How is gambling harmful?
Because it can affect:
Your MONEY
Your FRIENDS
Your FAMILY
Your MENTAL HEALTH
Your PHYSICAL HEALTH
Your CAREER
Your EDUCATION
But how?
Gambling can become an addiction, just like drugs or alcohol.
Gambling affects the part of our brain that releases dopamine. A ’feel good’ hormone that creates feelings of pleasure and reward. When we win a bet, our brain gives us an emotional reward.(mentalhealth.org)
Also, casinos and games are designed to be extremely entertaining/addictive (CMAJ, 2008).
While an addiction would present a severe outcome of gambling behavior, gambling is harmful also without being addicted to it. The money or other items of value which you’ll most likely loose are for most people the first experience of harm due to gambling.
Other forms of harm could include the missed opportunities of investing time in friendships, studies and hobbies.
Since, it is most definite that, loosing is part of gambling, in the long run gambling will probably also let you feel down and disappointed. Over time you will loose trust and confidence in yourself.
People’s engagement with gambling is compared to a continuum with increasingly more engagement in terms of time invested, financial risk-taking and consequences in daily life.
Watch the following video of a person with lived experience:
To summarize:
- The longer one plays the higher the losses
- Everyone can get addicted
- Gambling harms also without being addicted
- Gambling behavior becomes quickly more regular, often by starting to “chase losses”
- Once a habit, the harms become more severe and affect friendships, family, mental health, finances & criminal activities, career & studies
Write a blog post and respond to one other post by sharing your reflections on these two questions:
- Why can gambling be harmful also without being addicted?
- Why can it affect friendships, family and mental health, career and studies?