I hope this helps you!

This is a little gem that I copied and pasted from another thread on here. I imagine its true for a lot of us!

Imagine inside your head two different brains. They're both made of your nerve cells and they’re both inside your skull, but they work independently and each comes to its own conclusions.

Brain 1 seeks pleasure. It loves the rush of the occasional winning moment.

Brain 2 does reasoning and strategy. It loves to plan for your future prosperity, and advise you on rational tactics to get there.

Brain 1 says "gamble". Brain 2 says "stop". Thus the experience of Mixed Emotions.

When Brain 2 explains the math, Brain 1 doesn't listen because it doesn't even know what math is. It's an animal. It doesn't plan. It just seeks pleasure.

So when the two disagree, neither one backs down. Brain 2 doesn't back down because it knows it has a valid point. Brain1 doesn't back down because it DOESN'T EVEN KNOW an argument is happening! That's just not how it works! It has ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA that "soon enough you will be in debt again". It doesn't do math. It doesn't know what debt is. It doesn't understand threats. It just keeps trying to get its “winning moment” thrill.

Left to their own devices, the two brains will battle each other in a Pythonesque futility:

“This isn’t an argument. This is contradiction!”

“No it isn’t.”

“Yes it is.”

By default, your "self" (wherever THAT is in the skull) obeys whoever shouts louder, brain 1 or 2. Which means you never know who will win on a given day. Which means you’ll relapse over and over.

For me, beating gambling means better refereeing of the conflict. When brain 1 shouts louder and refuses to listen to argument, he gets ejected from the game for unacceptable misconduct. The winner is chosen on the basis of better debate instead of loudness.

“That’s a yellow card for telling me to visualize the thrill of winning. Oh! That’s two yellow cards! You’re being sent off!”