Licensed Counselor Praises Birches Health for Superior Clinical Support and Recovery Maintenance

I've noticed with the sports betting, the men are like 19, 20, 28, maybe 29. And then the older men are more into the casinos. And then the women are really into the slot machines. I think that it's interesting, depending on the age and the gender, they kind of tend to have a habit. And I know not everybody, we can't generalize it, but that's just what I've seen on my caseload. Hi, I'm Christina Rodriguez. I live in North Georgia and I'm a licensed professional counselor. For me, as a provider, I really appreciate Birch's Health because they offer so much support. I love participating in clinical supervision. My supervisor, anytime I need any assistance or have a question, I feel like within two to three hours, he's already emailed me back and reached out to me. And I've worked for a lot of different agencies and a lot of places. Even working in an office, a lot of places don't offer you that support. I have experienced a lot of individuals. They participate in two, three, or four sessions and they make great progress, right? They haven't relapsed. They've maintained that recovery. And then they stop going to therapy, or they stop going to a GA meeting. And then usually when a month goes by, they're right back. doing that intake process. Yeah, I see a lot of people quitting before they really give themselves that chance to enter the maintenance stage of recovery. From my experience, when they have dug themselves in such a deep financial hole, they can't get themselves out. And that's usually when the light goes off, like, hey, I might have a problem with this. Or I hear from a lot of individuals where their partner, their spouse, isn't happy. with the behavior and they're dipping into the savings and the bills are getting late. So, a lot of relationship issues and just that financial burden that it puts them in when it gets out of control. I will never forget it. I had a female, she refers to it as just this darkness that she's always following her and it makes her not be herself and it changes her into someone that she doesn't recognize and that she doesn't like. And I think When individuals allow that addiction to progress so long and so far, it does. It changes them in a way that they don't recognize and they don't like. And it breaks their family's trust because now they don't trust them with money and the financial responsibility of maintaining a home. And once again, it's just really hard for them to get their feet back on the ground to rebuild that foundation. Without going back and looking at her intake, I want to say she struggled knowing it was a problem for like three to five years. A lot of people are afraid of change. People have their own stigma of what they think therapy might look like, what treatment might look like. I think a lot of people are afraid of being judged. And so they keep pushing it off longer and longer until the spouse is like, I'm going to leave you. You have to get treatment. Something must change. A lot of people feel that if they can't stay in recovery, if they relapse, that they're weak or they don't have enough willpower. But we know that's not true. We know that gambling completely hijacks our brain reward system. And then you just get into that habit, into that loop and the dopamine that you get, especially if you're at a casino or if you're on an app, even sports betting apps. People struggle a lot to give themselves the grace to realize this isn't just me being weak, or this is too hard. But that's why I always feel like starting with psychoeducation on what this addiction is, very useful for the client. I feel from what I've noticed, whenever you start talking about the triggers, the internal external triggers, the warning signs, people are able to kind of connect the dots a little bit and like, That makes a lot of sense. Okay, when I'm really stressed and my wife gets into a fight, I go to the app, I place a bet. So I think people learn that they rely on it a lot for emotional regulation or for an escape or some type of stress management. How is this affecting my life? Right? Be completely vulnerable. Be completely honest with yourself, because if you make the pros and cons lists, which people tend to do, If you have more cons than pros, it might be your sign that this isn't a good behavior to hold on to. I feel like if people are just honest with themselves and they hold themselves accountable, but then show themselves that grace and they just realize how deeply this is affecting their lives, because some might minimize it. I think that can be really useful. It's typical for people to blame other people. People usually don't like to take accountability. and say, wow, I did this. They minimize and they blame it on their spouse or their partner. Well, if they didn't make me angry, then I wouldn't have to do this. Or if I wasn't depressed, if I wasn't abused as a child, then I wouldn't be doing this behavior that's now causing me problems. And while we know all of those contribute, to any type of addiction, we also know that it's our responsibility to make that choice to be in recovery. People don't realize that they're using gambling to regulate their emotions and sometimes just cope with today's stressors. When people first think about changing and they're in that pre-contemplation or even contemplation stage of change, they don't realize that in order to be active in recovery, there has to be action. A good reframing exercise that I would recommend when people are feeling the urge to gamble. When you have that thought of, I might miss out on this bet, reframe it into, I am acting in the present moment. I am being financially responsible and I am actively working on my recovery. A common lie I've noticed gamblers tell themselves is that it doesn't affect anyone but themselves. A way gamblers can help control the urge to gamble is the practice of urge surfing. When you experience this trigger and you allow it to sit, it grows in intensity, but just like a wave, when it hits that peak, it's going to fall down. So whether you gamble or you don't gamble, that urge will go away.