Confidential help, 24/7 — outpatient care across Virginia
(571) 586-2883
Process addiction treatment · Arlington, VA
Outpatient care for gambling, gaming, compulsive sexual behavior, and compulsive spending — CBT, relapse prevention, financial recovery support, and psychiatric care through PHP, IOP, and outpatient programs for adults in Arlington, Washington, DC, and Northern Virginia.
Medically reviewed by the VABH Medical Team
What we treat
A process addiction is a behavior — not a substance — that has taken on the shape of one: escalation, loss of control, and continued use despite real damage.
Sports betting apps, online casinos, poker, day trading and options, scratch-offs, and casino trips. The phone in your pocket removed every barrier that used to slow it down — chasing losses, borrowing to bet, and hiding balances are the pattern we see most.
Sessions that swallow the night, sleep and work performance sliding, rage when interrupted, and real money moving into loot boxes and in-game purchases. Recognized by the WHO as a disorder when it persistently overrides other priorities.
Escalating use, hours lost, risk-taking that doesn't match your values, and repeated failed attempts to stop. We treat this clinically and without shame — shame is a driver of the cycle, not a brake on it.
Buying to regulate mood, hidden packages, revolving debt, and the crash that follows the purchase. Often the most financially damaging behavior before anyone names it as a problem.
Scrolling that eats sleep, attention, and presence, with real consequences for mood and work. Rarely the presenting problem, frequently part of it.
Bingeing, restriction, or compulsive exercise used to manage emotions. We offer outpatient disordered eating treatment for medically stable adults and refer to specialty eating-disorder care when a higher level is the right call.
When it's time to get help
Bigger bets, longer sessions, more extreme content, larger purchases — the old amount stopped doing what it used to do.
Rules you set and break: app deletions, blockers, self-exclusion, promises after a bad night. Willpower isn't the missing ingredient.
Concealed accounts, deleted histories, undisclosed debt, lying to a partner. Discovery is what brings most families to us.
Credit cards, retirement withdrawals, borrowing from family, payday loans. Gambling disorder in particular can move faster financially than any substance.
Irritability, restlessness, insomnia, and low mood when you stop — real, well-documented, and short-lived with support.
Gambling disorder carries one of the highest suicide risks in behavioral health, usually tied to debt and shame. We screen for it directly at every level of care.
How we treat process addictions
You can't put a betting app in a locked cabinet, so treatment has to work on two fronts: what drives the behavior and what makes it available.
The strongest evidence base for gambling and other process addictions. We target the cognitive distortions — near-miss thinking, the illusion of control, 'one more bet makes it right' — that keep the loop running.
Most people arrive under pressure from a partner or an employer. MI builds your own reasons for change, which predicts follow-through far better than external pressure does.
Practical structure: self-exclusion programs, app and site blocking, blocked payment methods, and financial guardrails set up with someone you trust. Access control does the work motivation can't do alone.
Debt disclosure planning, budgeting handoffs, and coordination with a financial counselor. Untreated financial chaos is one of the most reliable relapse triggers.
ADHD, bipolar disorder, depression, and OCD frequently sit underneath compulsive behavior. Board-certified evaluation, and our medical staff may prescribe and monitor treatment when it's indicated.
Betrayal, debt, and broken trust affect the household. Sessions rebuild honesty, set workable boundaries, and give partners a role that isn't policing.
Process groups plus connections to Gamblers Anonymous, SMART Recovery, and other peer communities across Northern Virginia and DC.
Process addictions commonly co-occur with alcohol, stimulant, or cannabis use — and one often intensifies when the other stops. We treat them together under one plan.
Levels of care
An assessment determines where you start, and you can step up or down as things stabilize.
Our most structured outpatient level. Daily therapy with psychiatric oversight — appropriate after a major financial or relational crisis, or when suicidal thinking is present.
Several sessions a week of CBT, relapse prevention, and group work with morning and evening tracks, so treatment fits around a job in Arlington or DC.
Weekly therapy, psychiatric follow-up, and long-term relapse prevention through the months when triggers like football season or a bonus check show up.
If inpatient stabilization, residential treatment, or medically supervised withdrawal management from a co-occurring substance is the safer first step, we coordinate placement with trusted, vetted providers and take the guesswork out — then continue your care here.
Across the river from Maryland
Our Arlington center is a short drive from Bethesda, Montgomery County, and Prince George's County — and a practical option for Maryland residents who want treatment outside their immediate community. Evening IOP tracks make the commute workable, and telehealth is available for Virginia residents between in-person visits.
Common questions
Yes. Gambling disorder is classified as an addictive disorder in the DSM-5 — the only behavioral addiction with that status — because it engages the same reward circuitry as substances and produces tolerance, withdrawal-like symptoms, and loss of control.
A behavior that continues compulsively despite mounting harm: gambling, gaming, compulsive sexual behavior or pornography use, shopping and spending, and compulsive phone or social media use. The defining features are escalation, failed attempts to stop, secrecy, and real consequences.
Yes. App-based sports betting and speculative trading on options or crypto are among the fastest-growing patterns we see, especially in the DC metro. Clinically they behave like any other gambling disorder, and they respond to the same treatment.
Coverage varies more than it does for substance use. Gambling disorder is often covered as a behavioral health diagnosis, and co-occurring depression, anxiety, or substance use is typically covered. Our admissions team verifies your specific benefits and tells you the expected cost before you commit to anything, with self-pay options available.
Yes, and you should be. Treating one in isolation often intensifies the other. Our PHP and IOP programs handle co-occurring substance use and process addiction in the same plan with the same team.
There's no FDA-approved medication specifically for gambling disorder, but medication often helps with the conditions underneath it — depression, anxiety, ADHD, bipolar disorder, or OCD. Naltrexone is sometimes used off-label for gambling urges, and our psychiatric team will discuss whether it fits your situation.
Yes, for Virginia residents — our clinicians are licensed in Virginia, so telehealth sessions are available statewide. In-person care at our Arlington center is open to Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC residents.
In-person care at 5400 Shawnee Road, Arlington, VA for VA, MD, and DC residents. Telehealth for Virginia residents only.
If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or call 911. For gambling-specific crisis support, call or text the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-522-4700.
Get help today
Whether you're calling for yourself or for someone you love, the first conversation is free and completely confidential.
Insurance accepted
Gambling disorder and co-occurring behavioral health conditions are covered under many commercial plans — Anthem, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, Optum, Sentara Health Plans, UMR, and Johns Hopkins Health Plans. Coverage for process addictions varies by plan, so send us your card and we'll confirm your PHP, IOP, and outpatient benefits in writing before you start.
Don't see your plan? Call us — we also work with out-of-network benefits and self-pay.