Gambling addicts' loved ones also face crisis

CBC News

Posted: Mar 15, 2013

 

Gene Eaton, left, plays a friendly game of rummy with her daughter, April Gowler. Eaton, 78, overcame a gambling addiction with the help of counselling. (CBC)

 

Twelve per cent of adult Manitobans have experienced problems as a result of someone else's gambling, according to the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba.

 

Gambling addictions can be devastating financially and emotionally, and not just for the gambler, says Dave Grift, supervisor of the foundation's gambling unit.

"A lot of times, family members are in crisis as well," Grift told CBC News.

"That's why AFM would see family members of gamblers — those affected by gambling — as clients in their own right."

Gene Eaton, 78, has recovered from a gambling addiction that cleaned out her retirement savings and burned through her pension cheques through the 1990s.

Her adult daughter, April Gowler, was living with her mother at the time. Gowler said she was worried about Eaton's well-being.

"It's pretty disturbing to think of your mother in such distress that she's going to kill herself," Gowler said.

At one point, Eaton went to the foot bridge at Assiniboine Park with a plan to jump.

"The river was just kind of foamy … and I was thinking, 'What am I going to do? What are my kids going to do? What am I doing to my kids?'" Eaton recalled.

Both women turned to the addictions foundation for help. Gowler took part in counselling specifically designed for the family members of gambling addicts.

"There's help there. Twelve-step programs are great," Gowler said.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2013/03/14/mb-gambling-addictions-family-effect.html