Gambling and Pathology
Gambling is commonly defines as games that wager for chance, which determines the outcome. In present day societies, money is the item of exchange; but in earlier time, gamblers exchanged seashells as their currencies. Others used jewelries, beads, and food as the sources of exchange. In China, people cut the hairs of their head and used that as payment - sometimes they even cut their toes, fingers and limbs. Regardless of the currency used, playing a game of chance has become an enduring human activity. Anthropologists have discovered ancient texts and have documented that gambling has been practiced throughout civilizations. It's still common today and growing, thanks to legalized corporate-run gambling businesses. In the United States, with the promotion of gambling by the government as a major source for revenue, problems of compulsive players have been increasing recently. Estimates measure that among the American adult population, about 1.2% to 2.3% are pathological gamblers.
Pathological gambling (also known as compulsive gambling) is a progressive behavioral impairment whose traits include the periodic or continuous loss of control over gambling. A pathological gambler is often preoccupied with the game and is obsessed with acquiring money by gambling. This behavior is coupled with irrationality, losing a sense of responsibility and of consequence on the adverse effects gambling.
The difference between this addiction from that drug and alcohol abuse is that compulsive gambling does not involve any chemical substances. Still, psychiatrists labeled this as a form of addiction primarily because of the personality factors involved with compulsive gamblers, their difficulties, and the treatments of such mental state that are required. Like alcohol and drug abuse, gambling addiction revolves an obsession to satisfy a short-term need without considering the long-term damage it may cause the individual.
Problem gambling, on the other hand, is the milder form of pathological gambling in such a way that these individuals gamble continuous that interferes with their basic occupational, financial and interpersonal relationships. Pathological Gambling is much more severe and is now classified as a medical illness with its own diagnostic criteria. Treatment of it is understood through in the context of medicine. The severity of such behavior can be exemplified in an estimated study that one out of every five compulsive gamblers attempts to take their own life.
The danger of pathological gambling is its continued increase, not only because the traditional gambling businesses such as casinos, lotteries and horse racing are thriving, but because new gambling forms are being introduced. Video poker and internet gambling are prone to cause more gambling disorders because of the rate of their growth and its nature to be played in isolation.
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