WHAT MAKES A PATHOLOGICAL GAMBLER?

WHAT MAKES A PATHOLOGICAL GAMBLER?

INTRODUCTION

A gambler is a person who plays a form of activity in order for the possibility to gain a material item (preferably money). There are many forms of gambling for example: the lottery; card playing (i.e. poker, blackjack); roulette; horse-racing; sports betting; drag-racing, dog-fighting, etc. There is a distinct discrepancy between a casual gambler, compulsive gambler, problem gambler, and a pathological gambler. A casual gambler is a person who occasionally gambles as a form of entertainment, gambling does not affect his daily activities, and he knows how to gamble responsibly (or when to quit). A compulsive gambler is a person who plays more frequently than a casual gambler however he still plays for fun, gambling rarely affects his daily activities, and he has a history of gambling irresponsibly.

A problem gambler is a person who gambles almost every weekend (and sometimes during the week) however he tries to ensure his gambling is not during office hours. The problem gambling may begin to start affecting his daily activities in his working and personal relationships and his finances may start being impinged upon. A problem gambling more often then not does not gamble responsibly and may have been reprimanded by his boss, co-workers, or his loved ones about his gambling. He does not know when to quit. A pathological gambler is a person who gambles habitually and ritualistically. He does not play for entertainment but more often than not as a form of a career or another way of earning money. He is usually involved with criminal activities and may be involved with loansharks and other such gangsters. His personal and working relationships are in total disarray and are incapable of leaving the life of gambling without the help of professionals or a treatment centre.

“Pathological gamblers are described as highly disturbed individuals with substantial psychosocial interference from gambling and characterized by signs suggestive of neurological or neurochemical dysfunction.” (Blaszcynski, Nower, Pathways Model of Problem and Pathological Gambling, 2001). A pathological gambler may have begun as a casual gambler or he may have a history of drug or alcohol abuse. Alternatively, there is a possibility that a pathological gambler was born this way and was destined to become one in only a matter of time under the right conditions. However, it is certain that a pathological gambler’s neurology is dysfunctional. All gambling addicts have impulsive-compulsive tendencies but with the pathological gambler his brain justifies these tendencies with irrationality and often antagonistic reasoning.

THE IMPULSIVITY OF A PATHOLOGICAL GAMBLER

It has been observed that the background of the impulsiveness of a pathological gambler is a collaboration of his behavioural problems that have little or nothing to do with his gambling. His history may have involved extreme rebellion against authority, the unwillingness to follow rules or order, his aggression and hostility with people, his erratic disruptive mannerisms caused for no real reason or purpose, his general irritability, his delinquent nature, and low tolerance for boredom or monotony. In his youth, a pathological gambler may have a history of becoming easily aggravated and reacting antagonistically to these conditions in his home, school, and neighbourhood enabling this antisocial behavior. Substance and alcohol abused is displayed early on his life and he may have been involved in some form of illegal gambling enhancing his cognitive behavior conditioning.

The pathological gambler as a child begins to alter the neurotransmitters in his brain coaching himself to learn how to cope with aggravation and other stressful conditions by allowing himself to act out in decadent manners. He self-manages the increase of serotonin by engaging in behaviors that create either euphoric sensations of winning, victory, arrogance, and superiority or self-indulgence and hedonism. Some of these behaviors may come out in a form of violence, anarchism, sulking, silent treatment, temper tantrums, and in worse case scenarios sadism and criminality. This creates a ‘rush’ of delinquent behavior and thereby creating a reward/pleasure from either getting what he wants is similar to when a cocaine addict takes a hit releasing the dopamine levels, affecting the reward/pleasure centre of the brain, by activating his serotonin (motivation and drive centre). This Pavolvian Method formats an impulsive self-controlled mechanism alters the dopaminergic pathway assisting the pathological gambler to crave a reward triggering the dopamine release in feelings of euphoria reinforcing this antagonistic behavior. A repeated or prolong use of this high is accompanied by a chronic perturbation in brain-reward homeostasis. Brain changes moves to pathological neuronal maladaptions as moderate or short access drug use escalates to long access and compulsive use.” (Ahmed and Koob, 1998).

These brain alterations are also what causes the pathological gambler to act on his triggers impulsively and are irreversible. The changes will also affect the pathological gambler’s relationships negatively further increasing the needs to behave in this way and are very similar to a person with an antisocial personality disorder. He will easily find himself alienating other people due to his frantic hostility, irrationality, stubbornness, foul language and behavior, deviousness, deception, and self-centeredness. In his mind, he may find this demeanor somewhat eccentric and will feel that it gives him ‘character’. Naturally, others would find it obtuse, repelling, and are uncomfortable around him so they chose to alienate themselves.

THE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF A PATHOLOGICAL GAMBLER

Poor social skills would have also begun early on in a pathological gambler’s childhood and may have developed from a dysfunctional family where one of the parents or both have a mental illness disorder (mild or chronic), one of the parents or both were abusive to each other and/or to the children, or a family history of antisocialism. As a child, a pathological gambler has no tools or skills nor understanding of dealing with these familial conditions. In most cases, the pathological gambler as a child becomes the brunt out of the mental, emotional, psychological, and physical abuse as opposed to the rest of his siblings. It is his inherent characteristics of being rebellious, obstinate, deceptive, and hostile that tends to create these conditions.

However, after enough years of this form of adaptation, the child develops these pathological mannerisms simply as self-defence mechanism. Over his academic years, this child find school very challenging. His teachers will not have the understanding, lack the tools and skills, and have a class of thirty to still attend to giving them the same time and energy that they deserve. The teacher will experience the potential pathological gambler child as unruly, crass, and impossible to manage and may either ignore him or humiliate him in front of the rest of the child. With enough punishment and mental castration, the student becomes to loathe authority as he finds it only demeaning, unfair, and to a certain degree malevolent.

It becomes understandable how a potential pathological gambling youth begins to find his pleasure by seeking mischievous activities either by going out solo or by hanging around other peers who will badly influence him even more so. Research around youth gambling has shown that gambling begins at an early age sometimes with the combination of alcohol or substance abuse. In some urban neighborhoods, the lifestyle of a gangster is also glamorized by people involved in gangs or some potential pathological gamblers are ‘initiated’ into the life through various top men on top. This world becomes highly provocative and inspiring to this child as by now his pathological cognitive behavior and social skills have been groomed intentionally or otherwise through the years of living at home, his school, and his peer group. These behaviors and activities rapidly escalate in intensity and severity establishing a well-adjusted pathological individual who has formed various addictions including gambling.

THE PSYCHE OF A PATHOLOGICAL GAMBLER

“Pathological gamblers are less motivated to seek treatment in the first instance, have poor compliance rates, and respond poorly to any form of intervention and therefore have been labelled these gamblers the ‘antisocial impulsivist subtype. (Moal, Koob, Drug Addiction: Pathways to the Disease and pathophysiological Perspectives, 2006). One of the causes of the poor compliance rate achieved from a pathological gambler is due to their compulsive lying. Honesty is at the forefront of any recovery or therapeutic sessions up to and including the Gambling Anonymous format. Pathological gamblers have been lying and being deceptive ever since they probably can remember. When one goes back to their childhood and familial background, lying and deceit possibly came out some form of survival tactic.

Living in an abusive home, particularly regarding physical or sexual abuse, lying plays a big role in that home. When any child is put in a situation where physical abuse is apparent at home any reasons whether it is about breaking something in the house or coming home at a time when they aren’t supposed to means facing being physically abused, they are highly reluctant to tell the truth. Equally, when a child is accused and must face physical abuse regardless of they did the alleged ‘crime’; the child is faced with confusion. In the former case, the child will know that lying is the only way of getting out of a confrontational situation; he could develop compulsive lying as he grows older. In the latter case where the child becomes psychologically bamboozled, he will be eventually be unable to discriminate between lying, truth telling, or worse case scenario will be able to easily lie to himself which will create denial making his own recovery for pathological behavior almost impossible.

“Stress hormones may be one of the biological factors determining vulnerability to the ‘rush’ and it is possible to predict proneness. Other factors of vulnerability concern temperament. The strongest associations with the comorbid psychiatric disorder are found with mood and anxiety disorders, antisocial personalities and conduct disorders.” (Glantz, Pickens, 1992). Being deceitful and deceptive is a stressful way of living as it means always being on guard, looking over your shoulder, and spending a good part of the time being quite calculative. Simultaneously, there is a ‘rush’ that is acquired from manipulation whether it is being able to convince others or by the act of manipulating itself. In other words, lying or manipulation is part of the ‘drug substitute’ for a pathological gambler hence that is partially why gambling is described as so exhilarating and thrill-seeking.

Lying is only one form of dishonesty that the pathological gambler subjects himself and others to. Creating a false image is another method of dishonesty that a pathological gambler falls into as in this state, he enjoys the double life finding that it allows him to possibly feel superior to others. This psychology could be based on his initial feelings of feeling important. Most pathological gamblers started off their lives in urban, ghetto, or generally impoverished neighborhoods and usually have come from working class to low-income homes. The will to succeed financially, get a position of power, and be an acclaimed person in the community tends to be strongly inherent from these poor conditions.

TREATMENT AND RECOVERY

Pathological gamblers are recommended to go into intensive treatment at a facility for a minimum of three months for them to begin the process of recovery. These institutions have clinical professionals and recovering addicts to guide them along the treatment plan. Most of them are focused on drugs and alcohol which can be helpful to the compulsive gambler, however, for a pathological gambler it is better suited for him to go to rehabilitation centre that is primarily based on gambling addiction. In this way, the pathological gambling can attend fully to his addiction concentrating on the various aspects i.e. financial debt; cognitive behavior; relapse prevention; anger and stress management, etc.

He will undergo a screening test and see a clinical psychologist immediately to also establish if there is any other mental illness or personality disorders he may have in case he needs to be put on any medication prior or during his stay in treatment. The clinical professional team that are employed in rehabilitation centres are social workers, counsellors (psychologists or those with a background/degree in psychology), nurses, and sometimes doctors and psychiatrists work in the centre or at immediate disposal but are employed elsewhere depending on the size of the rehabilitation centre. Recovery coaches, who are recovering addicts, also act as counsellors but they are focused on the 12 Step Program helping the pathological gamblers to understand themselves and find recovery from a program that has been used from several support groups i.e. Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotic Anonymous, Gambling Anonymous, etc. helping other addicts all over the world for almost 100 years when AA began in the United States.

Such problem gamblers have lived in this state of pathology for almost there whole lives and it has affected every area of their lives: emotionally; mentally; physically; psychologically; and spiritually therefore it will take many years for them to begin the process of really overcoming their addiction. It has been said that it takes 28 days to change a man’s mind so it is with addiction. However, what tends to happen with addicts over the 28 day period is that they become aware of where there addiction has taken them, how it has hurt themselves and the risks it involved with their lived one, and where continuing a life journey will inevitably lead them to: jails, institutions, and death. There has been a strong observation that many gambling addicts relapse after there 28 days. It has equally been proven that the longer one stays in treatment the less likely they are to relapse.

Hence, having a three month program is best recommended but if one can afford to stay longer whether it’s six months or twelve months; the risks of relapse become so much lesser. Again, if one cannot afford this even going to an outpatient treatment after the three months many of these pathological gamblers stay in recovery. Being in a safe environment occupied with facilitators and other like addicts will allow the pathological gambler to rehabilitate himself into recovery fully in other perspectives for example changing his thinking so he can be able to use them when he goes out should he find himself having ideas of gambling and stopping them as propping them as possible. Also he will be able to alter his behavior and thereby look out for warning behavior signs that are similar to the way he acted in active addiction that can also lead to relapse.