Topic: Why Gambling addiction?! (Read 225 times)

This is very good for you, it shows that you are not at risk to become addicted to gambling. As someone who doesn't feel that urge to keep gambling when it's better to stop, it can be hard to understand the compulsory behaviour of addicted people. We humans are not all the same, there are some of us who are more vulnerable towards addictions than others. In general I would not distinguish between gambling, drug, alcohol or even a gaming addiction. It becomes very difficult for a person to control their own action, even though they know it is wrong and will harm them. We also see that if some is struggling with addiction on one area, he is more likely to become addicted to something else. I have seen this myself with a good friend of me, we both started smoking during high-school but he was smoking much more than me. After high-school we both tried to stop but he just couldn't, it took him so many attempts but he still fell back into his old patterns. Only later when he went into gaming and started drinking he managed to stop smoking. Unfortunately he just switched his addiction for something new and was still unable to control his actions. Something we can't understand our friends why they are doing something. The only thing we can do is try to help them.

In fact what happens is that the brain can produce very similar substances or in some cases the same substances that we call recreational drugs, so what happens is that in some people some behaviors stimulate that response making people trying to go through the same experience over and over again, becoming addicted to the activity itself as it is what produces those drugs inside their brains, so as you can see a behavioral addiction like gambling or sex addiction is in principle the same as being addicted to an illegal drug.

The profile of someone who gets addicted to gaming is usually linked to other addiction in which you a very strong "high" when you win and it does not matter what you need to go through to get that "high". Everyone likes winning, but the typical human is very risk adverse. The gaming addict gets much more positive reinforcement from a small win that he or she gets from many losses. Along with that, they tend to have an inability to just stop when it is affecting their life.

We do differ in;

mindset
control your emotion
goals in mind
perception/views

Towards gambling or generally speaking with leisure things which people could simply skip or quit out instantly without having that craving inside on playing gambling.

Addiction would only be created if you couldn't really resist in doing so or being impulsive but if you could just simply stop without any problems no matter how long
it would be then I would consider that you are a person who don't easily get addicted or having a good control.

Completely different individuals with varying preferences such that every preference is satisfied. These preferences are most times influenced by the first experience one had with something. I believe the way one experiences something for the first time is a big determinant if the person will return to replicate their first experience. If your first experience of gambling was spectacular, you will definitely want to replicate the experience to me. This is how addiction begins.

People get addicted to many things. There are people addicted to eating, people addicted to drugs, people addicted to bad behaivors. There are many ways to get addicted to basically anything. It all has to do with the way your brain gets rewired after performing an activity that makes the brain keep giving out too much happy signals (Dopamine)
So everytime you do something that makes your brain think its supposed to dump out dopamine, it makes you happy.

Few things :

1. It introduces dopamine in your body and this overtime makes you addicted to the whole idea of Gambling again and again to have the happy chemical circulating in your brain.

2. Then comes the manipulation by the gambling casinos as well sometimes. << some people try and win back their money as well, this does mean that they will loose more and more in hope of getting their money back from the particular game or site  >>

This is honestly something that is quite complicated for a lot of people and then for some it's a habit as well.

Similarly if you gamble then you will start enjoying adrenaline rush. After a while, if you do not gamble then you will feel like more boredom than usual and your mind will seek same kind of adrenaline rush which is the starting point of gambling addiction and depending on the frequency of seeking adrenaline rush, your gambling addiction will be become severe.

The level of gambling addiction is subjective because we are all not living with same kind of society and culture even gambling at same places or same kind of games. It means your mind will relax itself when you are picking some other interesting things which will help you not get addicted to adrenaline rush.

Basically gambling addiction is a psychological thing; when we are not emotionally balanced and able to come over any emotional moments with gambling then we can safe-gamble withing getting addicted to it.

Addicted gamblers are always optimistic from the moment they start playing on, so the glass is always half full in their concept, what makes them blind towards the real risks and dangers they are facing. It leads gamblers to boost a sensation of invincibility and self-esteem inside themselves, consequently developing the addictive behavior, as the brain and the mind becomes more excited and impulsed by the adrenaline and emotions it causes along a gambling session. It's a fact some people enjoy living on the limit and under constant risks, so gambling becomes an option for them to live that lifestyle.

According to this article https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/compulsive-gambling/symptoms-causes/syc-20355178#:~:text=Gambling%20can%20stimulate%20the%20brain's,fraud%20to%20support%20your%20addiction.


And this article https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/why-is-gambling-addictive/


So we can say that gambling can stimulate the brain, especially if we can win many times. It happens to those who only want to enjoy gambling or know what gambling is in the real term. They start placing a bet on the games and as they are new in gambling, maybe some of them get lucky by winning for some money. At the end of the games, their brain receives the vibration about gambling to win more in the next days. They will come to gambling games again, whether they will come in the next few days or weeks.

If we do not block the stimulation on our brain, we will be back as soon as possible to have another "good" experience in gambling. But when we lose, our brain will get a new vibration that we still have the other opportunities in the next few days, making us come back repeatedly. Maybe the psychiatrist can explain more details about this as I cannot explain further.

There are two aspects to it.
Gambling because you need money or gambling because of habit. But these days the majority of gamblers are people who don't have means of income and they solely depend on the proceed of what luck brings to them. Your friend may fail under those who don't have job and will prefer to take a bath in the morning and go stay in gambling house and trying luck.

Very few gamblers are doing that as habit. Majority of gamblers do it because they want additional money to live and support family.

People find pleasure on such things, and the brain works in such a way that once the individual is exposed to a certain pleasure, the brain's reward center rewires everything in such a way that they'd exert 'more' feelings of pleasure from that certain thing. It could be drugs, sex, alcohol, or even gambling. On gamblers, they find the act of gambling as pleasurable, hence why their brain craves for more of it, leading up to the addiction of individuals to the said activity.

Addiction is, IMO, not discriminatory on what activities you do or substance you consume. The question is not "why gambling addiction" but rather "why people let themselves get hooked so bad?"

It's like any other addiction, everyone's mental and physical makeup is different.  Depending on personality and tendencies some people can gamble and walk away some can't.  Same with drugs, work, sports,etc..all the same.  Gambling is a brutal one since you can lose a fortune an an instant.  Lives are completely destroyed for people who cant control themselves

Addicts always deny that they have too much of it, even they are over on what they consumed, that's also true in gambling, a gambling addict thinks that it's ok to spend 5 hours or more in gambling and spend a lot of money, their alibis are they are having fun and they only lose what they can afford to lose, which is a big lie if you check their activity and money they eventually lose, they will fight anything that will stop from having to spend enough time in the casino they are playing, only a professional intervention can stop them.

thank you for all contributions. I know this is a delicate topic and isn't easy talk about that issue in a public forum.
please find below some replies, but again, thank you all for your messages.


Yes this is true, but this is not for all players. otherwise an huge amount of people get addicted to nicotine.
the same didn't apply with football or any kind of games. You didn't get addicted to play, but you get addicted to gambling!
There is something more in that case.

Some foods are proven to get people addicted.

interesting point

I think he is searching the "emotion" to win one month of salary with just a couple of euro. I know it's a beautiful satisfaction but isn't easy to achieve (I calculated he can win 1 each year so far) since it's really rare to achieve I am not searching this emotion (I feel better win little amount but little or no risk involved).
but in this case also this is true:

Agree with you

@Oshosondy
it has been completely useless. I tried in all way, even explain and showing my "bets". nothing has changed his mind.
butnow he has a "limit" so he can play only a certain amount each week. this is at least a first result

I believe that these are completely different addictions and although the process of getting rid of these addictions is not different at first glance it is not. Drug addiction causes very different feelings in a person (from peace to anxiety) and it mainly depends on what kind of drug a person uses.

Gambling addiction is caused by greed which constantly makes a person return to gambling and lose even more money. 

Could we say being an alcoholic is addicted to alcohol?  
At some point in our lives, I think we become addicted to something like playing badminton or chess. It's just unfortunate for someone who got addicted to gambling which is drug addiction. Both destroy lives not just thier own but the rest around them.

What happens to people when they start placing a bet is just like dopamine, placing bets also makes them happy and the happier it gets when they win of course.

This is similar to depression, in which we, as people who are not depressed, can easily say that the reason they became depressed was because their problem was too simple, and that depression is kind of stupid.But the truth of this is that we are so lucky that we are able to control our emotions, but when we put ourselves in their situation, they cannot control it. That is why they need help. This is the same with addiction. Mostly the cause of this is greediness to get back all the losses and the feeling of winning money. That is most of the reason we get addicted if we can't control it. If we can, then we are lucky. Anyone could get addicted to gambling because of the feeling that it is unexplainable.

Well as you’ve stated gambling is like drugs to a lot of people. The more you do the better you tend to feel up to a certain point. When you hit your best points it feels really good, however most of the time your best points are fewer and far between.  Personally it’s nothing I’ve been addicted to nor could be but I absolutely understand those whom are. I think they have to hit rock bottom first before they’ll ever change their ways unfortunately.

We can't blame those who are experiencing gambling addiction since we're not in their shoes but I think the main problem is greediness and lack of self-control. We have different principles but we have to put limits on everything that we do. Some players are aiming too high though they're having a hard time reaching the target goal that leads them to losses. As for me, allocating enough funds for gambling is a better option for us to put control over it.