Hi Margie
Thank you for coming back to help others.
I believe that when we seek help and examine the reasons why we feel we have been affected by our parents in a bad way, we have the ability to choose what happens next; we can retake control of our own lives or we can allow the bad things to keep us from progressing.
In answer to your general question regarding professionals who work with people who have experienced fallout from gambling, I approached a counsellor, a doctor and a psychiatrist when I needed understanding and I found none who offered any support, in fact the opposite was true – their ignorance drove me to even more unimaginable depths. Fortunately there are more dedicated addiction counsellors nowadays who have learned how to support families of gamblers. For me, however, it was one woman in Gam-Anon who changed my life and saved me; she had experienced the fall out you speak of and not only had she survived she had gone on to help others – I felt as though she had waited for me.
You are now in that position, you have experienced living with the addiction to gamble affecting your life, you have survived and you are an author.
Doing nothing, changes nothing – you are doing something, you have come back and told others where to find support and that is fantastic. Maybe, through your books you can do even more.
I believe you have made the decision to live your own life on your own terms and that makes me immensely happy and I thank you for that.
As Ever
Velvet