Mind Games

It is said that many gamblers care not about the winning and the losing, but instead are involved in a little existential game of "do or dare." Gambling, to these people, is a way to confront the chancy nature of existence within safe and comfortable bounds. If they win, they feel they are the masters of their universe and if they lose they go home strapped with no real penalty. It's as though they rationalize whatever money they have lost by simply reminding themselves that everything in their life is still in order. Risking money becomes a surrogate to the uncertainties of life.

I've played that same little mind game, too, but with taking the rationalization one step farther. I would tell myself that I was gambling because I was following an innate evolutionary programmed behavior to take risks; that gambling fulfills the impulse that fueled the pioneers and explorers, but since we are domesticated desk-jockeys, we have to find an outlet for that proclivity. It sounds reasonable, but its logic is flawed.

If I truly want to take risks, I can learn to rappel, sky dive, or scuba where there is an authentic sense of exhilaration. These are activities that if I come back in one piece I can truly feel content and high. Tricking the mind's pleasure/reward mechanism through gambling is like eating artificial sugar: the need is never really satisfied, and in fact, a greater craving for sugar is created.

And as far as playing the little mind game of "confronting the chancy nature of existence through gambling," that is like practicing a bad habit. For if one is to believe the great psychologist, Eric Fromm, the exact opposite is required to live a psychologically healthy life. Fromm says, "the great psychic task in life which a person can and must set for himself is not to feel secure, but to tolerate insecurity." This has been expressed many other ways, but perhaps its most common expression is found in Frederich Nietzche's quote, "that which does not defeat me makes me stronger."

Either bromide underscores the importance of confronting reality and our frailties, for that is where we gather our true strength.

Gamblers like to think they are risk takers, but what they are really doing is running from risks.