Help for problem Gamblers and their families

By Gabriela Byrne, Chair of Chrysalis Insight Inc and Director of the Free Yourself Program

There are many support services in place to help and assist people experiencing difficulties because of their addiction to gambling esp. Poker Machines. When I was addicted to Pokies I tried all the conventional therapy methods available at the time. I went to:

Gamblers Anonymous

Gamblers Anonymous (GA) provides help to people through attendance at GA meetings . If gambling is causing you problems, we believe you may be able to find help by attending a GA meeting as soon as possible. Gamblers Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from a gambling problem. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop gambling.

Our primary purpose is to stop gambling and to help other compulsive gamblers do the same.

One-on-One Counselling

When I looked for help in early 1993 there was no Government funded counselling service available. If you feel that you need someone to talk to about your problems straight away, please call the following 24-hour counselling services:

  • Lifeline Tel: 13 11 14
  • Mensline Tel: 1300 789 978
  • Gambling Helpline
    • ACT: (02) 6247 0655
    • New South Wales: 1800 633 635; TTY 1800 633 649
    • Northern Territory: 1800 629 683
    • Queensland: 1800 222 050
    • South Australia: 1800 060 757
    • Tasmania: 1800 000 973; TTY 1800 000 974
    • Victoria: 1800 156 789
    • Western Australia: 1800 622 112

I went to a psychologist and psychotherapist and I also tried hypnotherapy. Today you will find a great variety of help-services (even online) and I wouldn’t want to recommend one particular service and not another.

From all of the once that I attende I did learn a lot about myself but nobody could give me anything to do, when I let the counsellors office and had to walk past 4 pokie venues back to work, sheer willpower helped me to walk past the first, maybe the second but if I had some money or some time the 3rd or the 4th one got me. Eventually I came across a course in NLP Neuro Linguistic programming which gave me some hands-on things to do to fight the “urge to gamble”. I also looked into brain chemistry and what impact food had on my mood because it makes sense: “When you feel better you are able to fight the gambling beast better”. After I stopped gambling in 1996 I put all the strategies together and called it “The Free Yourself Program” and it was launched by the Reverend Tim Costello (CEO of World Vision) in 1997.

Free Yourself Program

The “Free Yourself Program” is not a magical cure but it can be a life-changing tool for people who apply these strategies on a regular basis. It represents a much needed “new model” of gambling addiction therapy where the main responsibility is given back to the person directly affected to work on changing “attitude” and “behaviour”. Once the behavioural pattern is broken, the void that people used to fill with gambling needs to be addressed and worked on with the help of qualified professionals. This will make recovery complete.