There’s a self assessment test provided on the CalPG site that I found pretty helpful in figuring out if you’ve got a problem. Good starting point for those questioning if they have a problem. Usually if you’re questioning, you already know the answer, but it’s good to have certainty:
Please answer the following 10 yes/no questions honestly:
- Have there ever been periods lasting 2 weeks or longer when you spent a lot of time thinking about your gambling experiences, planning out future gambling ventures or bets, or thinking about ways of getting money to gamble with?
- Have there ever been periods when you needed to gamble with increasing amounts of money or with larger bets than before in order to get the same feeling of excitement?
- Have you ever felt restless or irritable when trying to stop, cut down, or control your gambling?
- Have you tried and not succeeded in stopping, cutting down, or controlling your gambling three or more times in your life?
- Have you ever gambled to escape from personal problems, or to relieve uncomfortable feelings such as guilt, anxiety, helplessness, or depression?
- Has there ever been a period when, if you lost money gambling one day, you would often return another day to get even?
- Have you lied to family members, friends, or others about how much you gamble, and/or about how much money you lost on gambling, on at least three occasions?
- Have you ever written a bad check or taken money that didn’t belong to you from family members, friends, or anyone else in order to pay for your gambling?
- Has your gambling ever caused serious or repeated problems in your relationships with any of your family members or friends? Or, has your gambling ever caused you problems at work or your studies?
- Have you ever needed to ask family members, friends, a lending institution, or anyone else to loan you money or otherwise bail you out of a desperate money situation that was largely caused by your gambling?
REMINDER: this self-assessment will help you figure out if there is a problem, but only a professional can diagnose if it is a gambling problem, a different problem, or both.
If you answered yes to 1 or more of the above questions, CALL 1-800-GAMBLER NOW! The free 24/7/365 helpline can help you find additional information on problem gambling, or to provide assistance in dealing with gambling problems.
About the screen:
The NORC Diagnostic Screen for Gambling Problems-Self-Administered (NODS-SA) was developed by staff from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. The instrument is a modification of the NODS, a diagnostic instrument based on the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-IV criteria for Pathological Gambling. Please note that while the NODS has been tested and shown to be reliable and valid for use in the general population (see Gerstein et al. 1999), the NODS-SA has not yet been fully validated.
[Source: Information for Problem Gamblers | CALPG]
