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The enticements to gamble are all around us. Messages appear on numerous platforms, and the messages – often delivered by celebrities we admire – can be hard to resist. “It’s easy. It’s exciting. And the rewards can be significant,” are what we hear from influencers from all walks of life. “Don’t delay – get involved now!”

With digital technology and the legalization of online gambling, taking that first step to get involved has never been so friction-free. Having a smartphone and a gambling app have been likened to having a casino at your fingertips 24/7. Online betting, especially on sports events, is surging, and along with it has come an increase in the numbers of Canadians with a gambling disorder.

Homewood Ravensview on Vancouver Island is a leading, comprehensive, inpatient mental health and addiction treatment facility. Its clinical providers have seen the impacts of the expansion of gambling-related harms, as more of their clients seeking treatment for mental health challenges share their concurrent struggles with gambling.

Ravensview has now taken the next step: launching inpatient programming within the existing addiction treatment program that now includes customized content for gambling disorder as a standalone addiction, or as part of a co-occurring mental health challenge.

“By coming into one of our inpatient programs, individuals become immersed in a serene and safe environment far from the stressors of their regular lives and receive support from a large multidisciplinary team that guides them to recovery,” says Craig Extine, manager of clinical operations at Homewood Ravensview with extensive experience as a registered clinical counsellor specializing in trauma, addictions, anxiety and depression.

“Evidence-based psychotherapy is integrated with medical care from psychiatrists, addiction physicians and nurses, as well as activities such as art, music and horticultural therapy,” says Extine. “Ravensview is a place where patients can rest and restore, and gain resources and a new sense of direction.”

Young men especially at risk

Like other addictions, gambling disorders develop due to a combination of hereditary and environmental factors and can affect a person of any age or background. However, research shows that certain populations are particularly vulnerable, and they include young people, primarily young men.

Easy access and extensive advertising are fuelling more individuals to try online betting, and when they take the first steps, they can quickly tread into areas of danger. “With technology, people are going from first exposure to addiction much more quickly compared to past gambling practices, where developing a disorder could take many years,” says Extine.

Thanks to the ubiquity of social media and video games, more people, especially younger people, live more of their lives in isolation. This makes it easier to hide their addiction from family and friends. And with isolation often creating depression or loneliness, gambling provides quick access to a form of escape from difficult emotions.

Harmful impacts

The harms from a gambling addiction can be severe.

“The impacts of a gambling disorder may include serious financial harm, as well as harmed relationships where the bonds of trust deteriorate,” Extine says.

“As the negative impacts increase, we see the need for secrecy and the loss of control increase, and an increase in the frequency and amount that is being gambled. And unlike substance addictions, for example, there is a promise of a solution in the gambling itself; as financial problems worsen, the lure to potentially solve those problems through gambling is persistent.”

The harms to emotional and mental health can also be extensive. Anxiety and depression can be worsened with a gambling disorder, and the individual is often gripped by hopelessness and shame, Extine says. “It is recognized that gambling addiction has the highest rate of suicide among addictions.”

Change is possible with the right support

Compassionate care provided by teams with unique expertise in addictions, both substance and behavioural, can help break the cycle of destruction.

“Asking someone to stop something that’s so well established doesn’t usually work. The goal is to help people establish patterns that work better,” Extine says. “Our program emphasizes providing patients with new skills and ways of thinking to help them learn how to manage stress in healthy ways.”

A person embroiled in this type of struggle often can’t break out on their own, he adds. That is why the therapy frequently also involves members of the individual’s family. In addition to the inpatient treatment, Ravensview provides clients with a one-year follow-up program that helps the person establish coping mechanisms for the long term.

“We want to leave people with a message of hope,” says Extine. “These are recognized clinical problems that many people struggle with, and expert help is available. People do recover from gambling addiction and can go on to live amazing lives.”

For more information about treatment for gambling disorder, visit ravensview.com/gd

Advertising feature produced by Randall Anthony Communications with Homewood Health Centre. The Globe’s Editorial Department was not involved.