What is the psychological component of
making large amounts of money?

http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/hints/addictiveb.html
"Some experts suggest that if a person continues
to engage in the activity to achieve
this feeling of well-being and euphoria,
he/she may get into an addictive cycle.  
In so doing, he/she becomes physically addicted
to his/her own brain chemicals,
thus leading to continuation of the behavior
even though it may have
negative health or social consequences."

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The Money and Cocaine Connection: 
There are similarities between physical addiction
to various chemicals, such as
alcohol, cocaine, and heroin, and
psychological addiction to activities such as
gambling, making money, sexual activity,
working, running, shopping, eating, religion, et cetera.  
Addictive behavior produces
beta-endorphins in the brain,
which makes the person feel "high."  

Over time, a psychological addiction
can and often does overpower the individual
just as much as does addiction to alcohol or cocaine.  
The person becomes physically addicted
to the dopamine that is produced in his brain
when he engages in the addictive behavior.  

Researchers have determined that
making money and using cocaine
both stimulate the same part of the human brain.   

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The Love of Making Money:  
When you examine the corporate leaders,
you'll soon notice that these men (and a few women) 
fall in love with the process of making money.  

The results is that
the consequences of what they produce,
other than making more money,
soon becomes all but irrelevant.  

They have no personal use for the next ten million dollars.  
The money is just an ego-lifting number.  
What they do to employees,
to customers and to the environment
are also irrelevant to them.  
   

.3   Money and Addictive Behavior  

  4

Portions of the text below
were inspired by a quote about
the  addiction to money from:  
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-tian-dayton/money-addiction_b_221937.html 


We Begin with a Direct Quote:
"For the person addicted to money
their relationship with money
becomes their primary relationship in life
which means that other relationships become secondary.

Their personal drives and identity become
so wrapped up around

having money (the wealthy person),

accumulating money (the big earner)

spending money (the big spender) or even

giving money away (the big donor) ,

that they don’t know who they would be without their behavior.
Nor do they want to know who they would be without it.

Over time their core sense of identity
along with their ability to manage their moods
becomes overly dependent on
something outside themselves,
just as is the case with other forms of addiction."
        We recommend that you read the entire article.
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Although addiction can be to almost anything,
we will focus here on three aspects of money addiction --
Making Money,
Gambling with Money and
Risk Taking for Money
such as engaging in criminal behavior.  


Psychological Addictions:  
In addition to chemical addictions,
there are also psychological addictions.  
Psychological addictions, are addictions that involve
compulsive and/or out of control relationship
with certain activities such as gambling,
engaging in sex, eating, and making or spending money.  

With a psychological addiction,
a change occurs in the person's brain chemistry
that is similar to the change caused by
mood altering substances such cocaine.  

Engaging in a certain activities,
(gambling, making money, risk taking, et cetera)
can kick start the release of
brain/body chemicals, like dopamine, that produce
a "high" that's similar to the chemical high from cocaine.  
The person who is addicted to
some compulsive form of behavior,
is in essence, manipulating his own brain chemistry
with his activity.  

For people addicted to alcohol or drugs,
their lives become increasingly organized around
the use and/or abuse of the addictive substance.  
A person whose addiction is to making money,
gambling with money, or criminal activity
related to stealing money
can have his relationship with money spin out of control.  
The addict becomes overly focused on
accumulating money, spending it, hoarding it, or
using it to control people, places and/or things.   

Anticipation:  
In addition to the high one can get from an exciting  behavior,
there is also the high that comes from
the anticipation of the exciting behavior.  

Loss of Novelty:  
Just as with drugs (such as alcohol) and
almost everything else in life, there's 
The Loss of Novelty Effect.  
In other words, with repeated use, a tolerance develops
and the level of satisfaction drops.  
In order to achieve the same mood altering high
that the addict originally experienced,
he must devote larger and larger amounts
of his time and energy
engaging the addictive activity.  
As the tolerance increases,
the addict becomes increasingly preoccupied
with getting and maintaining his high
to the exclusion of other things.  
Gradually, their preoccupation with money
becomes the addicts primary preoccupation and
money becomes their primary relationship to life.  

Addictions Are Never Satisfied:  
The addiction to money, like very other addiction
can never be satisfied.  
There always has to be more.  
There always has to be the next high.  
And because of the tolerance factor,
each fix must be more potent than the last one.  
Addicts often become frantic between highs
and when the next fix unavailable,
the lack of satisfaction can lead to depression.  
Obsession/addiction eventually reaches the point
where the next fix doesn't produce euphoria,
it only temporarily relieves the depression.  

Another factor to consider
is the effect of compounded addictions.  
This occurs when a person has multiple addiction
that support and amplify each other.  
For example, Money & Profit Addicts
are commonly also addicted to High-Stakes Gambling 
(such as making billion-dollar bets with corporate money)
and some are also addicted to physical risk taking.  
When a Money & Profit Addict engages in
criminal activity, not only is he risking his money
and/or this employer's money,
he's risking physical injury, death, or going to jail. 
(See the examples below.)   


The Bottom Line:      
Anybody who has many times more than enough money
to live in wealth for the rest of his life
and is still working for money
is a Money & Profit/Dopamine Addict.   
Anyone who owns controlling interest
in a corporation that is focused on making money
is a Money & Profit/Dopamine Addict.  

Commonly, money addicts are also addicted to
high-stakes gambling.  
And some even go to the extreme
by risking spending the rest of their lives in jail
for the thrill of making more money.  
Bernie Madoff is a perfect example of this.  
mpa-power-wealth-mental-health.html#BernieMadoff

So were the men responsible for the Enron Scandal.   
Jeff Skilling, former Enron CEO
is a classic example of a corporate executive
that was completely out of control.  
He was addicted to Money & Profits at any price.  
He was addicted to High-stakes gambling, and
he was addicted to the trill of physical risk taking.  
mpa-power-wealth-mental-health.html#EnronScandal

4   Assessment of the Addiction to Making Money