Customer Reviews

BEHIND the 8-BALL: A Recovery Guide for the Families of Gamblers

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I thought this book is one of the most thorough and helpful books regarding dealing with gambling addiction. It enlightens on how you can protect yourself from the throes of gambling. It provides information that will help you understand and deal with the illness. Excellent book!

This book is an excellent resource for family members in a variety of situations. Whether they are just starting to learn about gambling as an addiction and need to know what signs and symptoms to watch for or whether they are well beyond that stage and needing to know what to do with an early or later recovery family member this book provides a clear, easy to read resource that is a good adjuct to counselling, group work or even as a stand alone resource.

I am Clinical Psychologist who treats gambling addiction. This book is an important tool for spouses of gamblers who are starting to come to terms with the problem. As one prior reviewer noted, it does not provide false hope for families who are being destroyed by this difficult addiction. What it does to is help a spouse wake up to the reality that if the gambler does not stop their lives will be ruined as well as that of the gambler. Pathological gambling is a very treatable issue and most people that I have worked with get better, but it certainly is not a perfect line from wanting to get better to never gambling again. This book will help prepare the spouse (it is more for a spouse than a parent or sibling) for the worse-case out come. Strongly recommended.... Eric Geffner, Ph.D.
www.stopgamblingnow.com

This book is an excellent resource for an ever-growing problem in our society. It very effectively explores the origins, family responses, treatment, and prognosis for this form of addiction. It will help the spouse and family of an addicted gambler begin to understand and to get a grip on an addiction that has destoyed many families in recent times. It will give an understanding you may not find outside of a support group.

I bought this book days after coming to the realization that my husband who I had a thirteen year relationshp with was a Compulsive Gambler, and days after we separated due to me confronting him about issues stemming from the hidden gambling problem.

I must say, it was a real eye-opener. I saw what I had missed, understood that I was not losing my mind, and came to understand that the only thing I could do was to move forward, let go of him, and start to heal myself.

The only thing I wish concerning the material, is that it had more advice for coping with being separated from the gambler who will not speak to you about the issues. It's very down to earth and straight forward about the tough love process, but if the person disappears, you can't utilize the methods. Advice for the spouse of a CG who has been left in the dust is hard to find.

Anyone who is dealing with a CG will find this book helpful in the identification of this hard to see affliction, I wish I had read it about a year ago, maybe I would have been able to prevent this separation and likely divorce if I had.

It amazed me that I was able to clearly see the effects of the excessive gambling on ME once I understood, with the help of this book, exactly what was happening in my marriage.

A must read for anyone trying to cope with this issue.

I found this book to be an eye-opener, to the issue of compulsive gambling, and how a family can protect themselves from a family member's gambling compulsion...

I'm struggling to get through this book. If you are looking for something positive to get yourself through a difficult time, this book is not for you. It does tell you what to look for and how to protect yourself, but does not instill any hope for a future for the compulsive gambler, whether you are staying with them or not. Again, if you are looking for hope, this book isn't it. All it does is leave you depressed.