“Overcoming Compulsive Gambling” is a handy self-help book for anyone who feels that they may be developing a gambling addiction. The increase in gambling over the years – with the rise in popularity of poker and bingo sites on the internet – means more and more people are in danger of developing a gambling addiction without realising it.

For extreme cases, this book will not be the definite cure, but it is an extremely useful way to begin the process of recovery. The author, Professor Alex Blaszczynski – who is a practicing psychologist and member of the School of Psychiatry in New South Wales –  is an expert in the field and has previously worked on such books as “In the Pursuit of Winning: Problem Gambling Theory, Research and Treatment”.

For this book, he has relied on proven methods within Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (also referred to as CBT). This form of therapy is often considered to be the most effective for treating dependency disorders. The methods mentioned in this book have been mainly developed by Blaszczynski and are now widely used throughout the world.

The author has divided the book into separate areas that explain the whole process of recovery in an easy to read manner. The first chapters cover such question as “What is gambling and when is it a problem?” and “How does the problem develop?”. He then goes into detail about what can be done stop compulsive gambling. Everything is explained clearly, without using psychological terms to confuse the reader.