[LukeWalsh]

I thought this was strange too. I was just watching Gary open a few $500 football card boxes today (5 cards in each). Upon opening a box without any rare players he said: "That's what you get sometimes gambling!" So I think people know that's what's going on.

[thephyber]

> So I think people know that's what's going on.

Addicts generally know at some level that they are addicted. The core problem is more that addicts can't break the compulsive behavior without a significant intervention.

[slg]

Which is one of the reasons why these digital addictions can be such a big problem. Someone can't repeatedly open one pack of baseball cards after another endlessly. A limited number of packs exist, it requires time and energy to acquire them, and you will often have to interact with a human to get them. Those limitations serve as minor interventions. They act as a throttle on the addiction that simply doesn't exist when opening a never ending supply of loot boxes in the privacy of your own home.

[crawfordcomeaux]

In my experience as a recovering behavior addict, the difficulty partially lies in a lot of cultural concepts around addiction, recovery, and learning that run counter to what science tells us about learning. "Instantaneous recovery" is described as a random chance event, as opposed to possibly the outcome of someone who's got a better grip on how to grow because they were missing a single piece of wisdom that, when acquired or acted on, led to cascading network effects in the brain.

[AtlasBarfed]

I get hackernews think their conscious brains are in total control of their destiny, and I do think the nerdier and smarter you are the more that can be true, but psychology basically has proven this to be a self-delusion.

Your subconscious and instinctual drives have ludicrous control over your conscious thought. Anyone who knows an intelligent drug addict knows the lengths of rationalization that a conscious brain will wrap itself into in order to justify a fix.

[Bartweiss]

> Anyone who knows an intelligent drug addict knows the lengths of rationalization that a conscious brain will wrap itself into in order to justify a fix.

Talking to a clever, articulate addict can be downright scary Their ability to rationalize isn't just limited to fooling themselves and downplaying the problem to others. It's quite a surprise to hear someone justify their habit so persuasively that you have to go back and reevaluate whether they're right.

(Of course, another part of this is that a really self-aware addict is especially likely to see the motivators of their behavior. If they're consciously self-medicating, even harmfully, "just quit" is a crappy answer.)