When you gamble, it affects your brain and body. It's common to experience an urge to gamble.  This involves thinking a lot about gambling or winning, having a strong desire to gamble, and feeling restless, anxious, excited and/or irritable.  Urges can also continue after you stop gambling and create risk for relapse. In this episode of Fold em, we return to the topic of urges. This time, with a focus on what brain science tells us about urges and how to handle them.  I'm joined again by the team from Brain Connections - Dr. Iris Balodis from the Department of Psychiatry and Beh ..read more

You may have heard this before ... gambling problems lead to isolation and the way forward is through connection.  Maybe you're thinking, "That sounds nice, but connection is not on my agenda because I'm working all the time to pay off debt and the people in my life don't trust me."  Well hang in with us, keep an open mind, and listen to this episode. Bryce reflects upon the past three years since his last bet.  He shares about how attending a residential treatment program was an important turning point for him and how the friendships made there have been crucial to his recovery ..read more

When you've already taken those hard steps to pull back from gambling and face the fall out, you want to keep the momentum going, right?  This is the final episode of four that provides guidance on how to stop gambling and stay on track long-term.  In this one, we walk you through how to make a Recovery Plan for yourself.  This plan outlines what is needed to keep gambling and other addictions out of your life and (most importantly) to keep growing the best version of yourself. Our Recovery Plan has four parts, which were introduced in the previous three episodes.  In the b ..read more

There's an important step that often gets missed when stopping gambling.  This involves asking someone who knows about gambling issues or addiction to help watch out for signs that you're at risk to gamble again.  Why is this important?  Because you may not be aware it is happening or downplay it in your own mind. This is our third of four episodes that focus on how to stop gambling and have it stick long-term.  Hear how Abe got really honest with a friend about what triggers him to gamble and they teamed up to protect him from this.  You also get guidance from Allison ..read more

Want to make sure that you or a loved one don't get pulled back into a gambling problem?  Then know what to watch out for.  In this episode, learn about common and predictable ways that people get pulled into a relapse.  And, how to identify signs that you are at risk to gamble again.  Be prepared in order to protect yourself.  We hear from Shane who started gambling again after one year away.  This led to him struggling with gambling for the next twelve years.  He is now eight months gambling free and shares what he now knows and is doing differently to make ..read more

What does it take to stop gambling and stay stopped?  We're answering this question for you over the next four episodes.  In this first one, we focus on the importance of being honest with yourself about the impact of gambling - on you and your life, as well as on those around you.  If what you have been doing to address a gambling problem hasn't been working, we encourage you to take a risk and try something different.  In particular, be willing to reach out for help and get guidance from those who know something about gambling issues. Listen now and hear: Georgete's stor ..read more

Most of us encounter gambling daily in our communities.  There's scratch and lottery tickets at the gas station, sports pools at work, and bingo down the road.  In addition, there's all the gambling we encounter in fundraising - the 50/50 draws at local sporting events as well as raffles and community bingo.  Do you think of all of these as gambling?  Do you ever have conversations with family, friends or the groups you're involved with about the risks of gambling or how to support people in your community who have been impacted negatively by gambling? In this episode, we h ..read more

After finding out that your spouse has a gambling problem or has had a relapse, it's understandable that you feel like your life has been turned upside down.  You likely are feeling shock, anger and hurt because of the secrecy that typically comes with gambling problems.  Stress and anxiety are also high because your financial security and trust with your spouse is on shaky ground. In this episode, I'm joined by Neena Keram, a counsellor with Gambling Support BC who specializes in helping spouses, families and couples with gambling concerns.  She tells us that discovering a spou ..read more

When you have concerns about someone's gambling, it's not easy to talk about.  It's often challenging to prevent these conversations from going off the rails. In this episode, we offer guidance for these tricky conversations.  Spouses, family members and friends will hear strategies to use when first talking about gambling or if you suspect there has been a relapse.  If you are someone who gambles, there is lots in this episode you'll find helpful too. I'm joined by Saul Malek who is four-years away from his last bet.   From the perspective of someone who gambled, he s ..read more

When dealing with gambling problems, many people worry about switching to another bad habit or addiction.  It's important to pay attention to this because switching or substituting addictions (also called cross addiction) can be frustrating, de-moralizing and really dammaging to a person's life. In this episode of Fold em, we tell you what you need to know about switching addictions so you are more informed and better able to prevent it from happening to you. We're joined again by our experts on gambling and the brain - Dr. Iris Balodis and Deirdre Querney, MSW - from Brain Connections. L ..read more