The GAP Local Plan (of the Health Protection Board) provides for a self-help group aimed at families of gamblers.
In fact, Gambling Disorder (DSM V) does not only directly involve people who have a gambling problem but also their family members and loved ones; emotionally, economically and socially. Furthermore, the discomfort of the individual often speaks of a group dynamic, of collective suffering. In families the transaction is circular (Selvini, 1975).
The Self Mutual Help group created is open to all citizens, as well as to family members of people who have already turned to the Addiction Service for a gambling problem.
Self-help groups are based on the natural ability of human beings to be in relationship with each other and to support each other in times of difficulty and it is from these premises that this group also began.
The article aims to recount, starting from the fundamentals of mutual self-help, the experience of the first AMA group aimed at family members of gamblers, promoted by the Addiction Service, in the Lodi area.
The first observations can be useful for future years and to better develop an opportunity which has as its premise that of helping more and more people who find themselves facing a moment of difficulty.
It is precisely the progressive discovery of gambling by family members that is traumatic, generating a climate of mutual distrust, cyclical experiences of illusions/disappointments, uncertainty that determines anxiety, fear and chronic stress (Capitanucci, 2012).
The Auto Mutuo Aiuto group can help to emerge from isolation, increase solidarity, understand internal and external dynamics, stimulate new perspectives, bring out resources, feel capable and active. In the ecological-social approach, the family is seen not only as a possible part of the problem, but also and above all as a system open to the community, capable of exchanges and equipped with its own resources to be exploited.