Many people who struggle with gambling disorder also suffer from substance use disorders. The self-regulation model theorizes that gambling and substance addictions share a common origin of attachment trauma, which manifests as alexithymia. Alexithymia is a personality trait where people struggle with identifying and expressing their emotions. The researchers surveyed 369 Spanish adults with a substance use disorder. They assessed for attachment styles, alexithymia, and gambling problems.
The researchers found that an insecure attachment style and a higher score of alexithymia increased the probability of gambling problems. The mechanism that insecure attachment style increases the risk for gambling problems is partially through alexithymia. That is, people with an insecure attachment style are more likely to have alexithymia. Thus, they gamble as a way to deal with the distress of not being able to properly handle their emotions. This increases their risk for gambling problems.
