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Some people are naturally inclined to become addicted to things. It’s encoded into the human genome that many people who are addicted will have kids, and pass on that inclination. This is why the potential addict population is quite high in spite of its dangers. While the fact is that many addictions are fairly harmless, often it takes a proactive effort to keep someone from developing a truly nasty habit that ends up ruling their life.
For one thing, a gambling addiction can be a serious issue to overcome for someone. While it has been proven that quitting most kinds of addictions cold turkey almost never works, it has been proven that the tendency to become addicted to something an be controlled through becoming addicted to something relatively healthy. While most people would agree that an addiction like smoking isn’t especially healthy, an equally strong addiction to chewing gum is nowhere near as potentially harmful to a person’s health. This is why a lot of addictions should be avoided, and any effort to alter the addictive behavior should be encouraged.
For instance, a gambling addiction can be altered into something less harmful but equally stimulating, such as an addiction to exercise. While there is always the potential to be hurt by any kind of compulsive activity, being addicted to exercise generally just means a person gets extremely fit and needs less medical care over time. While a gambling addiction rarely kills anyone, it is often a contributing cause of bankruptcy. When a person changes their addictive patterns to something more beneficial to them, they can live far better.
