[austin-cheney]

Yes, the utility behind that behavior is that the brain floods itself with dopamine when task completion feels imminently close in anticipation of the approaching reward. The flooding of dopamine, which is the motivation, does not suggest increased dopamine reception, which is the reward.

That utility alone accounts for gambling addiction. Consider that slot machines are a game of random chance against fixed odds. Every time you play the chance of winning is random against the same odds just like the last time. The more a person plays consecutively without winning, a losing streak, the more the brain anticipates winning the next time which builds dopamine anticipation in the brain even though a person is just as likely to continue losing into the future on each iteration.

What's more interesting is that this addiction behavior can be flicked on or off instantly, like a light switch, with medication. What's more strange though is that medically induced gambling addiction, yes that is a very real thing, effects females far more than males. I don't know if the cause of difference in behavior by sex is identified.

[squidgedcricket]

Can you elaborate on what medications impact gambling behaviors?

I have some addictive/compulsive behaviors that have been hard to shake. GLP-1 agonists look promising, but I'm not sure how to get a prescription since I'm not overweight.

[austin-cheney]

This article explains it well: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9825131/

My suggestion, and I am not doctor or providing medical advise, is to make the addictive stimulus inconvenient. Each iteration must include more steps to increase labor of effort and each iteration must also take much longer to complete. This will re-balance the brain from prior established condition. The more painful, disconnected, or costly (in time and not money) an activity becomes the more dedicated you must become about achieving that activity before addiction can set in.

[matheusmoreira]

> make the addictive stimulus inconvenient

Assumes there is a limit to the amount of effort addicts are willing to put into getting their next dose. Easily disproved by the experience of caring for opioid addicts. Lesser drugs, even. Once upon a time, a seemingly rational benzodiazepine addict got so frustrated with my attempts to get him off of it he rose up from his seat ready to punch me in the face.

There are addicts out there who would sell their own mother for a dose. And I'm not just saying that. One of my former neighbours turned into one of these guys. People wouldn't believe the stories if I told them.

[austin-cheney]

There is always a limit. The realistic constraints of physical and social opportunities available to a given person are limitations irrespective of the person's quantity of motivation, which speaks to asset availability and social enabling. But none of this is relevant. The person to whom I replied is self-motivated to terminate their addictive patterns.

[squidgedcricket]

> The person to whom I replied is self-motivated to terminate their addictive patterns.

Kind of. The captain of the ship is motivated, but the helmsman needs to get his shit together.

[bratwurst3000]

could you tell me more about the medication. does it decrease dopamine production or does it increase reception?

[austin-cheney]

Here is an article I found about this subject: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9825131/