Generally speaking, gambling is an activity that involves risking something of value to predict the outcome of a chance game. Depending on the outcome, a person may win money or a prize. Some people do it for fun, others to escape problems, and others do it for intellectual challenge.
Many studies have looked at the economic impacts of gambling. These impacts can be measured at the individual, interpersonal, and community/society level. Those impacts can be seen as financial, labor, and general costs or benefits.
While the economic impact of gambling is easy to measure, the social and interpersonal impact of gambling is much harder to quantify. In some cases, the cost is a form of emotional stress, and in other cases, it can involve relationship problems caused by gambling.
The problem of measuring the social and interpersonal impact of gambling is that most of these impacts are non-monetary in nature. They are not visible to the outside world, and are only noticeable when someone close to the gambler seeks help. Fortunately, there are resources available to help you with these impacts.
Some of these resources include family therapy, marriage counseling, and career counseling. These services are free and confidential. They will work with you to overcome the issues that are causing you to be an addict.
There are also 12-step recovery programs. These programs are modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous and are a great way to get support from other recovering problem gamblers. These programs are confidential and can be accessed by telephone.