David Collins
A conversation about daily structure, relationships and rebuilding life after treatment.
Open this episodeSomeone has
been there too.
Explore wider recovery stories here. For an experience tied to a particular type of gambling, start with the mind map.
The line kept moving.
“I hid my gambling problem for seven years. I thought I was managing it: staying close to the line, but not crossing it. But the line moves. Eventually I crossed it, then crossed it again, until it felt like there was no line left.”
A personal reflection from this site’s creator.
Secrecy can make it harder for other people to see what is happening. You can ask for help while you are still functioning, still paying bills or still unsure what to call the problem.
The cost is time, too.
“It’s not only about the money. It’s also about the time lost. You will never get that back.”
A personal reflection from this site’s creator.
Hours watching odds or prices. Being elsewhere in your mind when you are with people you love. Time already spent cannot be recovered. The aim now is to protect the time ahead: your attention, rest and moments with the people who matter.
And another one after that.
“It’s never about the next bet, but a bet after that, and another one after that, and another one after that…”
A personal reflection from this site’s creator.
“Just one” can become a moving promise. The result changes, but the urge to keep going remains. The aim is to step out of that loop, with practical barriers and someone alongside you.
You don’t have to tell the whole world.
“They say the truth will set you free. In my experience, that’s true. Bottling it up only let the problem get bigger. You don’t have to shout it to the world. Telling one person is a place to start.”
A personal reflection from this site’s creator.
Choose someone you feel safe with. You can share only what you are ready to say. If telling someone close to you feels unsafe, a confidential gambling-support service can be that first conversation.
Life after gambling.
In their own words.
Structure, rebuilding and family life.
More experiences beyond the map.
Tony O’Reilly
“I have a lot better coping skills”
Tony O’Reilly · 55:40
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Rebuilding relationships and finding support after gambling.
Watch the recovery conversationListen to a family perspective
Episodes may discuss gambling, debt, crime or suicide and may contain ads or explicit language. Links take you to the original publisher. Use Back to return. No autoplay or embedded tracking. Personal experiences, not treatment advice. Quotes link to episode notes or captioned video; no endorsement is implied.
Private questions.
A public signal.
Searching can be a first step towards understanding what is happening. Research can help make that search visible.
PUBLISHED RESEARCH · UNITED STATES23%more gambling-help searches than the study’s model expected
A 2025 study in JAMA Internal Medicine estimated an increase after the May 2018 US sports-betting ruling, through June 2024. It analysed searches mentioning gambling alongside addiction, addict, anonymous or hotline.
Read the study abstract · Yeola and colleagues95% confidence interval: 15%–30%. US data; this is not a worldwide estimate or a count of people with addiction.Explore worldwide searches for the mind-map topics
Open Google Trends for the same period: January 2020–September 2026, worldwide, web searches. These are English search terms across all countries, not all languages.
Start with “gambling addiction”, or explore an activity and its help-related phrase separately.
| Mind-map branch | Activity or product interest | Help-related phrase |
|---|---|---|
| Sports betting | sports betting | sports betting addiction |
| Online games & casino | online casino | online gambling addiction |
| Crypto & trading | crypto trading | crypto addiction |
| Prediction markets | Polymarket | Polymarket addiction |
| Poker | poker | poker addiction |
These links open Google’s charts; we have not downloaded or verified a worldwide time series. No increase is claimed for these individual terms. Low-volume phrases may have insufficient data.
What search interest can—and cannot—tell us
Google Trends shows relative interest on a 0–100 scale, not search counts or unique people. News, research and curiosity can all influence results. An increase in searches for Polymarket is not evidence of an increase in addiction. Help-related searches also cannot establish who is searching or whether they have a diagnosis.
Different charts can each peak at 100 without having similar search volumes. Worldwide English-term results do not represent every language or country equally.
How Google Trends data worksWhatever the numbers say, you don’t need to prove your experience is common to deserve support. Find someone to talk to