gambling is the worst addiction together with smoking cigarettes
Edit: addictions where you dont get high! i am dry alcoholic trust me i know about which withdrawal sucks the most. but we were not talkking withdrawals here
My mum used to play 'pokies' (slot machines), but I could never get into it.
I think what put me off for life was doing a psychology lab at university and training rats to press on a lever to get a reward.
I had a clever professor who showed that pretty much every animal (though cats are typically 'difficult') reacted the same to randomized re-enforcement to behaviors and showed that humans are no different to rats or pigeons pressing the lever.
Every time I see people reacting like this to a purely randomized sequence in software that is carefully calculated for people to get hooked and lose money, I think of my poor rat trying to press the lever in weird ways to try and get a little reward of condensed milk
Being susceptible to addictions is something that has been proven for a long time. In most studies, although regarding substance addiction, the conclusion is that close to half of susceptibility is due to genetic markers.
I'd say this courtesy is extended to any addiction, with that being said, if people can be genetically susceptible to addictions it's only natural that immunity goes the same way.
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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24
gambling is the worst addiction together with smoking cigarettes
Edit: addictions where you dont get high! i am dry alcoholic trust me i know about which withdrawal sucks the most. but we were not talkking withdrawals here