Anna Lembke

He had this phone.

He could pull it out during grand rounds when he was supposed to be listening to the speaker and scroll through results of all the different sports.

And then he could place a bet.

And that accessibility just absolutely ensnared him.

And he found himself completely caught up in it to the point where he was now spending not hundreds of dollars, but thousands of dollars.

Not monthly, but weekly and eventually daily.

And in about six months, he completely spent the trust fund that he had inherited from his parents...

in order to pay for medical school.

And he was so ashamed that he didn't tell anybody.

And he thought to himself, well, if I can just win, then I can get all the money back, and then I'll be fine.

So he took out an enormous loan without telling anybody to pay for medical school.

And he thought, okay, I'm going to put it in the bank, you know, I'm going to pay it back.

And instead, he gambled that away, too.

So this was somebody who just found himself really getting intense pleasure out of the cycle of shopping online.

He would spend quite a bit of time searching for different items that he was interested in buying and the process of kind of like the treasure hunting was very entrancing and rewarding for him.

all kind of building up slowly to the point where he would choose the item that he would buy and then buy it.

And then he would be waiting in anticipation for it to be delivered to his home.

And all of that was very pleasurable.

And then it would be delivered and he would open it and take it out.

And it was the thing that he wanted and it felt so good.