Gambling addiction recovery: Why you have to stop chasing losses….at all costs
Although a lot is not yet known about gambling, the research is pretty clear on one fact: Gambling involves an increase in the release of dopamine. For those of you who are not familiar with dopamine- it is a neurotransmitter and hormone in the brain that is implicated in many functions. Whilst it is often referred to as a ‘pleasure chemical’ it is so much more than that. Dopamine is involved in several important functions including attention, sleep, mood, movement and the seeking of pleasurable rewards. When released in the brain, we experience a sense of pleasure that causes us to want to seek out more of the behaviour that caused it. Unpredictability and anticipation stimulate the dopamine system and make us want to pursue more of the behaviour that we have learnt will generate the feeling of reward.
Liking vs wanting
‘According to researcher Kent Berridge, there are two systems, the “wanting” and the “liking” and these two systems are complementary. Dopamine is part of the wanting system. It propels you to take action. The liking system makes you feel satisfied and therefore pauses your seeking. But the dopamine wanting system is stronger than the liking system. You tend to seek more than you are satisfied. You can get into a dopamine loop. If your seeking isn’t turned off at least for a little while, then you start to run in an endless loop.’
(quoted by Susan Weinschenk PhD- see full reference at the bottom of the page)
The quote above explains well how our brain can turn itself into a greedy monster that does nothing but move the goalposts and yearn for more. In the case of gambling, the ‘wanting’ is for a feeling that is only on offer short-term. The anticipation and the gambling itself may feel rewarding, even when the aftermaths are destructive.
On the reverse, when we like something we have the possibility of deriving genuine satisfaction and pleasure in the moment of pursuing a desired behaviour without getting tempted to cross over into excess. As an addicted gambler you may also notice that it is perfectly possible to want for your addiction- but now without liking it even one bit!
Anticipation and unpredictability make experiences more rewarding
To make matters even more complicated, we also experience rewards differently depending on whether the reward is expected or not. This is something that has been referred to as ‘prediction error’ in the clinical literature and is an integral part of the dopamine system and reinforcement learning.
To put it simply, we will get more excited (and have a greater dopamine release) when the reward is unexpected than we will if the reward is anticipated. Sadly, for a gambler, this can also mean that a loss is wrongfully perceived as an ‘opportunity’ to correct the prediction error as opposed to the tragic but factual loss that has occurred. The excitement of ‘getting even’ effectively ends up creating further anticipation and thereby a drive to pursue more gambling.
The following excerpt is taken from the article referenced below. For those of you with a keen interest in understanding more about the neuroscience of gambling, I recommend reading the full article which can be accessed for free.
‘Studies of reward prediction and reward uncertainty show a sustained dopamine response toward stimuli with maximum uncertainty, which may explain the continued dopamine release and gambling despite losses in gambling disorder. The findings from the studies presented here are consistent with the notion of dopaminergic dysfunctions of reward prediction and reward uncertainty signals in gambling disorder’ (Linnet, Jacob (2013) Frontiers | The Iowa Gambling Task and the three fallacies of dopamine in gambling disorder (frontiersin.org)
Boredom is reinforced - not cured- by gambling
If you are prone to boredom (which many addicted gamblers are even before gambling is introduced into their lives) you can be certain that gambling will further whack the template for ‘fun times’ out of the normal range. Addictive behaviours such as gambling will produce powerful increases in dopamine due to the high levels of stimulation. But since gambling is an artificial way of achieving a dopamine hit and creates ‘spikes’ rather than long-term joy, you will need to return to the activity again and again to keep ‘topping up’. As most of you will have realised, this is not a sustainable pattern. Particularly not when you are someone who has come to harm from gambling. Sadly, the continued return to gambling will often result in downrating the enjoyment felt from normal day-to-day activities. Even those activities that are in reality more rewarding and wholesome, are now seen as ‘boring’ and less important to prioritise. This experience in its own right tends to be very depressing and alarming for those with addictions. If you are struggling to understand how this happens, you might wish to observe the impact on a child after spending a few hours on a game or an iPad. How willing would they be to sit down with a book or get cracking on a nice creative project after you have to tear the device from their hands?
When you chase losses you are compounding the negative consequences and creating a vicious spiral
Since you will end up getting so consumed with the highs and the lows and the anticipation of the next outcome, you end up forgetting the bigger picture. In reality- what is a win going to do if you cannot hang on to it anyway? Awful as it may sound, you are likely to just be prolonging the inevitable pathway to an empty bank account. If your net has been a large loss- then I am sorry to tell you that the trend is extremely likely to continue. It may be worth remembering that gambling is far from a charitable game and the odds are stacked against even the most controlled gamblers! The biggest guarantee about your gambling you will ever have as an addicted gambler is the guarantee of ending up broke! How’s that for a turn-off…..?
What will happen if you keep chasing your losses?
You will end up more desperate and you WILL lose all of your money. As if that was not enough, you will also be highly likely to get yourself into debt which will make you want to pursue further gambling in a vain attempt to recuperate your losses.
Let’s not forget that the entire leadup to a gambling session provides powerful emotional avoidance and a thrill that can push away most other life problems. Anything from scheming and planning for how to get the money together to the gambling episodes themselves provides a steady ‘stream’ of dopamine which in its own right will entice you to seek out yet another bet. The chasing will create feelings of compulsion, and obsession and make it harder to quit regardless of how badly things are going for you.
Gambling will ruin your self-worth and make you feel like you are losing your marbles! One of the really tough things to get peoples’ heads around is how a non-substance can create an addiction this powerful. Well, here is your answer. While you are not guilty of ingesting anything, the brain will be able to create a powerful cocktail that is every bit as addicting as any substance.
When you chase losses you will think that the most important thing in your life is that you reset the bank account. This type of skewed focus not only gives you permission to continue pursuing gambling almost in the name of carrying out an important job but also causes you to block out the rest of your life where the negative consequences of your addiction are already widespread. A proper look at those would otherwise provide you with plenty of cues to suggest that gambling has been objectively unhelpful and has created nothing but chaos and destruction in your life.
Chasing taps into the competitive side that many gamblers have in their predisposition. The game of ‘winning’ and ‘beating the odds’ becomes a sick game that is far removed from one’s true values as a human being and the objective satisfaction that could ever come from winning at any game of luck.
Gambling temporarily blocks out negative feelings, thoughts and sensations
A gambling episode often starts in the mind way before the actual behaviour of gambling takes place. It is worth noticing just how powerful a mood-changer the thought processes leading up to gambling can be in their own right. I have seen countless clients who in the moment of low and unpleasant feelings can swap their low mood for a rush of immediate hope and excitement- simply by starting to scheme about how their next bet will materialise. This is not a good thing as it clearly will not help one’s mood in the long term and will further reinforce gambling as a psychological ‘refuge’ despite gambling being the largest source of life impairment for those struggling with gambling addictions.
One of the most powerful examples I have ever witnessed of ‘self-medicating’ via gambling was a client I saw with Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder that involves too little dopamine in circulation in the brain which in turn affects movement and of course many other behaviours and functions. As many of you know, Parkinson’s sufferers may struggle with stiffness (as did my client). In the morning, he would start thinking of which bets he would place that day and he would almost immediately start feeling a bit more mobile. This is a scary example of how powerful the thoughts of gambling can be for the mind of someone who has become addicted to it. This poor man had quite literally started to ‘medicate’ himself with gambling. The consequences to him and his family were sadly very severe and yet, one can empathise with his desperation to feel ‘ok’ even if only for a few moments. Thankfully, his medication eventually got adjusted to a point where he was more able to control his compulsiveness and achieve a good level of mobility without gambling in his life. For many addicted gamblers, the felt need for avoidance has usually more of an emotional basis. As such, gambling and its associated dopamine release can create feelings of euphoria and elation. For those who have become very compulsive and addicted, the euphoria is normally not felt as strongly. Instead, it is the dissociation from the negative moods that represents the ‘medicine’.
The more you chase the more you want - dopamine ‘hunger’ takes on a life of its own
Since there is no saturation point, you will at some point find yourself chasing for the sake of the high provided by the chasing itself. As a gambler, you will likely enjoy the anticipation and buildup of the gamble session. (Often more so than the actual gambling as it happens) While gambling, there might be a win, which means that you get increasingly excited about the win but simultaneously crave a continuation of the high.
Sooner or later you will be facing losses. The losses trigger negative sensations that give rise to a desire to avoid and numb out via further gambling.
There will also be an increasing desperation to ‘get back what was lost’. This, plus the thrill of the unpredictable outcome will keep people locked in a loop where you gamble harder to end your addiction to gambling.
Meanwhile, your mind will construct clever excuses as to why it is worth continuing to gamble. Any attempt to disrupt this loop mid-cycle will likely give rise to unpleasant cravings. This experience in itself is hard to sit with and hence the draw to re-engage in the activity of gambling feels temporarily like a more sensible thing to do.
Chasing losses will make you fail to see the woods for the trees
One of the many complications with chasing losses is the tendency for it to become a pursuit in its own right. With this I mean the process by which the ‘bigger picture’ of your gambling will become blurry while you become engrossed in the short-term ‘payoff’ of the chase itself!
What will not be clear from this position, is the mere fact that chasing is now entirely an emotional process. You might tell yourself that you are not chasing but rather ‘recuperating’ losses. Or that you are giving the activity ‘just a few more tries’ since it would be your last shot at returning to a zero balance. You will quite likely know logically that your chances of winning back losses are microscopically small. This fact paired with the fact that you have lost control and cannot hold on to a win even if one came in, can pretty much equate your chances of walking out a winner to no chance at all! This is a painful realisation and yet another reason why it would be desirable to remain in the ‘chase mode’ as such provides a feeling of hope that it will all be ok again.
Take a long good think about that. You are chasing funds, gambling, stressing, freaking out at losses, chasing more….losing sleep, feeling anxious, worrying about your mental state and the list goes on. All with a guarantee of walking out more broken than when you entered! Although it brings you pain to think of this crazy spiral, I am encouraging you to think about it enough to bring motivation to put in appropriate level barriers to make it all stop. Your mind will rely on any of the loopholes you leave behind to turn the small spark that still lives inside your brain into a fire that burns for further gambling. You have to ensure that this is not allowed to happen again.
What’s the point of understanding what happens in the brain when I gamble?
By understanding what happens inside your brain you are not automatically going to succeed in overturning bad decisions or negating the urges and cravings that tell you to continue to gamble. With better insight, it can however aid detachment from the processes of the mind as you begin to understand the futility of chasing. In essence, the more you can see this activity as an emotional and entirely defunct process, the more likely you are to recognise that it is not about the money and therefore useless as a path to ‘break-even’. Secondly, even if you DID get the win and the money in your hand - what good is that if you still cannot stop chasing for more?
I am hoping that this long and slightly jargon-packed post can persuade a few of you to take control of your behaviour and channel your energy into ventures where there is a real possibility that you will be able to get your needs met long-term, be they financial or emotional. Since many people consciously chase losses while genuinely believing that it is the last chance saloon for their repayment of losses and debts, I thought it would be important to remind you that there are real ways of getting back on your feet financially. T None of them involve the possibility of an instant ‘jackpot’ or sudden disappearance of debt or financial or emotional hardship, but unlike gambling, they are guaranteed to work if you apply yourself properly. These include but are not limited to, locked savings accounts, external accountability on all financial matters, taking on some extra work and/or learning to live on less.
To know that no gambling will predictably lead to a better life albeit long term may not feel as thrilling - particularly not when your mind is hooked on unpredictability and buying into the ‘potentials’ of life. Playing the ‘long game’ of life and awaiting long-term outcomes is challenging at the beginning when you have just stopped gambling. I can however reassure you that having stability and certainty over SOMETHING during your recovery is precisely what your gambling-affected mind needs- even when it is not what it wants.
To stop chasing losses you don’t need to regain what has been lost. You also do not need to reach any particular point in your gambling addiction - be it an ‘up’ or ‘rock bottom low’.
Finally, cutting losses and stopping the chase requires you to ACCEPT that the current madness needs to stop, accept that any losses you have incurred are indeed lost and that your methods for emotional resurrection and recovering of losses have proven dangerously unhelpful.
For more info on acceptance read this post here
I have recently published a workbook/journal that I would recommend as an ‘accountability partner’ for your early days of recovery. Keeping track of what you are doing and what you are not doing is particularly helpful and important in the early days of recovery and enables you to get your habits into shape for long-term recovery. You can purchase the book here
With love,
Annika X