Help-seeking among people with gambling addiction : A qualitative study of people with gambling addiction and their experiences of seeking or not seeking help

The aim of this study was to reach an understanding and examine the experiences people with gambling addiction had related to their help-seeking or the absence of it. More precisely we wanted to examine reasons for not seeking help but also explore what motivates people with gambling addiction to seek help. To capture these individual experiences we have used a podcast called “Bettingtorsken” as our empirical material. The podcast contains interviews with people that has experienced the negative consequences of gambling. The method of the study was a thematic content analysis, where codes and patterns in the material led us to develop relevant themes. Five themes were identified that seemed to play an important role to their help-seeking or the absence of it, those were: the importance of the environment, obstacles, motivating factors, mental health and secrets. The result showed that people with gambling addiction is motivated by the willingness to be honest. The results also suggest that the consequences must be really serious before they are motivated in seeking help. Furthermore the results indicate that mental health can be both an obstacle and a motivational factor regarding the willingness of help-seeking. Another important result suggests that most people with gambling addiction thinks that secrets are in their way of help-seeking and that honesty is needed in the help-seeking process. Finally, results also showed that the environment could have both a positive and negative impact on the help-seeking, although the latter was most prominent. One example of a negative aspect is that people with gambling addiction experiences that authorities and the social network are nonchalant about the addiction