“I beat two addictions”

How to survive when one addiction creates another

For a leading addiction rehab clinic to forge a reputation for getting excellent results, it needs to include a team of experts with a proven track record of helping people from all walks of life overcome their addiction to alcohol or drugs, choose a life of sobriety and avoid relapsing. They must also have the skills to help people with more than one addiction and to provide support to family members of addicts.

Bernice’s story

Discovering that your partner has a secret gambling addiction is difficult enough, without them then becoming addicted to alcohol to cope with their debts. But that is exactly what happened to Bernice* whose husband, Charles*, finally sought help by checking into Manor Clinic.

“One addiction created another, so to speak” Bernice explains. “Back then, the only difference between the two was that I was aware of Charles’s drink habit, but had no idea that he owed a fortune to wealthy and powerful people in the business world.”

“It’s complicated”

Charles would place substantial bets on horse races, about six times per year, borrowing the money to do so from contacts in London: rich individuals who were as keen to lend Charles the money as they were to make sure he paid them back every penny, with interest.

“When Charles reflects on it all now, he often maintains that his ‘big problem’ was that he backed so few winners, due to a lack of horse racing insider knowledge, as he calls it,” says Bernice. “But I feel very differently about it. For Charles to risk our family home, go through our life savings and even to raid our children’s first savings accounts, all to feed a betting habit is the ‘big problem’ I’ve got. I will never forgive him, although I still love him deeply.”

Mum and Dad to the rescue

Charles was eventually bailed out by his parents, who re-mortgaged their house to pay off the lenders and (later) to cover the cost of rehab treatment for alcoholism.

“My lenders in London – who were some seriously scary people – have all been paid back now” Charles explains. “The whole affair gave me such as shock that I never gambled again after my parents kindly bailed me out. My problems with alcohol abuse continued for quite some time after that, though, to be honest.”

How checking into a leading addiction rehab clinic changed everything

Even though Charles managed to overcome his obsession with betting on horses, his alcohol problem got bigger. The more he drank, the more he could drink, as his tolerance for alcohol rose in tandem with the increasing amounts he consumed.

“I often wonder how much I would have been able to put away night after night in the end, if I hadn’t sought help for alcohol abuse. I was drinking wine and beer like it was water. I looked terrible, my weight ballooned, and I was a horrendous person to live with and to simply be around. How Bernice put up with all that, I’ll never know.”

*All names have been changed.