”Att lägga korten på bordet” – sex personliga skildringar av ett spelberoende

Abstract

Our purposes with this essay was to increase our knowledge about, and try to describe, how it happens when people get involved in gambling and becomes addictive to gambling, and what the way out of a gambling addiction could look like. Our framing of the question was: - How does gambling begin? - How does gambling evolve to an addiction and how does it go forward from there? - How do you leave a gambling addiction? Is there an experience of turning points?

We did qualitative interviews with six former gamblers. Our main conclusions were that the initiation to gambling can be very different and still lead to similar effects. There seems to be a strong enticement surrounding the attributes of gambling, which are connected to developing a gambling addiction. The experiences of turning points were very palpable. Essential to the break up was to be honest towards your self, wanting to quit and making that decision. The support from significant others was also of great importance.