Addicted to Gambling

After spending a lot of dollars in a slot machine, finally the spin made its way to your luck and made you win the jackpot. You then think that the machine is lucky for you and you are convinced to buy more tokens than the usual. You spin the machine and it was hard luck, you didn't win. You really wanted to win and so you buy more tokens, even spending your winnings. You come back the next day and you buy more and more tokens for gambling. It happens everyday.

This what you call gambling addiction. Before, this term was only associated to substance abuse like drugs, nicotine and alcohol. With advance research on the functions of our brain, it has been found that there are substances that could be addictive even if it is not a chemical substance. This is the reason why there is what we call gambling addiction. Addiction is a result of the pleasure you get from a certain substance, it satisfies your craving and thus you tend to have more of it every single day. Same goes with gambling. Once it satisfy you and you get pleasure from it, you tend to play more and more until you're broke.

Gambling addiction is also known as a hidden illness, sometimes it is referred to as pathological gambling. This addiction has no known symptoms. The American Psychological Association classify this as a mental health disorder since there in no evidence of impulse control for this condition. There are two known types of gambling addiction. These are escape gambling and action gambling. Escape gambling is the result of the spatiality of the mind of a person especially when he or she is hurt emotionally. These players opt to play on their own without the presence of other players. You can often see them playing black jack or slot machines. They prefer a solitary world where there are no other players playing with them. Action gambling on the other hand, is when a gambler gets addicted to the challenge he or she gets from taking the risks. Action gamblers prefer playing with several opponents to prove to themselves that they are winners. A study showed that gambling problems more likely to affect teens than the adults. It is essential to let these teens know the dangers brought by gambling problems.

Phases of gambling addiction includes the winning phase in which gamblers tend to win a couple of times with big amount of winnings. This gives them pride and craves for more winnings. In turn, they tend to bet more than the usual since they believe on their winning ability. After which comes the losing phase where gamblers lose all the money they have including their profit.