Processing Addictions

Is It Problem or Pathological Gambling?

Answer the following 10 questions honestly to find out if your gambling behavior meets the diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling.

  1. Do you think about past betting a lot, spend much time thinking about your next gambling trip – or spend a lot of time thinking about how to get money for gambling?
  2. Have you developed a tolerance to the excitement of betting? (Do you need to bet greater amounts to get the same excitement that smaller amounts used to give you?)
  3. Have you tried on more than one occasion to stop or cut down on your gambling, and failed?
  4. Do you feel edgy or angry, when trying not to gamble?
  5. Do you gamble when feeling down, angry, guilty or anxious?
  6. Do you try to gamble again quickly after losing money, as a way of winning back your losses?
  7. Do you hide or lie about how much you gamble?
  8. Have you ever committed a crime to pay for your gambling?
  9. Has your gambling ever cost you a friendship, love-relationship or job? Has it ever affected school performance?
  10. Have you ever needed to borrow money to pay for gambling losses?

The APA considers 5 or more yes answers a diagnosis of pathological gambling.

Gambling addiction, like alcoholism or drug addiction is a progressive disease – it only gets worse, and the collateral social, economic and personal damages of gambling will also only magnify in time.

Gambling addiction, life drug addiction or alcoholism, is also a very treatable disease, and the earlier treatment begins, the better the long term prognosis.

Sex Addiction Quiz

Please read the questions carefully, and answer truthfully. It can mean the difference between a happy and healthy life by getting the best sex addiction help available and living a life of shame, embarrassment, guilt and depression.

  1. Were you sexually abused or molested when you were young?
  2. Did your parents have trouble speaking about or having sex?
  3. Does sex preoccupy much of your thinking?
  4. Are you concerned that your sexual behavior might be abnormal?
  5. Have you ever felt shame about your sexual behavior?
  6. Has your sexual behavior ever created problems for you and your family?
  7. Has anyone been hurt emotionally because of your sexual behavior?
  8. Does any of your sexual behavior fall into the category of illegal?
  9. Have you tried to give up a sexual behavior and been unable to?
  10. Do you hide some of your sexual behaviors from others?
  11. When you have sex, do you feel depressed or guilty afterwards?
  12. Does your sexual activity or thinking about sex have you feeling out of control?
  13. Is sex almost all you think about?
  14. Has sex (or romantic fantasies) been a way for you to escape your problems?
  15. Has sex become the most important thing in your life?
  16. Has the Internet created sexual problems for you?
  17. Do you spend too much time online for sexual purposes?
  18. Have you purchased services online for erotic purposes (sites for dating, pornography, and fantasy and friend finder)?
  19. Have you subscribed to or regularly purchased or rented sexually explicit materials (magazines, videos, books or online pornography)?
  20. Have you spent considerable time and money on strip clubs, adult bookstores and movie houses?
  21. Have you engaged prostitutes and escorts to satisfy your sexual needs?
  22. Have stayed in romantic relationships after they became emotionally or physically abusive?
  23. Have you maintained multiple romantic or sexual relationships at the same time?
  24. Do you visit sexual bath-houses, sex clubs or adult video/bookstores as part of your regular sexual activity?
  25. Have you engaged in unsafe or “risky” sex even though you knew it could cause you harm?
  26. Have you cruised public restrooms, rest areas or parks looking for sex with strangers?
  27. Do you believe casual or anonymous sex has kept you from having more long-term intimate relationships?

Internet Addiction

  1. How often do you find that you stay online longer than you intended?
  2. How often do you neglect household chores to spend more time online?
  3. How often do you prefer the excitement of the internet to intimacy with your partner?
  4. How often do you form new relationships with fellow online users?
  5. How often do others in your life complain to you about the amount of time you spend online?
  6. How often does your work suffer because of the amount of time you spend online?
  7. How often do you check your email before something else that you need to do?
  8. How often does your job performance or productivity suffer because of the internet?
  9. How often do you become defensive or secretive when anyone asks you what you do online?
  10. How often do you block out disturbing thoughts about your life with soothing thoughts of the internet?
  11. How often do you find yourself anticipating when you will go online again?
  12. How often do you fear that life without the internet would be boring, empty, and joyless?
  13. How often do you snap, yell, or act annoyed if someone bothers you while you are online?
  14. How often do you lose sleep due to late-night log-ins?
  15. How often do you feel preoccupied with the Internet when offline, or fantasize about being online?
  16. How often do you find yourself saying “just a few more minutes” when online?
  17. How often do you try to cut down the amount of time you spend online and fail?
  18. How often do you try to hide how long you’ve been online?
  19. How often do you choose to spend more time online over going out with others?
  20. How often do you feel depressed, moody, or nervous when you are offline, which goes away once you are back online?

For each question answer: a. Never or rarely; b. sometimes; c. often or regularly

If you answer “often or regularly” to any question, you might have a problem.