A 23-year-old college student is deeply addicted to online gambling and even bets everything on it! Experts: This is a disease and needs to be treated

Recently, the Addiction Medicine Center of Hunan Second People's Hospital (Provincial Brain Hospital) admitted a 23-year-old college student. At the best age of 23, one should have dreams, work hard, and lay the foundation for the future. However, Xiao Zhang, who graduated from college in June 2024, was deeply trapped in the quagmire of gambling, which plunged his originally high-spirited life into endless darkness.

Online gambling is a world that seems full of temptations but is actually full of deadly traps. Behind the virtual screen, greed and desire are intertwined, devouring the reason and wealth of one person after another.

Xiao Zhang lost himself in it and even risked everything by taking out a huge loan, losing more than 300,000 yuan in half a year. When Xiao Zhang lost all his savings, he did not wake up in time, but went further and further down the wrong path.

The abyss of online loans opened up to Xiao Zhang, who fell into it step by step, and his debts snowballed. Behind the seemingly easy-to-borrow money, there were high interest rates and endless collection pressure. Xiao Zhang was overwhelmed, but he still did not stop his crazy behavior.

With nowhere else to turn, Xiao Zhang even asked for money from his closest family and friends, wantonly squandering their trust and love for him. But that wasn't the worst, he even stole his father's car to pay off the debt, and it was only then that his father realized that his well-behaved and sensible child had made such a big mistake behind his back.

After a detailed examination, Zhou Xuhui, director of the Addiction Medicine Center of Hunan Provincial Second People's Hospital (Provincial Brain Hospital), confirmed that Xiao Zhang was suffering from a disease called "gambling disorder."

"Gambling disorder is different from ordinary gambling." Director Zhou Xuhui introduced that patients with gambling disorder often have three characteristics: First, they are full of yearning and impulse for gambling, give up legitimate entertainment activities, ignore their families, and even sacrifice their studies, work and future. Second, they will feel satisfied and intoxicated when increasing the time, frequency and amount of gambling; they often increase the stakes without considering the consequences, and the amount of gambling is getting bigger and bigger. Third, patients with gambling disorder may experience "withdrawal reactions" similar to quitting drinking and smoking, that is, once they stop gambling, they will experience discomfort symptoms such as tension, drowsiness, fatigue, insomnia, and loss of appetite, which will disappear quickly after resuming gambling.

Director Zhou Xuhui further explained that college graduates have just left the relatively regular campus life and faced with a new social environment and pressure, some people may feel that life is dull. The uncertainty and instantaneous excitement of winning or losing brought by gambling can satisfy their desire for adventure and excitement. For example, the outcome of each round at the poker table is unpredictable, and this feeling of tension and excitement is very attractive to some college students who have weak psychological endurance and seek excitement.

When young people face many problems such as job competition, economic pressure, and complex interpersonal relationships, gambling becomes an option to escape. For example, college students who repeatedly encounter setbacks in the job search process may fall into a negative mood and hope to forget the real troubles in the virtual world of gambling.

Some college students may be overconfident and think they can make a profit from gambling with wisdom and luck. They overestimate their ability to control the situation and underestimate the risks of gambling. For example, some students who have always performed well in their studies mistakenly believe that they can easily win in the so-called "probability game" of gambling. With the increasing abundance of credit products in the modern financial market, some college students can easily obtain loans. This allows them to continue to obtain funds to "make up for their losses" after losing money in gambling, thus falling into a vicious cycle of gambling.

Director Zhou Xuhui reminds everyone that with the arrival of the holidays, it is inevitable that friends and family will get together to play mahjong and poker. As the saying goes, "small gambling is enjoyable, big gambling is harmful to the body", but small gambling will definitely lead to big gambling, especially when the gambling behavior has the above characteristics, it is necessary to go to a professional institution for treatment in time to reduce harm and property loss.

Hunan Medical Chat Special Author: Ouyang Jingfu, Addiction Medicine Center, Hunan Second People's Hospital (Provincial Brain Hospital)

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(Edited by YT)