I said to myself why not.
And then an epiphany came to me when I finished his book, or even when I was half way through the book.
This is what I have gathered from all information I have digested from various sources including reading Allen Carr's book.
Allen Carr said in his book on Easy way to quit smoking "Each cigarette does nothing more than make them feel how a non-smoker feels all the time". Perhaps gambling also does nothing more than make people feel how a non-gambler feels all the time.
Now with my understanding, gambling created a "feel-good memory" in my brain. Or sometimes I referred to as "dopamine memory".
When I feel low, for example when I feel depressed or feeling inadequate, there seems like a general anxiety that breeds inside me and I dreaded that feeling. My brain then remembered how to make myself feel good again. And exactly this feeling often leads me to enter a gambling venue such as a pub or bistro nearby and started putting money into the pokie machine. As soon as I sat down and play, my focus shifted, instead of feeling low, I began to focus on the machine, the reels the lines and the sounds, almost naturally the pokie machine take my mind somewhere else. And it never occurs to me that this is when I feel "normal" again. I maybe numbed and hypnotized in the moment, but I "FEEL normal", not sad, not low, but normal, like I am back to my "baseline" or even better, because of winning and hitting the features etc.
Of course when you loose all your money, you wanted to "feel good" again, and the cycle continues. This is also why people chase loses or even when winning or loosing enough, they would not leave. They felt compelled to stay until they have no money left to put in the machine. They want to feel good all the time and avoid feeling the nasties! Even you don't feel good emotionally, your brain chemicals speak differently, it tells your body you feel good from gambling because it registered it as a "happy-chemical memory".
My boyfriend used to think that because I was depressed and therefore I gambled. This was not true because I realized that I too gambled when I was feeling happy too. This greatly surprised me.
However, the same principle mentioned above was able to explain this. I was feeling high and therefore there was some nervous energies high above my "baseline" that I was subconsciously trying to "contain" or regulate. My brain of course remember gambling as one of the habit or event that my mind can stay running like a horizontal line on a graph
Instead of this:
Because the pokie machine are like so hypnotic with their sounds, the visual, the symbols, the features etc... It is no wonder we all feel different when we are gambling than when we are not. We may feel better, more "balanced", void of our life issues because at that moment we don't need to think about any problems and just concentrate on the lines and reels and the credits return. The ups and downs caused by life problems, debts, not having enough money were thrown out of the window when we gambled and were replaced by little peaks of the heart skipping a beat when you hit the jackpot or the free game feature.
SO NOW THAT YOU HAVE LEARNT why we "feel good" while we are gambling and your needing to "feel good and balanced". And gambling serves no purpose other than making you feel "normal" again, or even worst, put you in debt when you have no money for food and living and even buying what you want and need.
I hope you have an epiphany like I do and start finding other ways to balance your brain to feel good in other ways instead of gambling. It is not going to be easy, because the stimulus brought about by gambling is so huge, but you really have to make an effort. It takes time and never stop trying.
I also happen to change upon this document explaining the happy chemicals.
Happy Chemicals Explained
Till I write again, All the best.
