We begin to clarify what is known as a compulsive gambling addiction. Through it, the gambler acquires pathological feelings that push him to continue gambling despite its devastating negative consequences. It is a widespread type and classified by psychiatry as a type of behavioral addiction. The gambling addiction rate ranges from 0,2% and 5.8% globally.
Gambling addiction does not happen by chance. Instead, it is linked to a psychological principle known as the variable ratio reinforcement schedule. Here, the variable and unexpected rewards stimulate the users’ instinct of enjoyment and make them demand more.
The idea of being able to bet and gamble online made things worst because online sports better had access to their gambling platforms in seconds using their smartphones and no longer had to go visit sports betting brokers and dealers. Here you can find the list of top sportsbooks online.
Signs of gambling addiction
You dodge about your habit of gambling and deny it
In any type of addiction, the addict relies mainly on lying and prevarication to hide his addiction. Lying is the most important symptom of addiction, as the gambler becomes motivated by a compulsive feeling that forces him to hide his whereabouts, how he spent money and how he obtained it.
Of course and as a kind of self-satisfaction and not clashing with it, gamblers deliberately lie to themselves as well, as they are pushed to do so by what is known as cognitive dissonance, in which a clash arises within a person between his values and beliefs and the way he behaves, and this creates a feeling of discomfort, so gamblers lie to make themselves
feel comfortable. So they justify their behavior even if the reasons are illogical, so the main problem of gamblers is denying the existence of a problem in the first place and lying about it.
The loss in gambling exceeds the gambler’s budget
Often this happens when the user gambles for bets that exceed his budget and are much higher than his winnings. Yet, he cannot stop because he is driven by a pathological feeling that makes him unable to restrain himself and control his desire and ask for more regardless of the margin of his terrible losses and draining his budget.
By the way, the catastrophic losses of the gambler do not only apply to money, but his addiction to gambling leads him to lose his job if he neglects it for the sake of gambling, in addition to the collapse of his social relations due to his constant tension and internal conflict that he suffers from, and his evasion of responsibilities.
Negative and unhealthy emotional effects of gambling addiction
Like all addictions, gambling addiction is a dysfunctional means that addicts use to escape life’s stresses and problems, but it creates more profound adverse emotional effects.
Scientifically, gambling addiction causes the brain to secrete chemicals through neurotransmitters that make it feel happy or euphoric, give it a temporary feeling of satisfaction and pleasure and make it an illusion that it has found a refuge from the stresses of life.
When a gambling addict stops gambling for a certain time, the reward system in their brain pulls the chemicals that cause happiness and satisfaction and make them drop to low levels. Thus, like most addicts, they have high levels of aggression and irritability, and their emotions are disturbed.
Borrowing money for gambling and accumulating debt
Of course, gambling addicts, when they run out of money, resort to borrowing money such as using a credit line, bank loans, or real estate mortgages on homes and cars and to make matters worse, they borrow illegally, and this is all part of the financial collapse caused by gambling addiction. Gambling addicts will do anything to get money to keep going, always making the excuse that this time might be a stroke of luck.
Keep gambling until you run out of money
The pathological obsession with gambling leads addicts to spend their money and savings without care or awareness. It even makes them in debt without the ability to repay debts, so bankruptcy is one of the most important risks facing a gambling addict.
Trying to make up for losses with more gambling
Gambling addicts have a belief and motive that makes them want to gamble more to compensate for the losses that have afflicted them and hope that the changes will play in their favor this time. This, of course, is nothing but a pathological feeling caused by a deep feeling of guilt due to the loss of control, but it only deepens the size of his material, practical and emotional losses.
When family and friends start noticing a problem
The gambler’s social environment inevitably begins to notice that something is wrong, so a collision may arise when the addicted to gambling faces demands from his family and friends to explain the matter. Still, we cannot forget that asking for help from the surrounding environment is the first step in recovery from addiction.
Summary
Gambling addiction is a disease that should never be underestimated. It requires psychological intervention and counseling and awareness of the seriousness of the problem and the need to control it, no matter how difficult it seems.
