Risk addicts - Gamblers Anonymous

The risk addicts - FT.com: " . . . on any night of the week in London, if you go to a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, you will find a City banker turning up in tears over how much money he has just lost. This is according to Martin, a 29-year-old banker, who one night in the winter of 2011 stumbled into such a meeting, distraught at having lost nearly £200,000 playing blackjack online. . . . “Only about 1 per cent of traders with gambling problems ever come forward,” he says. “No one wants to admit it. Partly, it’s pride, but it’s also because everyone’s scared of losing their job.”. . . Their defining trait is a grossly exaggerated confidence that they are going to make money – something that, in a weaker form, may be a good thing in a trader but in this extreme variety is a disaster. “They have an overinflated perception of their ability,” she says. “They are intelligent and socially skilled. They have high expectations of themselves and if they don’t succeed the consequences of that may lead them to take greater risks.”.  . . In general, people who become addicted to gambling fall into one of three camps. For some, it’s genetic. With others, it can come as a result of early childhood trauma. But most trader-gamblers fall into a third category. Bowden-Jones believes they get hooked on gambling because their brains are wired differently: the thrill they get from putting money at risk is irresistibly large. “These young men who become addicted to gambling become wildly aroused by winning – and losing – money.”. . . Read full article at link above. For more information on this subject go to www.gamblingconcern.org; www.cnwl.nhs.uk/cnwl-national-problem-gambling-clinic

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Herald Sun
Mittiga, who successfully treated former Crows captain Simon Goodwin and ex-Demon Daniel Ward for gambling problems, regularly has players referred to him by the AFL Players' Association for treatment of gambling and drug addiction. Access all Areas.

Cigarette Craving Driven by Brain's Self-Control Circuitry
LiveScience.com
Addiction to cigarettes and other drugs may result from abnormal wiring in the brain's frontal cortex, an area critical for self-control, a new study finds. Drug cravings can be brought on by many factors, such as the sight of drugs, drug availability ...

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