Unsatisfied Basic Needs And Addictive Behavior

The idea of the basic needs model is that humans tend to satisfy the feeling of "vitality" in their lives through meeting the physical needs for food, water, and shelter. Then there are secondary needs such as social support, self-respect, and self-esteem. For these reasons, when people feel that their basic needs have not been met - either by natural disaster or by the government - they are more likely to turn to addictive behaviors like gambling or shopping (to fill a void in their sense of vigor) rather than fulfilling their secondary need for sociability.

This article goes over how a person's lack of satisfaction can be caused by such things as unemployment or financial difficulty. The article also talks about how gambling and shopping can be developed out of the need to feel more vitality. It all comes down to how a person was raised, what their circumstances were throughout life, and their beliefs.

Treating gambling addiction is difficult because the treatment options are dependent on eliminating substances, but with gambling addiction there is no substance to eliminate. Still it's important to understand where you want to go in your life before gaging your progress by when you hit a certain monetary goal (ex: I'll be happy when I win so much that I make $100,000/year).

Most people who gamble will never become addicted to gambling. In order for a person to become addicted to gambling, they have to have many other things going on in their life that are causes for addiction (ex: financial difficulty, parents were addicts, etc.). Also if you can focus your attention on your objectives rather than gambling itself, this is likely to keep you from becoming addicted because if you lose your objective them you'll win.

The article then goes over the characteristics of a person who is likely to be an addict and how it relates back to their childhood. For example, children who have parents who are addicts are more likely themselves to become addicts as well.

Next the article goes over the factors that inhibit gambling addiction by analyzing a study in Canada. The study looked at 1,412 gamblers and found that five factors were linked to developing an addiction. Those are:

Lack of knowledge about the odds of winning and how much you're likely to win. This is due to being able to hide gambling from family members so they don't discover it. Religious affiliations that prohibit excessive gambling. Having a close support system (friends, family) who hold each other accountable for their behaviors and flaws so they can moderate or avoid certain behaviors altogether (ex: drinking alcohol). Perceiving the costs of gambling as worth it (it makes them feel good, it's entertaining, etc.). A gambling problem has to start at an early age (before the age of 18).

The article also talks about how these factors can be developed and also how they can be overcome. This is important because as we are all aware, gambling doesn't leave you with a lot of extra time to look around and analyze everything you're doing in your life. If you don't pay attention to your habits and why you do them, then it's impossible to fight the impulses that would otherwise prevent you from giving into your addiction.

The last part of the article goes over how to treat gambling addiction. The belief is that you have to tackle the problems or issues that are related to your addictive behavior and change your attitude around it. This also means that you have to take a step back from your problem, or in this case gambling, in order to really see what's going on and why you're doing it. It's hard for yourself to get passed this because in the moment all you can see is the "high" that gambling gives you, but if you can step away from it (with tools like meditation) then you might be able to make better decisions about what's going on in your life and how it relates back to gambling.

If you have any questions feel free to email me at n__n___@rcpg.ca or message me on Facebook. I'm always happy to answer any questions even if they're unrelated to my articles!

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The concepts behind this article are based on: http://www.journalofaddictionsrehabilitation.com/article/S1748-5764(13)00030-3/fulltext

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5P60oEQvkA&list=PLa5eMXgY78c2CAsuV7be8f6G0V7Odxd6O

Unsatisfied Basic Needs And Addictive Behavior

Unsatisfied Basic Needs And Addictive Behavior

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