Using Mindfulness Interventions with Problem Gamblers
Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
RORY C. REID, Ph.D., LCSW
Research Psychologist / Neuropsychology
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
What is Mindfulness
 Mindfulness is a philosophy and a practice of
cultivating increased awareness of our moment-tomoment experience in a non-judgmental way.
 The practice of mindfulness, although based on many
principles of Buddhism, was medicalized by Dr. Jon
Kabat-Zin and has been applied to a variety of
psychological and medical issues.
The Spirit of Mindfulness
The Movie: A Beautiful Mind
TEXT
Mindfulness Applications
 Outcome studies have provided evidence that
mindfulness can be helpful for attenuating
psychological distress associated with a number of
mental health issues including:
 Anxiety
 Depression
 Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders
 Pathological Gambling
 Substance-Related Disorders
 Hypersexual Behavior
Goodness of Fit for Mindfulness & Gambling
Suffering
Emotion
Attention
Boredom
Gambling
Impulsivity
Cravings
Stress
Healing Gambling Problems through Mindfulness
Gambling Problems
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Shame
Entitled/Ungrateful
Emotionally Reactive
Intolerance for Discomfort
Critical/Judgmental
Rumination
Anticipatory Anxiety
Tug of War with Cravings
Special Status to Thoughts
Thought Suppression
Disconnecting/Inattention
Mindfulness
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Self-Compassion
Gratitude/Humility
Emotionally Present / Aware
Being Present w/h Suffering
Curious/Non-Judgmental
Reflection
Present in the Present
Acceptance of Cravings
A Thought is Just a Thought
Noting, Curiosity, Present
Connecting / Attentive
Research Supporting MBSR for Emotion Regulation
Reduction of Food Cravings
Reduction of Food Cravings
“…acceptance was found to reduce the extent to which
participants experienced loss of control when exposed
to food cues. This finding is not only practically
relevant, but interesting from a theoretical point of
view as well. After all, acceptance requires one not to
control cravings, which paradoxically leads to higher
levels of perceived control.”
Alberts, Mulkens, Smeets, & Thewissen (2010). Coping with food
cravings. Investigating the potential of a mindfulness-based intervention.
Appetite, 55, 160-163.
Mindfulness Increases Cortical Gray Matter
Mindfulness Increases Cortical Gray Matter
Being Present with the Present
Baby Steps to
Meditation
3 Minute
Mindfulness
Exercise
In meditation, nothing
happens next. This is it!”
Emotional Avoidance
Positive
Comfortable
Good
Pleasant
Pornography
Awkward
Gambling
Uncomfortable
Sex
FoodBad
Unpleasant
Drugs / Alcohol
Bandwidth of Positive Emotions
Emotionally avoidant people become numb and detached
from both good and bad feelings. True, they’ve avoided
pain and negative emotion, but they’ve also diminished or
extinguished their ability to feel positive emotions.
Tug of War with Cravings Doesn’t Work
Thoughts on Thought Suppression
Irony of Thought Supression
“Trying not to think about ‘it’, in some funny way,
is just what makes such thoughts happen…and any
attempt at mental control contains the seeds of its
own undoing. Under certain conditions, in other
words, mental control may not only fail to achieve
desired states of mind, but can ironically create precisely the most
undesired state of mind. Trying to be happy can make us sad, trying
to be relaxed can make us anxious, trying not to think of alcohol
can make us obsessed with our next drink. A person innocently
engaged in what seems to be a program of self-improvement may
unwittingly create the very psychological problem he or she is
working so hard to overcome.”
Daniel M. Wegner, Ph.D., Professor
Department of Psychology
Harvard University
Boredom and Emotional Dysregulation
Research on Boredom
“Boredom, in some form, appears to be a common and
perhaps unavoidable part of human experience.
Nevertheless, it is important to consider ways in which
individuals and society as a whole might alleviate
boredom and the distressing psychological conditions
with which it has been linked. In this regard, the present
results are intriguing because they suggest the common
antidote for boredom — getting busy or plunging into
stimulating activity — might, in the long run, be counter
productive.”
Research on Boredom
In his provocative essay ‘In Praise of Boredom’,
Brodsky (1995) proposes: “When hit by boredom, go
for it. Let yourself be crushed by it; submerge, hit
bottom. In general, with things unpleasant, the rule is,
the sooner you hit bottom, the faster you surface.” On
the contrary, our typical impulse when bored is to fight
the experience with frenetic activity and intense, varied
stimulation. However, like the trap of quicksand, such
thrashing only serves to strengthen the grip of boredom
by further alienating us from our desire and passion,
which provide compass point for satisfying engagement
with life. This is the insidiousness of boredom.
Research on Boredom
“In the short run, bombardment by intense stimulation
will surely alleviate boredom, but tragically, this leaves
us more susceptible to future episodes of boredom and
in need of yet more intense experience imposed from
without.”
Developing a New Relationship with Cravings and Urges
Dr. Hedy Kober, Assistant Professor
Yale University School of Medicine
Hypothesized Mechanisms of Action in MBSR
Attention Regulation [3 min exercise]
Necessary in Conflict Monitoring
Body Awareness
Attention to Somatic Experience, “What am I really craving?”
Emotion Regulation
Being present with uncomfortable / unpleasant emotions
Change in Self-Perception
Observing mental processes with increased clarity
Non-Judgmental Self-Appraisals
Feasibility Study MBSR
Frequency
Time
Baseline
8 week Mindfulness (n=15)
8 week Psycho-Education (n=10)
Frequency
Time
After 10 Weeks
Being Present with the Present
6 Minute Mindfulness
Working with Difficult
Emotions
Exercise
Mindfulness: Being Present with the Present
Mindfulness Exercises Freely Downloadable at:
marc.ucla.edu
insightla.org
mindfulrp.com