Gaming addiction (gambling) Gambling (eng. gambling - game of chance) or ludomania (from Latin ludus - game and Greek mania - passion, obsession), gambling addiction is a psychiatric term meaning a pathological passion for gambling. Modern researchers classify the pathological attraction to gambling as a non-chemical (behavioural) addiction. In these cases, the object of dependence is not a psychoactive substance, as in chemical dependence (alcoholism, drug addiction), but a behavioral pattern. Gambling is constant participation in gambling that jeopardizes a person’s professional and personal life. The concept came into use in the 60s of the last century in the United States of America, when slot machines began to be installed everywhere there. Gambling is one of the emotional addictions - the most dangerous for the material well-being of a person and his family and the most beneficial for the one who lets him “play”. The game attracts more and more, the patient complains that he is losing the sense of time and does not remember anything at all. Over time, family, reputation, work lose importance - indeed, this is a disease of the soul. Personality and all morality are destroyed, depression and physical illness set in - the cost is much higher than financial losses. There are a lot of criminal cases. Any form of game where there is a ghostly possibility of a huge win - be it roulette, betting, slot machines or lotteries - can become the starting point for its formation. Sometimes it is enough to play for just a few hours in a row for a persistent addiction to appear. The US National Association on Problem Gambling notes that anyone on the planet has a 48% chance of becoming a gambling addict. By comparison, the likelihood of becoming an alcoholic is estimated at 34%, and the likelihood of becoming a criminal is 6%. Pathology does not depend on how much time and money is spent on the game, but on the fact that a person, even after a big loss, is still drawn to play. F.M. Dostoevsky was able to write only after being completely lost, left penniless, having mortgaged and re-mortgaged all his property and unable to start the game again. Only the threat of starvation allowed the great Russian writer to temporarily master the addiction that suppressed his creative talent. Even Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was no stranger to the adrenaline wave of excitement; moreover, the poet admitted that cards were his only attachment. After his death, Tsar Alexander I had to appoint a special guardianship council, which was exclusively engaged in paying off the huge gambling debts of the gambling poet. There were gamblers in Soviet times, despite the prohibitions. Then all restrictions were lifted, and casinos and all kinds of gaming parlors opened on a massive scale. Doctors treating gamblers have experience communicating with all levels of society - among politicians and aristocrats, wealthy entrepreneurs, even scientists. Symptoms of gambling (ludomania) There are signs when gambling becomes a disease, which, as a rule, are visible only to loved ones, but to the person himself are not noticed. Addiction to gambling behavior is determined by several factors: 1. the degree of danger of behavior for the person himself and his environment, 2. depth of involvement in the game and the ability to abandon it, 3. inability to independently cope with the urge to play, 4. inadequate assessment of one’s addiction, the desire to hide it, deceit and concealment of expenses and, as a result, social, mental or somatic maladjustment. All this leads to problems at work, in the family, with health, mood, which are associated with excitement, gambling. Often a victim of such People who have very modest financial reserves become dependent. In general, the reason for such dependence is not in excess of money, but in the characteristics of personality, upbringing, environment, in the inadequate ways available to avoid stress and deprivation of problems. The main reason for such dependence is emotional emptiness, the aimlessness of life, from which, by the way, gamblingbehavior does not protect, but only provides temporary “cloudiness of mind.” Money as the goal of the game (“I play to win”) has nothing to do with addiction. Psychologists see a gambler’s behavior as a way to solve emotional problems. There are 4 main stages of gambling - winning, losing, recklessness and hopelessness. Gambling directly affects the increase in the number of suicides. There are several misconceptions that an addicted person succumbs to (due to them, the gambling business thrives). The first is the fallacy of the favor of fortune or fate. The second is the belief in one’s own exclusivity: “I can win because luck will smile on me.” But winning is not a merit of the mind or a gift of fate, but a well-thought-out psychological trick designed for ignorance and greed. These misconceptions are baits on which addiction grows. The next mistake - already a sign of addiction - sounds like this: “Now I will earn money by winning.” As a rule, such a misconception justifies the desire to get pleasant emotions in the game. The person received joy, excitement, forgot about the problems in the game, but does not want to admit it to himself. He says - I came to solve material problems, and I’m not running away from spiritual ones. Pathological addiction to gambling is included in the ICD-10 section: F63 - “Disorders of habits and desires” along with pyromania and kleptomania. To diagnose pathological gambling, the condition must meet the following criteria: 1. Repeated (two or more) episodes of gambling throughout the year;2. Resumption of episodes despite the lack of material gain, subjective suffering and disturbances in social and professional orientation3. Inability to control the intense attraction to play, to interrupt it with volitional effort; 4. Constant fixation of thoughts and ideas on gambling and everything connected with it. The manual for psychiatrists, based on ICD-10(2), mentions that the onset of the disorder usually occurs in adolescence in men and the second half of life in women. In the initial stage, a relatively large gain is typical, forming a subsequent dependence on the drive. Then the second stage begins, when gradually the entire way of life is structured around the game with a progressive decline in both social adaptation and skills in the game (the appearance of uncalculated moves, unjustified risks). The latter is the main cause of maladjustment, since, unlike the generally accepted opinion, pathological players, in in principle, have high technical skill in the game. Within 10-15 years, the third stage of complete decompensation may occur, accompanied by complete financial insolvency and criminal behavior. Is there a predisposition to gambling? General biological factors include, first of all, heredity and prenatal, peri and postnatal harms that contribute to the emergence of organic inferiority of brain structures and influence the formation of characterological properties of the individual. It was revealed that people addicted to the game are statistically significantly more likely to than in the corresponding control groups the parents were pathological gamblers. As for the organic inferiority of the central nervous system, here we should cite, first of all, the point of view of A.O. Bukhanovsky, who attaches particular importance in the formation of diseases of addictive behavior (including pathological addiction to gambling) to various cerebral diseases, brain injuries and other damage to the central nervous system, considering them as factors that contribute to the weakening of inhibitory processes with the development of hyperexcitability and rigidity of mental processes. Speaking of personal characteristics of pathological gamblers, characterological traits were identified: 1. loss of control over one’s own behavior, and this applies to all types of gambling - from betting to slot machines.2. higher levels of neuroticism and impulsivity compared to the control group of healthy people. In this aspect.