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The ‘Merry-Go-Round’ of Habitual Relapse: A Qualitative Study of Relapse in Electronic Gaming Machine Problem Gambling

Background: Our understanding of gambling relapse is limited despite the damaging consequences affecting many aspects of the gambler’s life. Paradoxically, regardless of these negative consequences problem gamblers (PGs) continue to relapse, seemingly unable to stop this cycle of harm. This paper ad...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Oakes, Jane, Pols, Rene, Lawn, Sharon
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6719210/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31405090
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16162858
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author Oakes, Jane
Pols, Rene
Lawn, Sharon
author_facet Oakes, Jane
Pols, Rene
Lawn, Sharon
author_sort Oakes, Jane
collection PubMed
description Background: Our understanding of gambling relapse is limited despite the damaging consequences affecting many aspects of the gambler’s life. Paradoxically, regardless of these negative consequences problem gamblers (PGs) continue to relapse, seemingly unable to stop this cycle of harm. This paper addresses the phenomenon of repeated gambling relapse shedding some insights into why gamblers continue to relapse. Methods: The study comprised of (n = 54) participants purposefully selected who participated in either 1 of 5 focus groups (n = 35) or in-depth interviews (n = 19). The new knowledge obtained was from PGs, significant others, and workers with direct experience of gambling relapse. Interview recordings were analysed using thematic, textual analysis. Results: The avoidance of negative emotions from the consequences of the destructive behaviour associated with repeated relapse leads to a hopeless “merry-go-round”. Once on this “merry go round”, relapse becomes a habitual way of life where behaviour change and learning from the devastation of a gambling relapse is challenging. Exiting this cycle means PGs must face the consequences of their gambling which for many is overwhelming, and relapse is a way to avoid despair. Conclusions: These findings provide insights into relapse which has implications for gamblers seeking treatment, assessment and treatment “drop-outs”.
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spelling pubmed-67192102019-09-10 The ‘Merry-Go-Round’ of Habitual Relapse: A Qualitative Study of Relapse in Electronic Gaming Machine Problem Gambling Oakes, Jane Pols, Rene Lawn, Sharon Int J Environ Res Public Health Review Background: Our understanding of gambling relapse is limited despite the damaging consequences affecting many aspects of the gambler’s life. Paradoxically, regardless of these negative consequences problem gamblers (PGs) continue to relapse, seemingly unable to stop this cycle of harm. This paper addresses the phenomenon of repeated gambling relapse shedding some insights into why gamblers continue to relapse. Methods: The study comprised of (n = 54) participants purposefully selected who participated in either 1 of 5 focus groups (n = 35) or in-depth interviews (n = 19). The new knowledge obtained was from PGs, significant others, and workers with direct experience of gambling relapse. Interview recordings were analysed using thematic, textual analysis. Results: The avoidance of negative emotions from the consequences of the destructive behaviour associated with repeated relapse leads to a hopeless “merry-go-round”. Once on this “merry go round”, relapse becomes a habitual way of life where behaviour change and learning from the devastation of a gambling relapse is challenging. Exiting this cycle means PGs must face the consequences of their gambling which for many is overwhelming, and relapse is a way to avoid despair. Conclusions: These findings provide insights into relapse which has implications for gamblers seeking treatment, assessment and treatment “drop-outs”. MDPI 2019-08-10 2019-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6719210/ /pubmed/31405090 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16162858 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Oakes, Jane
Pols, Rene
Lawn, Sharon
The ‘Merry-Go-Round’ of Habitual Relapse: A Qualitative Study of Relapse in Electronic Gaming Machine Problem Gambling
title The ‘Merry-Go-Round’ of Habitual Relapse: A Qualitative Study of Relapse in Electronic Gaming Machine Problem Gambling
title_full The ‘Merry-Go-Round’ of Habitual Relapse: A Qualitative Study of Relapse in Electronic Gaming Machine Problem Gambling
title_fullStr The ‘Merry-Go-Round’ of Habitual Relapse: A Qualitative Study of Relapse in Electronic Gaming Machine Problem Gambling
title_full_unstemmed The ‘Merry-Go-Round’ of Habitual Relapse: A Qualitative Study of Relapse in Electronic Gaming Machine Problem Gambling
title_short The ‘Merry-Go-Round’ of Habitual Relapse: A Qualitative Study of Relapse in Electronic Gaming Machine Problem Gambling
title_sort ‘merry-go-round’ of habitual relapse: a qualitative study of relapse in electronic gaming machine problem gambling
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6719210/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31405090
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16162858
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