Gambling can surely strain your relationships; interfere with responsibilities at home and work, and lead to financial catastrophe. You become a different person altogether and even do things you never thought you would, like stealing to get money to gamble or take money meant for your children.
As defined by American Psychiatric Association, pathological gambling is an impulse control disorder that is a chronic and progressive mental illness. Extreme cases of problem gambling may cross over into the realm of mental disorders. Pathological gambling was recognized as a psychiatric disorder in the DSM-III, but the criteria were significantly reworked based on large-scale studies and statistical methods for the DSM-IV.
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