Why the Game Switches On: Disordered Thinking in Gambling

In this method, behavioral addiction to gaming and gambling is viewed not as "weak will" but as a specific pathology of thinking. At a certain moment a scheme switches on in a person's head that bulldozes straight through reality — and it is this mechanism of thought that must be understood before anything can change.

The "chosen one" scheme

During play, a particular kind of thinking activates in the gambler: "right now I'll get lucky, I'm the chosen one." The mind builds a scheme — as if today, in this very moment, fortune will fall. This is not calculation but an affective construction posing as certainty.

"this pathology of thinking switches on in him — that right now I'll get lucky, I'm the chosen one"

Against the laws of probability

Probability is a law of nature. Yet the addict's thinking builds constructions that run counter to facts and to the laws of probability. The doctor's classic example: two casinos facing each other at one intersection — a person loses in one and thinks, "then across the street I'll surely win." Logic and critical judgment are replaced by affect, and the person acts in defiance of reality.

"thinking builds constructions that go straight through, disregarding all the laws of nature — that is, against the facts"

Why a person would hurt themselves

Behind the thinking disorder there may be different causes — phase states or something else. But the doctor names a particular motive too: it is as if the person wants to hurt themselves. Because they fear: if things get too good, then things will become too bad; if they are healthy, strong, and everything is fine — they'll be abandoned, attention and care will be withdrawn.

A relative of gambling — the "law of meanness"

The same pathology of thinking shows in the "law of meanness": "if I earn money and feel good — then something bad must happen." The doctor stresses that this is pure invention, an induced notion with no connection to reality. It works as a distortion of memory: when you took an umbrella and it rained, the event isn't remembered; when you forgot it and got soaked, it "leaves more impact." Only the confirming cases are snatched out of context. This same mechanism makes people fear well-being and sometimes destroy what they've achieved.

"necessarily, if everything is good for me, something mean and bad must happen"

How the method proposes to work

The method draws on the classical Swiss school and on a principle: everything that "surges from within" — intuition, a scheme, a premonition — must be re-checked with a sober head, separating fact from affective expression.

Practice

1. Write down the thought on paper at the very moment "intuition says I'll get lucky right now."
2. Set the note aside, rest, take a walk — let the affect "fall asleep."
3. Return with a sober head and re-read: is this a discovery — or an illusion, an affective expression, a scheme?
4. Test the thought against facts and the law of probability: do they confirm it, or are you only snatching the convenient cases?
5. When you notice the belief "if things go well, something bad will happen," name it as an induced notion, not a law of reality.