The Next Best Thing to Winning for a Compulsive Gambler is Losing
The feeling I was looking for was the terror . . . that absolute sinking feeling after I hadnt beat the spread in a football game or I had used money I couldnt lose (like my rent). That was even better than hitting 2 races in an afternoon. Even at the poker machines, the most I could win was $600 and while it was a thrill, I knew I would put it all back in the machine but if I ended up owing $600 to friends, that was really intense. The bigger the loss, the bigger the rush. —38-year-old male pathological gambler
After listening to dozens of compulsive gamblers in recovery groups, one thought keeps popping up and that is this: losing and then covering, or trying to cover, the losses the following day can give a bigger high than winning. While this thinking is prevalent in pathological gamblers (severely compulsive), it is also found in many problem gamblers (less severely compulsive).
The development of tolerance brought about by excessive gambling is one of the main reasons for this contradictory thinking. Most compulsive gamblers had a big win early in their gambling careers that helped trigger their addiction. Over time, the likelihood of other big wins diminishes, particularly as tolerance builds. It takes bigger bets and bigger wins to get the same high. For any gambler, big wins are few and far between, but the feelings (though negative) can be just as intense when a gambler loses a lot of money. It might take weeks to hit a jackpot on a slot machine but even a good gambler can end up a loser every night.
The neurochemistry of addiction gives a clue to this seeming contradiction. When a bet is made, the reward/reinforcement pathway is activated. The nucleus accumbens is stimulated and the users mind interprets this as a confirmation that what they are doing is good. The activation also urges the user to repeat the action, again and again and again. But, since the nucleus accumbens also signals relief from pain, an intense activation of this system can also be interpreted as a rush. The message that this action should be done again and again is quite similar so the pattern will be repeated.
Since one purpose of compulsive gambling is to forget past or present memories and problems, any action that keeps the mind intensely occupied and unable to feel resentment, fear or guilt is pursued.
While it appears to the non-user (in this example, a non-gambler) that dependence on a behavior or substance makes no sense, it often does just what the user wants it to do.
William E. Cohen