"למלא את החלל" סיפורי חיים של מהמרים מכורים-נקיים

This is a qualitative study of ten life stories told by men who are clean gambling addicts.The study entails in-depth interviews relating to the periods before and during gambling, as well as to the periods of addiction and the therapeutic processes undergone by the interviewees. Data analyses showed that addiction is associated mainly with a feeling of lack of meaning in life, existential frustration, and illusional escape from an unwanted reality to a fantasy of power and of filling of the existential vacuum. The operational implications of the findings are discussed.