Final Post

I truly enjoyed this class. I have to say it helped me a lot, it taught me so many different aspects of motivation, that I was not aware of falling under motivation. There were several interesting points in the slides and book (I enjoyed sitting down and reading the book).

One of the topics I was most interested in learning was gambling addiction. This addiction has become a huge problem. The legalization of gambling has led to an increase in in associated problems. Gamblers have a tendency to seek opportunities to gamble and are not sensitive to negative financial and social consequences. When gamblers have the urge to gamble, this can be primed by gambling- associated stimuli. The things that attract gambles to gamble is the flashy advertisements and billboards, when they get that paycheck every week or two weeks, the sights and sounds of the gambling casino. Mesolimbic dopamine system is what is linked to the pleasure of gambling. Where as, dopamine antagonist (naltrexone) is implicated in the reduction of gambling pleasures.

The reason this topic stuck with me and I was interested in it, is because my uncle has a gambling addiction. He goes to Atlantic City every night of the week, uses his "comped" rooms and gambles all night then goes to work. He does this all the time. He has gambled so much and got into so much debt with the bookys that my aunt and uncle lost their house, this house was my aunts dream house that was finally complete. This addiction makes a lot of people not like him, especially the family. Even after losing the house and being in so much debt he still does not care and still goes to the casino every night. Also, my aunt does not help out because on the weekends she is right there next to him in the casino. It is very sad to see someone have a gambling addiction, any addiction for that matter, especially when it is your family that is so close to you, it literally affects everyone.