Let’s begin with a recent NBC News telecast about a young man whose online gambling addiction began at age 11 and escalated throughout his teen years. He’s now giving prevention lectures to middle and high school students.
He got hooked on betting at age 11. By college he gambled 15 hours a day.
Accounts like this serve a purpose: they draw attention from the media, simply because they’re so darn dramatic. I was reminded of other stories from past eras, about kids smoking their parents’ crack, or getting into the family stash of edibles. They can be used to illustrate some of the risks associated with addiction in a way the general public can understand.
For instance, denial.
“You don’t even realize that what you’re doing is harming you as it’s happening…” one young man says on camera. Telling oneself that “I’m not that kind of person“ and “it can’t happen to me“ is a mindset essential to escalating addiction. For most, the reality of a gambling disorder is something they wake up to, long after it’s firmly established, suddenly surprised at how bad things are. They’ve likely been defending their behavior from criticism, or simply hiding it because “people wouldn’t understand..”
I suspect many parents would be surprised to learn that ”… students in the audience…are all too familiar with the explosion of apps that make it easy to bet on individual plays, international politics and awards show flubs.” That alone suggests the scope of online gambling among youth is probably far greater than we realize, with even greater potential for growth.
It means we’re almost certain to be well behind and “playing catch up” when it comes to attempts to deal with the problem.
One helpful observation from the newscast: It’s clear that young folks are fully capable of recognizing gambling disorders in their peers. But they may not know what (if anything) they can do about it.
When I gave prevention lectures during past outbreaks, I quickly realized that I wasn’t actually going to reach the kids who already had a problem with addiction –– they simply couldn’t “hear” my message–– but I could educate the others, their peers, in hopes they would be motivated to learn more and to avoid the sort of enabling and secret-keeping that is so common among adolescents.
Those effectively prolong the addiction, and act as a barrier to effective intervention.
