SUPPORTING RECOVERY

by Jim Wuelfing (pictured left), CPP-R, NRPP, Director of Prevention and Recovery, the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling

The essence of the Council’s mission is reducing the social, financial and emotional costs of problem gambling.  Intervention and access to quality treatment are core components in helping the problem gambler. Additionally, the Council seeks to support gamblers in recovery by referring to 12-step self-help groups and by both referring to and offering recovery support services.

Recovery support services are designed to support people in early recovery to identify and overcome obstacles that make maintaining recovery more difficult and by strengthening factors that are known to support recovery such as connecting to the recovery community.

The Council has developed a recovery space at its office where people in recovery from gambling can find a supportive environment with access to staff, a library, a computer and internet access. We have begun a weekly all recovery meeting at the office. These meetings offer many benefits to the recovering gambler including; offering a supportive environment where connections to the recovery community can be made, supporting gamblers who may have more than one addiction, and offering another choice of a peer support meeting in addition to GA.  Beginning in 2011, we have held an annual All Recovery Retreat to much success. We are advocating that the six recovery centers in Massachusetts offer all-recovery meetings to increase the opportunity of recovery support to gamblers. We have also begun to offer Telephone Recovery Support, an evidenced-based practice of ongoing support and information through weekly or biweekly phone contacts.

We are in the process of developing a cadre of recovery coaches, specifically trained to assist gamblers in recovery. A Recovery Coach is anyone interested in promoting recovery by removing barriers and obstacles to recovery by serving as a personal guide and mentor for people seeking or in recovery.

Giving input into these recovery support services and offering suggestions for new supports is the newly formed Recovery Advisory Board (RAB). The board is made up of recovering problem gamblers and family members. It will meet 2-4 times a year to given input to the Council on its programs and plans.

The need to support people in early recovery has been well established.  We are excited to build upon our efforts to do so to continue the vision and mission of our founder, Tom Cummings, to reduce the suffering caused by problem gambling.

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LOVE & PROBLEM GAMBLING

by Marlene Warner, Executive Director,

The Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling

As we consider one of America’s biggest “Hallmark” holidays, I was going to write to you about love and how important it is to do so.  I was going to write to you to say that love is what gets people to drop stigma and increase wellness with regard to problem gambling.  And I was going to discuss with you how love allows people to work in this field.

But then, as is typical for me, I got sideswiped by a thought this weekend when I attended my church services and the minister showed a You Tube video clip of the comedian Dave Chappelle talking with Dr. Maya Angelou, a famous sage, poet and voice of our day, on the Iconoclast show.  In this very brief clip, she stated “Courage, you have to have courage to love somebody, because you risk everything… everything.”

Well truer words have never been stated when you consider addiction.  This is never easy for ANYONE involved.  And it is raw, difficult and as Maya Angelou expressed so eloquently, takes a whole lot of courage because frankly you put everything on the line.  When you open yourself, and your love, up to someone who is vulnerable or scared or in capable of giving back, you give a very special type of love. 

I think of that every time I talk with a family member who “can’t believe he went back out again” or a person struggling who walks into the office and blames all that is wrong with his or her life on someone else, or even the professionals who laugh off some of the ideas and considerations of their clients discussing their thoughts on winning and losing during their gambling streaks. 

Talking, dissecting, refuting, understanding and just approaching these topics takes love.  It takes patience, maturity, security, confidence, and these all come from love.  It takes one adult loving another unconditionally and with no expectations in return.

Love is really at the root of my work.  And the work of everyone else that decides to be upfront and personal with people who are in the heart of their addiction.  I recently purchased a sign for my office that says “Do one thing everyday that scares you”—what would be more effective and helpful is if it said, “Do one thing everyday that scares you; love someone when no one else is willing”  That my friends take a lot of courage and shows the ultimate form of love.

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