Change Your Gambling - (Harvard Health Publications) by Howard Shaffer (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From Howard Shaffer, PhD, a noted expert on gambling addiction, and Harvard Health Publications comes Change Your Gambling, Change your Life, a landmark new book which explains how gambling problems are related to other underlying issues: such as anxiety, mood fluctuation, difficulty with impulse control, and substance abuse problems. Dr. Shaffer offers a series of self-tests to help evaluate the degree of gambling problem and analyze the psychological and social context of the behavior, with specific strategies and approaches for ending the problems with simple tools that anyone can do.

• Explains why many people have a problem controlling their urge to gamble and how that can be corrected
• Includes a toolbox of resources for anyone who wants to stop the vicious cycle of gambling
• Offers advice for avoiding slips and preventing backslides and how to deal with the consequences

With candor and expert advice, Change Your Gambling, Change Your Life provides proven techniques for controlling the urge to gamble.

From the Back Cover

If you or someone you love has a problem with gambling, this research-based guide offers a practical approach to controlling the destructive urge to gamble. Change Your Gambling, Change Your Life is an accessible book that explains how gambling problems are related to other underlying issues such as anxiety, mood fluctuation, difficulty with impulse control, and substance abuse problems.

With compassion and insight, the authors offer a series of self-tests to help evaluate the degree of the gambling problem and analyze the psychological and social context of the behavior. The book includes a toolbox of easy-to-apply strategies and approaches for ending the impulse to gamble, as well as commonsense advice for avoiding slips and preventing backslides.

Praise for Change Your Gambling, Change Your Life

" 'Change' is in the title of this fine book, and the book succeeds in offering some of the clearest, most open-minded guidance for change that you could hope for. If you suffer from compulsive gambling or care about someone who does, this book is a must-read." --Lance Dodes, MD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

"A practical self-help approach for recovery from gambling problems based upon scientific principles and extensive clinical experience. This book is a wonderful resource for individuals with a gambling addiction seeking to improve their lives and for clinicians encouraging individuals to make these changes." --Jeffrey L. Derevensky, PhD, professor, Psychiatry, and codirector, Interna-tional Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High-Risk Behaviors, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

About the Author

Howard Shaffer, PhD, a pioneer in the field of gambling addiction, is an associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and the director of the Division on Addiction at the Cambridge Health Alliance. He has an active private practice and consults internationally to a variety of organizations in business, education, human services, law, and government. Ryan Martin, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Education and Promotion at East Carolina University. John Kleschinsky, MPH, spent three years at the Cambridge Health Alliance's Division on Addiction and is currently pursuing a DrPH in social and behavioral sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health. Liz Neporent, MA, is an award-winning health and medical journalist who has written fifteen best-selling health titles.