Addiction is a very, very serious matter, right? It can destroy lives, ruin relationships, and can even lead to death… Except it really depends on the addiction. Sure, an addiction to drugs or alcohol is very serious and requires extraordinary measures, among which hospitalization, medical treatment, even rehab which can last for months, even years. If I started listing the various celebrities whose lives have gone downhill, at one point or another, due to addiction to drugs or alcohol, then we’d literally be here all day and then some, and that’s just about celebrities – it’d take years to list all the normal people whose lives have been affected negatively by addictions. But what about picking your nose? That’s an addiction that has never really hurt anybody. Or videogames, which have killed a few people, but the overwhelming majority of those addicted to them (as in, spend more than 30 hours a week playing) is pretty happy.
So where does gambling addiction stand? In practice, that’s a loaded question. There are numerous cases in which addiction to gambling has cost people their livelihoods, leaving them on the verge of bankruptcy. But then there’s also been less severe cases of gambling addiction in which people have actually managed to use it to their advantage and make a big winning. What distinguishes an addiction from just a healthy dose of playing? Do you need to lose a lot of money in order to be accurately diagnosed as an addict? According to The Times, NHS doctors seems to think so. The British health association has dedicated £10,000 a year for prescription drugs to help combat the effects of gambling addiction.
The Belfast Telegraph reports that the medicine used in the process, naltrexone, is nearly identical to the one used to combat much more severe issues, such as severe alcoholism and drug problems. The treatment will cost approximately £800 per patient, most of which will be covered by the government. According to Dr. Henrietta Bowden-Jones, who is the lead researcher behind this rather experimental treatment, the medicine will only be used on the most extreme cases. “The medication is used to stop the most compulsive gamblers who are resistant to treatment. It helps stop craving”, she explained in a press statement. Studies show that there are more than half a million people in the UK addicted to gambling, with the numbers rising by over a third since online gambling became mainstream and popular.
So, what do you think? Do people who are addicted to gambling truly require to be medicated? On one hand, the doctors associated with the experimental procedure claim that this will only be used on the most non-susceptible to other kinds of therapy, but I don’t know, it still seems a bit extreme to me. Especially since doctors have neeeever been known to prescribe pills patients don’t really need because they get a commission from the manufacturer every time they do, no, sir! In any case, please let us know what you think!