75% of gambling addicts are also addicted to nicotine…and this should come as no surprise as nicotine suppresses the part of the brain that’s designed to check irrational and illogical behavior. There’s a part of our brain called the prefrontal cortex, which is designed to make sure we don’t act illogical, irrationally and stupid……even if what we’re doing feels good and stimulates our reward centers. When we look at a piece of cake or an attractive person or when we’re feeling groovy about anything……the prefrontal cortex is supposed to always butt in and say, “hey, should you really being doing this? What’s the long term consequences of your actions? Is this going to make your life better or worse long term? Maybe you need to think a little harder about what you’re doing here.”

Saying all that, nicotine shuts that intelligent part of the brain down and also activates the part of our brain that has no ability to judge the long term consequences of our own behaviors. Alcohol also does this as well and this is why alcohol is served in all casinos, in order to prime the brain for idiotic, irrational and inept behaviors……..which of course are famous for devastating gamblers across many areas of their lives, not just financially. If you would fold caffeine (coffee) into the study of chronic gamblers, in conjunction with their documented issues with alcohol and nicotine, you would see nearly a 100% correlation……..and that’s because caffeine is one of the world’s most effective substances as well, for shutting down the primary protective functions of the prefrontal cortex.

If you want to be successful in life and that often simply means “keeping your suffering to the bare minimum”, you’ll need to learn how your brain works and how substances like coffee, nicotine and alcohol make you extremely likely to experience catastrophic failures during your time here on the planet. Trust me, that little glass of wine on the weekends, that little puff or that morning coffee are doing things to your brain and to your life…..that you’re not aware of. I’ll be discussing all these issues and more in my on line course on self sabotage, released in Nov 2018. Essential knowledge if you want to live your best life or if you just want to suffer a little less. If you would like to be placed on the e-mail list for the release date, just message me your e-mail address. Knowledge is power. Power up. Power to the people.