Gambling addiction in the context of "Self-medication"

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⭐ Core Definition: Gambling addiction

Problem gambling, also known as pathological gambling, gambling disorder, or ludomania, is repetitive gambling behavior despite harm and negative consequences. Problem gambling may be diagnosed as a mental disorder according to DSM-5 if certain diagnostic criteria are met. Pathological gambling is a common disorder associated with social and family costs.

The DSM-5 has re-classified the condition as an addictive disorder, with those affected exhibiting many similarities to those with substance addictions. The term gambling addiction has long been used in the recovery movement. Pathological gambling was long considered by the American Psychiatric Association to be an impulse-control disorder rather than an addiction. However, data suggests a closer relationship between pathological gambling and substance use disorders than exists between PG and obsessive–compulsive disorder, mainly because the behaviors in problem gambling and most primary substance use disorders (i.e., those not resulting from a desire to "self-medicate" for another condition such as depression) seek to activate the brain's reward mechanisms, while the behaviors characterizing obsessive–compulsive disorder are prompted by overactive and misplaced signals from the brain's fear mechanisms.

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Gambling addiction in the context of Poor Folk

Poor Folk (Russian: Бедные люди, Bednye lyudi), sometimes translated as Poor People, is the first novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, written over the span of nine months between 1844 and 1845. Dostoevsky was in financial difficulty because of his extravagant lifestyle and his developing gambling addiction; although he had produced some translations of foreign novels, they had little success, and he decided to write a novel of his own to try to raise funds.

Inspired by the works of Gogol, Pushkin and Karamzin, as well as English and French authors, Poor Folk is written in the form of letters between the two main characters, Makar Devushkin and Varvara Dobroselova, who are poor third cousins twice removed. The novel showcases the life of poor people, their relationship with rich people, and poverty in general, all common themes of literary naturalism. A deep but odd friendship develops between them until Dobroselova loses her interest in literature, and later in communicating with Devushkin after a rich widower Mr. Bykov proposes to her. Devushkin, a prototype of the clerk found in many works of naturalistic literature at that time, retains his sentimental characteristics; Dobroselova abandons art, while Devushkin cannot live without literature.

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← Poor Folk
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Gambling → Mental disorder → DSM-5 → American Psychiatric Association → Impulse-control disorder → Addiction → Obsessive–compulsive disorder → Self-medication →