Hello And Welcome Friends, Recovery Supporters, And New Visitors,
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Today I’m very excited to introduce a wonderful recovery coach and speaker of Problem Gambling. And those of you who are in recovery from addicted compulsive gambling, this is an awesome treat for all us!

Please meet my guest ‘Lesa Densmore’, Recovery Wellness Coach, Speaker, and Advocate. Lesa and I met through LinkedIn’s professional media site. We had so much in common that I thought, “this girl needs to be shared and spotlighted on my recovery blog! Lets learn more about who Lesa is, and all she does to help others recover from compulsive addicted gambling….

My story begins here,…

Lesa Densmore
(Story Courtesy Of http://www.iamrecovery.com/spotlight10/Densmore.cfm/

I am Lesa, 38, Wellness Coach and recovering compulsive gambler.

My life has been full of successful athleticism. In all my years of competing, nothing compares to the 7-year battle I had for life from my gambling addiction and the sense of accomplishment I have today being in recovery. The flirting began in my teens with bingo and lottery tickets and spending hundreds of dollars a week. By my late twenties, I had a problem gambling with internet poker and spending hundreds of dollars a day at casinos. By age 31, I had a full-blown addiction spending thousands of dollars a week.

Explaining the seven years would take pages. Lying, manipulating, stealing, followed by pain, shame and guilt and I couldn’t stop. I was living in NY State.
My family was in Maine. There are strong stigmas, so I didn’t talk about my gambling problem. When I found that gambling was recognized as an addiction, a weight was lifted, but it also gave me an excuse. From the ages 32-35, I was out of control. Food, alcohol and relationship abuse complimented my gambling. I spent hours going to casinos. I had my belongings repossessed, had no home, was living in a tent, couldn’t pay my bills, was writing bad checks and lying my way through it all. The problem was known, but no one knew how bad. Financial, legal, personal issues were building. I disconnected and sunk deeper into the addiction.

In February 2006, I got professional help with counseling and outpatient services. It helped temporarily, but I fell back into full cycle. The fall was bad and no one knew. I spiraled out of control. In January 2009, I had a near suicide, but found strength to pull it together. I called my family and the N.Y. Council again. By this time, I was an expert on the illness and knew it would kill me. I had after all studied it for years while living each phase and progression. It was agreed that residential treatment was needed again. My family pulled together the funds and finally I was going to rehab.Today, after treating the illness causing the gambling, I am strong in recovery.

I can breathe, laugh, hope and help. After rehab, I was asked to go back to implement a Health Management Program and worked with the clinical/executive directors on intervention and business development. My focus now is here in New York state. I am trying to be a face behind the illness, to advocate for the best treatment and funding. I feel compelled to help those who are trying to help us, do the best job they can. I also want to help break down the stigmas. It’s not easy, but we are being heard and supported. Life after addiction can be good and it does improve. I am a compulsive gambler, and I am recovery!
My name Lesa, and this is my story.

What’s Your Story?

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Now I know when I read her story here on, “I Am Recovery”,  I thought this girl has been through so much, just like I had with my own addiction. I feel when we share our personal testimonies of what we have been through with our gambling, we tend to find, even though our paths maybe different from one another’s, we all go through the same type of feelings and symptoms of this cunning disease.

As Lesa stated in her own story, we all feel the shame, guilt, the stealing and lying, and hiding what we were doing within our addiction. I myself had a recovery coach/addictions specialist help me for a year, and I have to tell you it made all the difference in my recovery! He would not release me until I could site to him every part of the “cycle” of my addiction to gambling. Here is a little more of how Lesa helps others in recovery from addicted gambling today! She has a new blog that is a wee bit under construction, but has really good information about how she helps others from gambling addiction, so keep her blog link handy here: http://controlyourgambling.com/ and give her a visit.

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