People who claim that gambling isnt really an addiction because theres no substance abuse involved make me mad.

The scientific facts surrounding problem gambling are clear:

Gambling causes measurable, objective changes in your brain chemistry.

People think they have a lot of control over their actions and feelings, but the reality is this:

Most of us are at the mercy of hormones in our brains that affect our decisions dramatically.

The emotions you feel are chemical storms going on in your brain. Winning at gambling releases dopamine, which makes you feel good.

Thats the same chemical that gets triggered when you abuse a substance.

The purpose of this post is simple:

To describe what gambling does to your brain.

Dopamine is a hormone that your central nervous system uses to communicate from one nerve cell to the other. Scientists call them neurotransmitters, and dopamine is only one type of neurotransmitter in your central nervous system.

And, of course, the brain is the main organ in your central nervous system.

Think of dopamine as one of many chemicals that conveys messages from one cell to another.

Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that causes pleasure. When you enjoy something anything part of the reason is because it releases dopamine.

Dopamine affects how your brain and body handle things like learning, mood, pain, and sleep. It also affects some strictly physical functions like your heart rate, your kidney function, and even lactation.

Changes in dopamine levels can cause mental health issues like ADHD and schizophrenia.

But the most interesting thing dopamine affects at least for the purpose of this blog post is addiction.

Drugs trigger the release of a lot of dopamine in your brain, making you feel good.

But after you repeatedly use a drug, you grow less susceptible to this sensation, and your body also stops making as much dopamine naturally.

And this leads to gambling addiction.

And it leads to depression when you first give up your substance of choice.

You might think that the only people who suffer from withdrawal symptoms are alcoholics and drug addicts. If thats the case, youre way off base.

Compulsive gamblers suffer the same withdrawal symptoms as drug users. Since gambling acts as a trigger for dopamine release, gamblers often feel great just like someone would if he were on cocaine, for example.

In fact, dopamine is the most powerful neurotransmitter in your body.

And how much extra dopamine gets triggered when youre gambling?

Imagine 10X the usual amount of dopamine flooding your brain.

Thats why some people cant stop gambling.

And it gets worse, because you cant predict when youre going to get the dopamine hit.

It takes time, but once someone has gamble enough, the brain forms a tolerance to the dopamine released by gambling. Drug users experience the same phenomenon.

Basically, think of your brain as having a pleasure reward system. This system gets weaker over time with overuse of that dopamine response.

But youre still craving that feeling, so you need to take bigger risks to get bigger rewards (more dopamine).

In the short run, you start to crave the thrill. These cravings get harder to deal with over time.

In the long run, most people eventually have to cut back on their gambling because their casino bankroll runs out. Now you have no dopamine release going on, and you start to feel depressed.

For most people, counseling is in order at this point.

Someone diagnosed with gambling disorder cant control his craving to gamble, regardless of the consequences. If you want to see this in action, check out a movie called The Gambler. (Either version, will do, although I like the original with James Caan.)

And these consequences can be far reaching. It can affect your finances, for obvious reasons, but it can also go on to damage your relationships. Eventually it will take a toll on your mental and physical health.

Problem gambling wasnt even considered a legitimate mental illness until 1980, when it was listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Thats the book the American Psychiatric Association uses to outline mental illnesses.

Problem gambling was renamed gambling disorder and moved to the Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders section of the manual in 2013.

This clarifies sciences greater understanding of how similar substance addiction and gambling addiction are.

When it comes to the brains responses to gambling, you see the same symptoms as you would for drug addiction:

Scientists think that addicts, alcoholics, and problem gamblers all probably share similar brains that are somewhat different from a normal brain. These abnormalities relate to impulse control and how the brain processes rewards.

Remember those old commercials that said, This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.

Those were silly, but scientists are able to see exactly what goes on in someones brain when theyre using alcohol or drugs, and theyre also able to see what goes on in your brain when youre gambling.

They use images of the brain and chemical tests that measure the amounts of neurochemicals in the brain to measure this. Thats how they know that the brains of addicts and problem gamblers work in much the same way.

The two main areas of the brain that these studies look at are:

The prefrontal cortex is basically the portion of your brain in the front. It controls planning for the future and how your personality works. Its the goal-setting part of your brain, in other words.

When youre trying to pay attention to something, thats your prefrontal cortex going to work. Its also the part of your brain that thinks ahead about the consequences of your actions.

The ventral striatum is where your brain processes rewards. Its deep in your brain. It also controls your limbic system thats the part of your brain that process emotions and memory.

What do scientists see when youre gambling?

Blood flow to the prefrontal cortex and the ventral striatum increases in the same way that it does when a cocaine user takes cocaine.

They also see that, in general, the ventral striatum is less active in the brains of addicts and problem gamblers. Since thats the area of the brain that controls happiness, among other emotions, it seems clear that gambling and drug use blunts the ability of that part of the brain to do its job.

Any game of chance, including gambling, can be fun. In fact, most Americans have gambled at a land based casino at some point in their lives. When you ask people why theyre gambling, they usually talk about how much fun it is.

Most people are also aware that these are games that are specifically designed for them to lose.

What theyre not aware of is how these games are specifically designed to trigger certain aspects of your brain chemistry to keep you gambling.

One of the hallmarks of gambling is its uncertainty whether its the size of a jackpot or the probability of winning at all. And reward uncertainty plays a crucial role in gamblings attraction.

As it turns out, your brain rewards uncertainty. Any time you do something that feels good, your brain gets a hit of dopamine. When you make the release of that dopamine uncertain, it motivates you even more to place that next bet.

Youd think that the equation for gambling is simple you win occasionally, releasing dopamine, so you keep playing hoping youll win.

But when someone develops a gambling addiction, losing can release the same amount of dopamine as winning.

Imagine being so addicted to gambling that you crave even more action when youre losing instead of just when youre winning.

Thats one of the reasons compulsive gamblers have so much trouble quitting.

Those arent the only aspects of the games that trigger reactions in the brain, either. Slot machines and video poker games have lights and music that also stimulate the release of dopamine in your brain.

Casinos and slot machine manufacturers have a financial interest in making these games as addictive as possible. They test every aspect of a games design, including the hit ratio, to make them as compelling as possible.

What does gambling do to your brain?

Mostly it triggers a dopamine response, and it eventually causes the part of your brain that feels pleasure to become numb requiring ever-larger hits of dopamine to feel good.

Excerpt from:

How Gambling Affects Your Brain - Casino Gambling and Addiction - BestUSCasinos.org