Vi hade kunnat släppa taget. : En kvalitativ studie kring anhöriga till spelberoende, deras upplevelse av spelets konsekvenser i deras liv.

Sammanfattning: Gambling about money is a frequent phenomenon in our modern community’s. The gambling has for some people resulted in a compulsive gambling. These consequences affects not only the gambler but also have impact on his or hers relatives. The purpose of this study is to describe how a small selection off relatives to persons with a compulsive gambling experience the gambling consequences in there life. The empirical material consists of five interviews with five relatives to persons with a gambling dependence. Coping theory, theory of crises and a systemic perspective has been used to analyse the empirical material. The results that appear are that the relatives have all described early signs that they at the time could not interpret. They have felt that the gambler has been absent in mind. The discovery of the gambling describes as a chocking experience. They have created there own cooping strategies. The relatives show a great amount of strength and they have drawn positive experiences from a difficult reality like better relations and communication with the gambler, and can see that they have to take care of them selfs and not only care for the gambler. The study also indicates that family ties are hard to brake, especially between parents and there children.