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With my ‘Heinz’ birthday coming up next week I’m resigned to report that bits of me continue to fall apart. As such, I have been onto my local GP’s practice this morning via an automated Q&A filling in details of my aches and pains.
After questions on my particular problems, there was a more general health section of the standard “fags & booze?” type. I was very surprised to then be asked the question:
In the last year, have you bet more than you could afford to lose?
(We ask this to understand if problem gambling is affecting your health and wellness)My symptoms are purely physiscal. No other mental health or non-physical habit questions were asked. Very strange.
Mike
Considering the amount of problem gamblers it’s a fair enough question tbh Mike.
However, being in business is a gamble. People invest in their business, the business goes broke resulting in selling the house. Is that classed as a “bet more than you could afford to lose”?
Value Is EverythingI feel like the bravado behind gambling has done it a lot of damage. You have absolute eejits screaming and roaring about their big wins, making out they’re geniuses, when all their friends know they’ve lost more than they’ve ever won. When you have these guys acting like gambling is some measure of your value and success, and not a challenge and a way of having an interest in something, you’re going to get people reacting to these fellas’ massive egos and not the fairly considered thing gambling is for a lot of (non-problem) bettors.
If there’s some fool in the pub braying about his sure thing winning him money you’re going to react to the fool, not the act of gambling, but you will come to dislike what it is he’s doing and causing him to act like a moron.
If it was all toned down a bit, and people didn’t crow about their wins and hide their losses people might take it for what it actually is. And that might even result in fewer problem gamblers (outside of the bookies changing) who don’t get attracted to the massive ego stroking.
Although, maybe it is the money turning people into fools. You only have to watch people bring up their wins every time they’ve had some measure of success. It could be my firmly middle class upbringing, but not talking about money (and so not harping on about my wins) is a thing, and I’m far more likely to bring up my losses, or take them on the chin. And even more likely again to actually talk about the race and how it shaped up compared to my expectations, because it is a sport first, not a willy waving contest.
My symptoms are purely physical. No other mental health or non-physical habit questions were asked. Very strange.
In fairness Mike, MH issues can frequently manifest themselves with physical symptoms, so I suspect that’s why the question appeared.
I’m not seen the Q&A you’re talking about so cannot comment on it and I wouldn’t know how the algorithm works.
However, with a large number of these types of apps the questions asked are driven by previous answers.
It could be one of your answers to the physical symptoms could have been a symptom which is also stress related.
As I say I don’t know this particular set up but am surmising how it may have worked.
Certainly from my experience it wasn’t uncommon to see a patient presenting with physical symptoms only to discover after some more questioning that the underlying cause was stress / emotionally / MH related. Which wasn’t easy for us as we were pretty good at dealing with physical symptoms but our MH training was minimal and was something picked up with experience.
They may be “eejits” but may be they’re the ones in need of help, FiftyP. From when I went Racing, the person in our group thought by many of us to have a “problem” used to “crow” the most. As the card progressed both stakes and drinks increased with the number of losing bets. Fortunately drink didn’t make him violent or aggressive in any way and underneath it all was a really nice bloke. However, on a bad day got (obvious by his mood) depressed… On a good day (didn’t have to be under the influence of drink) he’d be absolutely ecstatic and very vocal when the winner/s came. The “bravado” thing is not necessarily about “massive egos”, possibly more a release. Heard it said that – at least subconsciously – problem gamblers don’t really like winning often, because the less often they come the more elated a winner make them. In my experience (at least on the racecourse, I don’t know about pubs but doubt it’s any different) those that I know make a good profit at the game don’t make much vocal noise because they’re used to winning / showing a profit.
Value Is EverythingThere are certainly plenty of problem gamblers and many physical problems are caused or aggravated by stress and depression. However, gambling is by no means the only, nor even the most widespread, mental health issue so it would be interesting to find out why it has been singled out in this questionnaire.
I’d proffer that the inclusion of a question about problem gambling is, at least in part, due to the recent high profile exposure of problems caused by high-stakes FOBTs, which was subject to scrutiny in Parliament and required the time consuming process of passing a Bill in order to reduce their risk of ruination
problem gamblers don’t really like winning often, because the less often they come the more elated a winner make them
As Mick Fitzgerald knows: it’s better than sex
However, gambling is by no means the only, nor even the most widespread, mental health issue so it would be interesting to find out why it has been singled out in this questionnaire.
Perhaps it’s in Mike’s medical records that he likes the GG’s
and that’s only slightly tongue in cheek – when I was doing my training it was drummed into us that taking a social history is just as important as taking a medical history.
I know the fact I used to work reporting on racing is in my medical notes, as are previous and subsequent jobs – it’s also interesting how, since I began the medical work, how differently I am treated as a patient …. not preferentially but certainly in how things are discussed and treatment plans are agreed.
Hope all is well Mike
I’ve been having a few problems myself.
Think my meds have made my bones weaker I keep breaking my toes..
Blackbeard to conquer the World
I don’t think the morning nudge out the door would do much damage
Blackbeard to conquer the World
I don’t think the morning nudge out the door would do much damage
I don’t get that since I retired!
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysIn fairness Mike, MH issues can frequently manifest themselves with physical symptoms, so I suspect that’s why the question appeared.
Absolutely agree with that but this was the strange thing, it was such an isolated question. It occurred after questions on alcohol and tobacco intake and there were no other mental health questions. Frankly, there’s a million other potential queries medics could make about financial and other stresses (especially in current circumstances) yet the one that appeared was about gambling.
My opinion is that this is reflecting the current success of the anti-gambling lobbies (every bookmaker’s advert nowadays seems to be telling you to stop betting, which is an interesting take) combined with our own natural hairshirted-ness to elevate a problem that whilst serious, is surely no more widespread and concerning than many others. Still, it could be worse:
1 Do you spend too much time concerning yourself with low-grade staying hcaps at Ponty? YES
2 Should you stop? ERR…
3 Where exactly does it hurt?Mike
A sign of the times isn’t it. My GP for nearly forty years is retired now, but we operated on first name terms ever since I tipped him the 1984 National winner, Hello Dandy.
From then on, no consultation with him was complete until he’d produced a Racing Post from his desk draw and asked for a tip on the days racing.
That’s how GP consultations should be AP but, sadly, nowadays a rarity.
You’re lucky to get to see any GP, never mind your named one now.
There are ten GP’s at my surgery but only two I actually have any confidence in – of course everyone else knows that, so it’s nigh on impossible to get to see either of them unless you book 6 weeks in advance.
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