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4/22/2008: Side effects
But suicides are a real side effect
Nearly fifty years of community pharmacy gave me a little insight into addiction and side effects of drugs.
The reluctance of the CGA to admit that the creation of nearly half a million gambling addicts, a number published for Ontario, is a fair price, not to mention anywhere from 2000 to possibly many more gambling suicides.
Entertainment is not something one would suspect of an overdose, sure, one can overeat, one can drink
a little to much, pass out… but cause suicide.
Well, B F Skinner did warn, pigeon, rat, or human, gambling is addictive.
Yes addiction has consequences
But then, to turn around and blame the “player”, that is a little too much.
In Quebec, suicide warning appear over the VLTs.
Don”t see those warnings with OLG products in Ontario.
see previous post
bill clark
April 24th, 2008 at 12:28 am
how the hell do they expect people in canada to get any better when the government here promots gambling as much as they do. my wife and myself have lost everything due to the vlt’s in alberta, how can the alberta goverment say that they have the addiction to these machines under control. i understand that it was my choice to gamble but when the addiction sets in how do you re-build. i know we have thought about double suicide many times just to get rid of the pain of the debt we have.
April 27th, 2008 at 4:13 am
Ken, there is a research/addiction study looking for participants in Calgary.
http://www.gamblingwatchglobal.com/archives/calgary-research-participants-needed/
The government can’t say it has addiction under control, nor can it say it is providing help in a timely way.
October 27th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Why does an agency ( government ) profit off of VLT at the cost of lives being ruined and destroyed? Suicides by addicted gamblers,families ruined finacially, broken marriages and relationships, children suffering due to the emotional strain of agruements and abuse by parents caused due to gambling. Other addictions like drug addiction and alcohol abuse as a way for the gambler to cope with the lost. All this due to money hungry government agencies that are suppose to be there to help it`s people. Help the people ?? more like help themselves at the peoples cost… They want to help?? remove and destroy the VLTs before they destroy more lives. I hope the persons or person that designed and profited off these machines pay for their greed. I know first hand what these machines do to families … I know what it feels like to lose someone to a suicide due to gambling addiction. I know what his family felt and the pain losing their son felt like. I know because I lived it!!
October 30th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Maggie, Bill W will respond to you privately.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:56 am
very nice articles thank you…
January 28th, 2009 at 2:00 am
I have sent many letters and emails out to people I thought could help. This was the last email I sent to CMHA - last October - they told me to contact the local branch. I did, but was not impressed by the reply. As much as help is advertised as out there, it seems very hard to get.
My story goes like this…
I have sent email to CMHA before but I have lost the contact information. I have a long story to tell going back 10 years but I need some help with a more immediate problem - which relates to the past.
My husband was a lawyer - well respected and a good man. In 1989 we moved back to our hometown after being in Sudbury for 17 years. The first few years were ok, except for my mother’s colonscopy - when her bowel was punctured and she spent 6 months in the hospital. In the early 1990’s my husband’s small practice was going downhill. He was dealing with immigration issues, and a change in government policy left him unable to make a living in that specialty. In 1995 he declared bankrupcty and he could only operate his practice with the supervision of another lawyer. In 1997 the casino opened in Niagara Falls. He was always a bit of a gambler and like most people, I thought little about it. Soon I knew something was wrong but I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) acknowledge there was a problem. He began to disappear. His secretary would call me at my workplace asking if I knew where he was. He missed appointments, court dates, he would be gone for hours. I started searching for clues and would find thousands of dollars hidden in his car, etc. I would finish work and run up to the casino looking for him, hoping he wasn’t there but usually finding him and dragging him out. I didn’t realize I had no control over the situation and it didn’t matter what I did, he would continue to gamble until he was backed into the wall. In 1998, my daughter (28 years old) was diagnosed with breast cancer. It took 3 months for the doctors to acknowledge there was a problem. She had not told me about it. When I found out, she was already scheduled for surgery. While she was having a mastectomy, my husband was at the casino. The surgeon told me the disease would take her life. (that was 10 years ago) We were in thousands of dollars of debt. I mistakenly asked for help from my parents and it ended up that they put a mortagage on their home, to help us. I was making the house payments. When all these things came about my husband disappeared for two weeks and that is when he hit bottom. We lost our home. I had to sell most of what we owned. (an auctioneer came to the house and in about half an hour I had pointed out what was to go and what was to stay). I had collected antiques for the past 20 years and most of it was auctioned off. It gave me enough put a down payment on a small cottage in a sort of run down part of town. (It turned out to be a very good decision but my state of mind was not where it should have been when making those types of decisions). At that point I was carrying two mortgages on a relatively small salary. My husband worked for some former clients for a couple of years after that but then quit when they had a disagreement regarding finances and promises made (not kept). He was disbarred in 2001 but was lucky enough to avoid jail time. In November of 2001, my mother died from complications from the botched colonscopy - the autopsy could not pinpoint the cause of death. We had to put down both of my dogs shortly after that. My husband was out of work and the only money coming in was from my salary. This went on for a couple of months until he took a truck driving course and was consequently hired by a US company. He took a MBA course online at the University of Phoneix. He was in and out of work for a number of months. Finally getting a job with a consulting firm in the US. That worked for a while but then they asked him to do things he considered unethical, and quit that job. He took another with another consulting firm - worked for them for a year and a bit then landed a job in the US with one of his former clients. He was there for 1 - 1/2 years. About three months ago, that job ended and he is now back with the consulting firm. To say our lives have been on a roller coaster for the last 10 years would be an understatement. As an aside, we did go for counselling and joined GA. (who helped us more than anything else)
All the while this was going on, I was trying to hold down my job. I worked as a purchasing agent for a helicopter manufacturing plant. I worked with two “A” type personalities. I didn’t have a lot of problems with one of them but the other was mean spirited. There was constant put downs and abuse. She would interupt my phone calls telling me what I should have said, how I did things that it was wrong. I was in no shape to defend myself. Even the new boss we had walked into the room when she was going at me and mumbled something about harrasement. So I have been dealing with this person for the past 10 years. She is not liked in the company and even calls herself “the bitch” like she is proud of it. She has a lot of knowledge about the workings of the plant and I’m sure that this why she still holds a high position.
Almost every year at my review I would break down, usually cry and talk about my lack of confidence and esteem. In the past year I have finally been able to put some of it behind me and I feel myself starting to “come back”.
When I had gone for counselling the counsellor told me that a death would take 2 to 5 years to cope with so I can understand why it has taken me this long. The doctor also put me on anti depressants about a year ago even though I didn’t want them. I have been on lorezpam for the past 10 years, sleeping pills for at least 7. I also have tendonitis and I am going to a neurologist Nov. 5 for tests for carpal tunnel. With the tendonitis, I was told to go to WSIB but I never missed any work. Human resources offered me the receptionist job but I refused it. Having relieved the full time girls since I started the job in 1995 I knew that job and didn’t want it. Then a position was created in the composite shop and my boss asked me if I was interested. I said I might be. He was taking work away from me before this job came up and I felt something was going on. In a meeting when I couldn’t remember something, he rolled his eyes at me as if to say how stupid I was. He pressured me about taking the job but could not tell me what was involved other than doing time cards. He told me that there were big changes coming and that I would thank him for getting me out of there. I felt like I was no longer wanted so I said yes. A few weeks later on a Thursday he told me that they had hired someone and I had to move for the following Monday. The person they hired is just a young man fresh out of school with little experience. I have been trying to find out if he is a friend or relative of my former boss as that seems to be the way he operates. He is not a trustworthy person. I went to human resources and said that since my former job was now being done by this young man, the recepitionist relief should also go with the job. They told me they would look into it. They are out of the office until next week so I will not be able to ask until then. My former boss is avoiding me. He has not come to the back of the building to see how I am doing (he has been there to talk to others) - he saw me go with human resouces to her office and I know he knew what was going on. I was quite upset. I had gone to Human Resouces once before for a more detailed explanation of the job I was being offered (she couldn’t tell me much more either) and he told me he knew I was there.
I have given you the Coles note version of what went on. Needless to say, there is much more to this than what I can put in a email. What I am trying to find out is what information is out there to make people in positions of power understand what happens to the brain when under this type of stress for this length of time. Thanks.