A WAY OUT – HELP UNDERSTAND
“Here today and gone tomorrow” is not the case with gambling. If a teenager develops addiction to gambling their time involvement and future course of action cannot b estimated. If your teenager has one of the following, you have a big reason o worry about.
- Drop in school grades
- Decrease in social development
- Low self esteem
- Stealing
- Pawning personal possessions
- Staying long out of home
- Watching poker on T.V.
- Counter questioning parents about their addictions
- Thinking suicide
- Frequent phone calls from strangers
Parents have to take u the challenge to help their child out of the addiction. It starts by getting educated about the factors which may have led their child to gamble. The reasons could be many.
Gambling parent either occasional or regular can be responsible to a huge extent. The child may question “why stop me when you do it?” If the parent boasts about his luck at a baseball-betting information or excitedly discusses about gaming houses, the child may well get interested. Peer pressure could also be a reason. To maintain a set of friend teenagers may look for a way to get lucky with cash. Lucky draw contests or similar competitions at school can influence the mindset of a child. Being provided with credit cards or cash can result in the teenager search for newer exciting avenues to spend it in. often this addiction may be the result of boredom or stress.
According to Dr. Howard J. Shaffer, Director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Addiction Studies, “Today, there are more children experiencing adverse symptoms from gambling than from drugs…and the problem is growing.”
To help overcome the addiction the parts have to take serious strict steps. Attention should be paid to changing behavior of a child. The problem should be immediately tried to be recognized and sorted out before it gets too late.
Being with one’s child, spending time with him/her can be the best way for this addiction to never get hold of the child. Try knowing what a child wants and what problems does he/she face. This would ensure safety not only from gambling but from any type of addiction to develop.