This study examined how men and women described stressful life events (SLEs) that stemmed from their problem gambling. Open-ended responses from 218 U.S. adults who reported gambling-related SLEs were analyzed. Most participants were women (67%) and had never sought treatment or support for their problem gambling (58%). The majority identified as white (74%) and described their socioeconomic status as average or above average (68%). The researchers identified eight categories of SLEs: material loss, living hand to mouth, co-occurring mental health issues, relationship distress, guilt, being a victim of a crime, being a perpetrator of a crime, and red flag. The researchers raised the notion of ‘translucent voices’, which refers to people who are relatively privileged in their socioeconomic status or have high levels of social functioning but health systems are often untuned to their suffering.
