Morris Maina

GAMBLING ADDICTION

GAMBLING can be as much fatal and perversive on an individual's life as drug addiction, with effects on both personal and social life. Monetary value of resources lost to gambling should not be the only focal point of addiction to gambling, but also the expense of broken families, decline in social functioning, career loss and on the overall mental health. Compulsive gambling most often involves spending lots of one's time in gambling joints or placing bets. Sometimes individuals foregoing self-care activities such as eating or grooming; either as a result of extravagant spendings in gambling or having little or no time for self.

Its by nature for human beings to avoid pain and seek pleasure and personal nourishment. For gamblers, the extra coin in wining represents the pleasure while a loss or a streak of losses can be as painful as bereavement.

In the early stages of gambling the motive is usually to win the grand prize or atleast recover the amount lost in previous games. This however changes with time as gambling becomes a self-reinforcing behaviour.

As a gambler proceeds from the experimental and social stage to compulsive gambling, conditioning occurs; taping into the brain's reward system but indirectly through the pleasure of winning. This implies that the individual must strive to win at every game in order to attain a 'high' which unfortunately may result into a streak of losses. A loss at this point presents in the same way as withdrawal or a low from drugs, thus the strive is to hit a win in order to boost the morale, regardless of the amount lost in previous bets.

When not checked, this turns in to a vicious cycle- individuals tending to place bets thoughtlessly.

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