Making Bets in a Burning House

Boundaries are essential when loving a compulsive gambler, but knowing what they are and hold to hold them can be wildly challenging. That’s why Kat and Mouse are thrilled to be joined by Tiye Chambers, Boundary Strategist, EQ Enthusiast, Manipulator’s Nightmare, who will teach us about how to do these things, and so much more. (I'm so sorry about all the "noise" and dog!)

Do you have a sign on your head that says, "Stupid"? Diane felt this way when she found out in one night that her husband had been a compulsive gambler for years, committed crimes, and no longer wanted to live. She believed the rug had been pulled out from underneath her life. But she found help and hope from some unlikely sources. Warning: Discussion of suicide

Kat and Mouse are joined by Paul Lavella, founder & Director of NJ Recovery & Wellness as we learn about his work in behavioral health since 2004 and, particularly, how he helps adolescents and young adults leave addiction behind them.

In this episode, Kat and Mouse discuss the surprising things that didn’t stop when they divorced their gamblers, leading them to realize that there’s no magic button that turns off the stress and anxiety of a life with a compulsive gambler. Trigger Warning: Language, Suicide

Join Kat and Mouse as they chat with Rob Minnick, founder of ODAAT Gambling Awareness. We’ll talk about his experience of gambling addiction and how his recovery involves calling out the dangers of online betting to the world’s young people in particular. Trigger Warning: Language

The discussion turns over to you as Kat and Mouse do their best to answer some common questions about life with a compulsive gambler in it. Gaslighting, definition Merriam-Webster: psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion,...

PART TWO: Join Kat and Mouse in a conversation with Chad: musician, business owner, father, husband, and fellow 12-stepper. He shares with us his journey to recovery from alcohol addiction, to navigating his wife’s problem gambling. Trigger Warning: Language

Join Kat and Mouse in a conversation with Chad: musician, business owner, father, husband, and fellow 12-stepper. He shares with us his journey to recovery from alcohol addiction, to navigating his wife’s problem gambling. Trigger Warning: Language

In this episode, Kat and Mouse explore some of the experiences that caught them off guard in as they discovered their ex-husbands’ gambling addiction. In discussing these unwelcome surprises they hope you’ll be prepared. Trigger Warning: Suicide, Language

We’re talking with Anna Martin, lawyer and Founder of The Untangle Project, an innovative healing community in Australia dedicated to supporting women through recovery in their own ways. She’s also a compulsive gambler in long-time recovery who speaks candidly about her experiences and the ways that society can make necessary changes to fight this horrific disease. Trigger Warning: Language

Join Kat and Mouse in conversation about how we can better support kiddos who have a compulsive gambler in their life. Kat will talk through her children’s workbook and adult facilitators guide as she shows us the importance of bringing kids into recovery not just for them, but for their trust adults, too. Trigger Warning: Language

Kat and Mouse talk with Amanda Lockyer, Addiction Recovery Coach, podcaster, and founder of Addiction Makes 3, a coaching program all about supporting loved ones doing the heavy lifting of loving someone battling addiction. Trigger Warning: Language.

After a lengthy side conversation, Kat and Mouse invite us to consider what that phrase “I’m Fine!” actually means, and why it’s such a detriment to our recovery when navigating life with a compulsive gambler. Whether protective or silencing, “Fine” is never this simple. Trigger Warning: Language, Suicide

Join Kat and Mouse in their conversation with Ted Hartwell, former Executive Director, now Director of Storytelling for the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling, and learn more about the importance of speaking our stories to our healing and recovery process. Trigger Warning: Suicide, Language

We tackle a common question family and friends of compulsive gamblers ask at the start of and throughout their recovery: When does the trust come back? This topic is a big one and Kat and Mouse are here to talk through their experience of it. Trigger Warning: Language, Abuse

Join Mouse in her conversation with Rick Smith, co-founder of Mental Health Counseling and Consultants. He’ll help us understand the neurobiology of gambling addiction and how loved ones can protect themselves and help their compulsive gamblers in the recovery process. Trigger Warning: Suicide, Language

Kat and Mouse tackle the frustrations and complications that come with the first directive for friends and families of compulsive gamblers: stop enabling. But, what is enabling, really? What does it look like? And, how can loved one’s support their gambling addicts without doing this? Trigger Warning: Language

This episode is the second half of Mouse’s conversations with Dr. Malkin about gambling-related harms & gambling-motivated crime and risk of historically oppressed, marginalized, and under-researched populations.  Trigger Warning: Language

In this episode, Part 1, Mouse is joined by Dr. Michelle Malkin, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology and the Director of the Gambling Research and Policy Initiative (GRPI) at East Carolina University. Trigger Warning: Language

Kat and Mouse discuss the options presented to loved ones with a compulsive gambler in their life: work through the house fires, or run? Trigger Warning: Language

Kat and Mouse discuss their initial confrontation with gambling with the hope that their experiences and knowledge can help you navigate your own. Trigger Warning: Language

Kat and Mouse discuss something that makes living life with gambling addiction more complicated than ever: kiddos. Kat shares her experiences of trying to hold for her then-9 and -11 year olds. Trigger Warning: Language

Kat and Mouse tackle one of the hardest topics when it comes to living with a compulsive gambler: hope. Each shares how they found hope from within and outside of the flames consuming their lives, and finding peace. Trigger Warning: Language

Kat shares her story of discovering her husband’s gambling addiction. Trigger Warning: child abuse, emotional abuse, suicidal ideation; language.

Mouse shares her journey through her 1st & 2nd husbands’ gambling addictions. Trigger Warning: intimate partner abuse, domestic violence, suicide; language.