obsessional in terms of thinking habits and frequently will spend far too much time thinking about something that is playing on the mind. This could be gambling, but could also be an ex, a piece of work that needs doing or a problem that needs solving. Needless to say, depending on where the ‘investment’ of time happens, the outcome can really depend..
Starts up lots of things/books/projects etc but finishes very few. A struggle with task completion is often visible across activities and can also pertain to therapy and recovery itself. Starting something up even including one’s recovery- might feel novel and stimulating, but completing and paying attention to detail and maintenance feels tedious and tricky
Excitable and overly optimistic when something feels stimulating and fun but bored quickly if something is not stimulating. Often suffers from ‘delusional optimism’ that I have written about before here
Impatient and keen to go after anything that provides short-term/ instant gratification Often want many great things but have little patience to work for it. If there is an impulse, there is a sense of compulsion and need to have it ‘now’. So much so that people with ADHD and prone to hobbies and jobs that provide instant gratifications and rewards or offer plenty of variety and ideally an incentive for financial reward in the form of lump-sum bonuses.
Inability to let go when engrossed in something – difficulty transitioning from one task to another (not true just for gambling but for anything)
Difficulty keeping a good routine. This feature makes it particularly easy for something as stimulating as gambling to get a strong foothold
Frequently in bad habits of skipping breakfast, oversleeping, missing or being late to appointments or being in the very last minute for things. There is a sense of chaos …
Last-minute focus: Feel like they cannot put work in until the pressure is very high or last minute has arrived
Losing things frequently, which causes chaos and disruption
Difficulties planning ahead
Short-term thinking dominates
Impulsive choices in several areas of life, which often can lead to unpredictable and sometimes ‘silly’ situations
Sometimes there is a presence of ‘toddler tantrums’ or unpredictable anger outbursts that cause disruption and hurt to your relationships and are usually prompted by your stress levels hitting the roof as you feel a loss of control
Note that it is perfectly possible to suffer one or a couple of these symptoms, and still not carry a diagnosis of ADHD. The list above is in no way a list of diagnostic criteria
If you identify with any of the items on the list above, I probably don’t need to tell you all the ways in which gambling may appeal to you. Aside from making you more prone to develop a gambling addiction, ADHD may also interfere greatly with certain aspects of your recovery. It is mainly for this reason that I often promote a better understanding of the link to my clients.
The cost of NOT understanding your underlying problem can be that you spend far longer pushing yourself through a recovery model that keeps failing you. Yes, not you failing the recovery- you are simply not applying the correct style of recovery to fit your needs!
Symptoms such as impatience, being hooked on buzz, intolerance to boredom, need for frequent and powerful rewards and frequent moodiness are going to put many spanners in the wheel for recovery. People may not understand you and you might not even understand yourself.
The purpose of understanding your symptoms is not about labelling or giving yourself an ‘excuse’ as to why you cannot recover or why you became an addicted gambler in the first place. It is all about understanding your strengths and weaknesses and gradually learning how to best help yourself!
In this article, I will focus solely on how to manage features of ADHD in practical & behavioural terms – with the purpose of preventing it from creating a continued vulnerability from which gambling can easily gain a foothold.
At the end, you will find a few action points that attempt to correct the issues discussed below.
PROBLEMS with ADHD that causes issues in recovery
‘Hooked on busyness’ and lack of routine
If you are anything like the majority of my gambling-addicted clients – living a life of ‘speed’ and ‘buzz’ might come very naturally for you. But even if something is always happening, it is rarely the right things that tend to get done. Instead, it is the things that are more stimulating, more rewarding or the novel stuff. The more day-to-day, mundane stuff such as organisation, time-keeping, maintaining routines etc might come with great difficulty, or may not be happening at all. Yes, it may sound easy enough to develop a routine and stick with it. For those of you who have ADHD, you will know that is something that sounds great in theory- but usually doesn’t materialise.
Sticking with a good day/night cycle
This sounds like ‘level one’, but if you have read this far and I maintained your attention, it suggests to me you can identify. You might then know that this step is far more difficult than it sounds. An interesting paradox for clients with ADHD is that despite the reduced attention span in relation to many mundane and ordinary activities, the flip side tends to be one of getting engrossed once something is sufficiently stimulating (where gambling represents one of many activities). You might find yourself unable to stop whatever you are doing or be able to accept that there is a day tomorrow as well. Certain activities become compulsive. The result of staying up too long doing whatever it is you are doing ( be it a computer game, working on a work deal, Netflix-watching or whatever else) means you will wake up unrested and sluggish- if you even manage to get up on time. You might also find that the entire day feels as though you are a step behind everybody else who has managed to get up timely, have a decent breakfast and arrive at work without being out of breath or having had tantrums about lost items and missed trains before even getting out the door. If you are one of the better organised, but slightly hyperactive, people (that I also see many of) you might instead be guilty of living a life lacking in balance. For example, being hyper-efficient and operating with less sleep and still doing everything you need to do. After a while though, you start yearning for gambling or something else to give you an outlet since your rigidity and compulsive approach to tasks means you are still not getting all your needs met. You basically crash and burn and then you start again.
Skipping breakfast, failing to plan ahead and having no order with your belongings
·This may sound like features that have nothing to do with your gambling. In order to understand the relationship better, try and imagine yourself on a day where you have rushed out of bed, end up leaving a trail of your stress (e.g., unwashed plates, unfinished tasks and forgotten items) and try and recall how you are feeling. Are you balanced? Do you feel like life is in control? Please understand that all of these situations play a part. Whilst they don’t directly lead you to have a bet, the combined impact of everything that makes you feel like your life is not functioning is going to keep you in a state of stuckness. You might even feel like you are letting yourself down and spiral into depression.
Living a life of emotional prioritising and ‘reacting’ to your surroundings
As a person with ADHD the impulses are raining are buzzing around in the head like bees inside the bee-hive. The part of your brain that would enable better regulation of these impulses and ‘commands’ is a little sloppy and as a result the ability to decide what items to prioritise and what constitutes ‘urgency’ is compromised. This often results in a sense of living moment to moment, tackling each task with a sense of great compulsion- but only when the urgency sets in. The things that actually matter and that needs to be addressed, despite being boring or lacking in reward, simply get postponed. This creates great stress and a sense of having little control over one’s life. It also creates a vulnerability to activities such as gambling, which naturally feels tempting as of avoiding boredom or simply as a quick buzz in the midst of a terrible work shift.
3 action steps to take now:
#1 Keep yourself on a decent schedule
If need be, tie yourself in with commitments that you know you can trust yourself to carry out such as kids drop off etc. It is OK to have a bit of flexibility, say an hour or even two, for weekends and days off. But the idea of staying up until other people are about to wake up is not going to benefit anybody’s recovery. It matters to come out a little bit every day and to get a sense of being productive. It also makes people feel good to feel that they are living a life that somewhat matches that of other people. Even if you may not talk to a single soul, the idea of being part of a greater society is important. In certain towns (for example Las Vegas) the set-up with casinos and late-night entertainment makes it even easier to lose track of time and space. Remember, this is a stunt that the entertainment industry relies on for making money.
#2 Take a weekend out of life and organise your life.
Make sure that everything has a place incl things you will need every day like a mobile phone, keys, work id- cards. Set the stage so that good habits are easier to pursue and bad ones harder to complete. This could include having healthy snacks at home and ensuring that your better clothes are washed and ready. Remove unnecessary clutter, organise your bags and make sure work areas are clear. Make a plan for what you are going to eat ahead of time and get the groceries in a shop where you can afford it rather than buying expensive and unhealthy take-outs daily. Most important of all – commit to giving yourself a time buffer of 30 minutes minimum every morning. This is a moment where you can meditate, do a few pushups or just read a newspaper. It is a moment for you to gather your thoughts and set some positive intentions for your day ahead. This will not be the most enjoyable weekend you ever had, but it is likely to give you a great sense of satisfaction and it will give you a sense of reward for weeks, if not months, to come.
#3 Create a routine that is productive, balanced and rewarding
a) the things you actually need to get done (use this important/urgent time management grid as a way of helping you figure out which tasks qualify for genuine importance).
b) Balance & variation are important for people with ADHD. Here you need to get real with yourself and truly look at what has vs hasn’t worked in the past. Set realistic expectations of yourself and ensure that you start as you mean to go on. If you are, for instance, just starting with exercise; attempting 4-hour-long runs In the first week is NOT realistic. Little but often is the name of the game and there should also be attention paid to balance. A typical day might for example include some work, some time for family/friends, some exercise and attention to your health and something calming. That is just an example. To think that you are going to ‘work non-stop’ until you pay off your debts, or to begin an exercise routine ‘once you are free of your addiction’ is a type of reasoning that always backfires even if I see it amongst my gamblers all the time. Force yourself into living a life of better balance and you will see how much longer you will last!
c) The area of ‘rewards’ deserves its very own blog post – and one will be coming in the future. For now, just know that cutting away all sorts of rewards from your life (due to feeling rubbish about yourself and what you have done) is going to blow up in your face. If an ADHD brain was reward-dependent to start with, you can expect that this future has become magnified for each year spent as a gambler. Your brain will be like a toddler in a sweet shop. It WILL try to convince you to go for the ‘goodies’. What it knows as ‘goodies’ is the bad stuff like gambling and quick fixes! You may as well accept this, meanwhile ensuring that you ‘feed’ yourself with regular and healthy rewards instead. Think through what constitutes a reward for you. When I worked on an inpatient addiction program a few years ago, I noticed that some people had lost all sense of what a ‘normal’ reward should feel like or what would constitute one. A man who had come some way in his attempt to find replacement rewards after quitting his addiction, but found it a bit of a struggle. He said to me:
‘Annika- it is as though you are asking me to swap espresso for chamomile tea’.
I thought this brilliant phrase summed it up nicely, and also gives a hint of how it is going to feel in the beginning when you use alternative rewards instead of gambling. Keep it up and remember that as you ‘wean’ yourself off of the gambling, some of the wiring will start changing over time. This means that smaller rewards will yet again start feeling more powerful.
In this post I have only looked at a fraction of the skills that you might require. I will try to write about this topic soon again as there is the entire cognitive spectrum of interventions that can help as well. For now, try to use these behavioural ones and see how you get on.
Best of luck as always!