hi,
i have a semi theory thread here.

what do you think makes people addicted to roullette and stuff?

its not like drugs, its not a substance that causes the addiction.

but they cant seem to help it but play, play, play until they are broke like ****.

is there a mystical curse in these games, is it the devil, the spaggethimonster, wtf is going on in these brains, like millionaires going broke in these silly, absolutly boring casino games?

is it some sort of self punishment?

i cant understand, but i am curious!

The body naturally produces chemicals to make you feel good. In fact most external drugs replicate the effects of these chemicals except they are normally much much stronger and don't have a natural shut off mechanism like the internal ones.

Basically what happens is that certain activities get associated with pleasure and your brain/body rewards your behavior by releasing the natural chemicals I spoke about above.

the people playing these games usually dont look happy though

Do you have a smile on your face everytime you eat when you're hungry? How about after you work out?

Both those things have been shown to release pleasure chemicals to provide incentive to do them but they don't necessarily make you emotionally happy.

Yes, pretty much this. drugs like cocaine and alcohol stimulate the production of serotonin; people who are depressed suffer from a lack of serotonin, and therefore drugs are used to stabilise serotonin levels.

Gambling addiction is also linked with lower levels of serotonin and norepinephrine. They are also seeking that induced high when they win - the release of dopamine, which controls the brains pleasure centre.

Magic of heroin, magic of alk, magic of WOW..... Think out something that messes with reward circuits in human brain and totally magically you will be rich.

regarding people loosing 7 fig + fortunes.. my limited understanding is..

For many (not all) gamblers the stakes have to 'significant' in order to produce the rush. >> fortunes can disappear as down swing hits the gambler.

The game might seem boring to us.. but from gamblers point of view he gains something and that something is what pulls him to the games. (something is quite well defined in previous posts so .. )

Cocaine and alcohol don't stimulate serotonin production that I'm aware of. Usually dopamine is the neurotransmitter implicated in addiction, though not through stimulation of its production (directly, at least).

Also, there is no real evidence that depressed people have lower levels of serotonin, despite that having been an idea at one point. The antidepressants SSRIs rather immediately increase the serotonin in the synapses by blocking reuptake, but they don't work on depression immediately. The postsynaptic neuron responds in time by decreasing the concentration of serotonin receptors, which should lower serotonin's effect. There are other downstream changes that are likely responsible for SSRIs' effectiveness.

True. The monoamine theory is just a theory, after all.

"Have you seen a watch in a casino?" - I've heard this a long time ago, while was still addicted to roulette. I knew that in the long run I can not win, but still kept playing, that's even dumber most of the people will say. Addiction to gambling is like smoking, it's bad for you, you know it, but you still do it, because it gives you some kind of pleasure, or illusion of pleasure. I knew the game was rigged, but I didn't know many other details. In the start I said "Have you seen a watch in a casino?"- Well besides this the lights, music, beautiful females, drinks, are all there to make you stay. Also dopamine is a key psyhological factor. So feel free to study deeper all of these things. After long study I managed to quit gambling for 3 years now, 5 with some setbacks (gamblers know what I meant) and smoking (also after studying) for 1 year.

is it some sort of self punishment? : For some yes, in my case it was. For this subject, I recommend the movie "the gambler" (commercial, but still good).

hey thx for your insight and valuable reply! yes, forgetting about time is definitly one function of gambling. why do we have the eager to forget about time? this is an intresting topic to think about.

i think another thing to consider is that the human mind has a problem to understand the word "no".

i know in alot of situations where i was drunk (but not always) i heard my brain cry at me: "Dont do it, dont do it".

next thing i did was doing what i was meant not to do.

lets use a simple example: "dont imagine a pink rabbit"

i would like to hear why you wanted to punish yourself. i know it is kinda personal thing, but im really intrested, as i remember phases of selfpunishment also. it often had something to do with sexuality and not being able to integrate myself into society.

Selfpunishment is related to another large subject meaning programming + experiences. So it's different for everyone and yes, it's kinda personal. Once you have accepted not only that you are doing that, but you how you really are, you can start making changes. And when you think that you are punishing yourself because you are not able to integrate yourself into society, remember that, in my opinion, that is a blessing my friend... , it may mean that you don't have tolerance for stupid bull****. Good luck.