The Five Rooms is a free walk-through I built for people caught up in gambling, and for the people who love them. You do it rather than read it. It lives on its own site.
What is it?
Five rooms, one after another: the spiral, the awakening, the repair, the stability, the light. They follow the way it went for me over fifteen years of gambling and the way out. It takes about ten minutes. All you have to do is keep going to the next door.
Who is it for?
Someone who gambles and has started to wonder whether it's a problem. Someone who knows it is and is in the middle of a bad night. And someone who has just found out that a person they love is gambling, and wants to understand what it's like from the inside.
How do I start?
When you arrive you pick one of three ways in:
- I'm not okay right now. This goes straight to help, with a twenty-minute urge timer. An urge usually passes if you can get through it.
- Feel what addiction feels like. This is a hands-free journey through one day inside it. Start the journey.
- Walk the rooms. The five rooms at your own pace. Go to the rooms.
Is it free? Is it private?
Yes, it's free, and you don't need an account or an email address. Nothing you do in it is recorded anywhere.
Is it treatment?
No. I'm not a clinician. It's one person's lived experience, put somewhere you can walk through it. If you need real support, the National Gambling Helpline is free on 0808 8020 133, 24 hours a day.