Addiction May Cost You 'Everything'
That may not scare us now yet one day, the regret and pain of loss may be severe
This isn’t a shame piece. It’s one to inspire and encourage, through the lens of the painful truth we may be speeding toward experiencing or are enduring now.
Addictions, no matter what they are, and there are many, can be complex to solve, even if the “fix” is clearly communicated.
For people who break free of the shackles and chains and reach the other side, at least so far, they learned how to survive so, with compassion, they can help others.
David Nangle is one such example.
At 17 years old, he got himself into $800 in debt to a bookie, reported Colin A. Young at WWLP in Springfield, Mass. That, as you know, was poor and extremely dangerous decision-making and behavior. Of course, Nangle regrets it. Now. Not then.
I Should Have Suffered Then
The now 64-year-old Nangle, a former state representative, says he “wishes he had not managed to get out of that jam,” Young reported.
That comment tells you a lot about what was to come and how it played out.
If someone communicates that if they could go back in time that they would want to suffer the hard consequences and punishments instead of escaping that stress and anxiety, they realize how critical it would have been to help and save them.
Here’s why Nangle can say it:
“Well, (it) didn’t smarten me up. I was able to bail out of it, as we say, and I got through that. But I just wish I could go back in time… and have changed my life at that point, but I didn’t,” he rues.
“I just couldn’t stop and addiction literally cost me everything… my marriage,
my career and my reputation.”
His life got ugly on a grand scale. Nangle was “indicted by federal prosecutors and arrested in February 2020, charged with illegally using campaign funds to fund a lifestyle that included golf club memberships and casino trips to Connecticut, and lying to banks about his debt to obtain mortgages and other loans,” Young reported. “Nangle lost his reelection bid in a September 2020 primary.”
From there, “He pleaded guilty to charges against him and in September 2021 was sentenced to 15 months in prison,” Young wrote.
That’s a tremendous amount of turbulence that was triggered in his life. Those types of reactions and outcomes are not unusual, as we know, when addiction is present.
In November 2022, life improved as he was released from prison.
He recently wanted to discuss how bad the addiction. Speaking at the State House, he advocated for “ways the state can attempt to identify and offer assistance to people affected. He said he hid his gambling addiction from everyone at work and at home, but it ultimately cost him his 22-year career in the House,” Young reported.
The risks are worse these days, Nangle says, because of technology.
“I thank God that online gambling wasn’t around when I was betting with the bookies… I don’t know what would have become of me had that been around at that time,” Nangle said.
He’s clearly stating that he knows exactly what would have “come of him” and what would have transpired would not have been good. He seems to be inferring that the outcome would have been disastrous, maybe worse than what he put himself through.

“As I say, 38 states now allow individuals, via their cellphones, to place bets. And who do you think is placing all these bets on these cellphones? The old dinosaurs like me? No. There are some. But I’m telling you, it’s the kids. It’s the youth,” Nangle says.
It’s not just an adult problem and conversation. It’s a parental one. It just might not be well known and understood, yet, by parents.
It Could Get Far Worse, Soon
Nangle sees a health crisis in the making. That’s a strong statement. It may however be an accurate forecast.
He elaborated:
“Think of it this way: imagine if we lowered the drinking age to 14. Can you imagine the outrage that would take place if the consumption of alcohol was allowed at the age of 14? Now, I’m not saying gambling is allowed at the age of 14, but folks, the kids are doing it. They’re doing it, unfortunately,” Nangle said.
“It’s coming and it’s unfortunate. I’m really concerned where we are heading.”
Will people listen, trust, believe and work to prevent it or mitigate the intensity? This is not just with gambling, it’s with any addiction in someone’s life. There is always the danger of bigger, stronger, hard to manage and stop trouble.
The time to be concerned and where we’re headed? Today.
Addictions are powerful traps: easier to walk into than most of us know and for many, an adversity and eventually, a storm of crisis that is extremely difficult, dangerous, challenging, if not seemingly impossible, to navigate, endure, survive and travel out of and escape.
Nangle wished he would have not been able to move through the trouble of his earth because it may have protected him from the far bigger trouble, suffering and misery of his future and adulthood. He regrets that he couldn’t get his life on a safer track.
The costs — emotional, psychological, relational, career, financial, freedom and reputation — were extreme. Expensive in every sense of the word:
“I just couldn’t stop and addiction literally cost me everything: my marriage, my career and my reputation.”
Addiction can take it all, everything good in our lives and leaving us terribly wanting for the lack of it.
Fearing that magnitude of loss and wanting to intelligently, effectively prevent it is a personally wise and competent executive decision, mission and strategy to implement and carry out successfully.
The Reputation Intelligence newsletter (on Substack and LinkedIn) is produced by Michael Toebe, the specialist at Reputation Intelligence, a decision-analysis and communications practice that serves individuals and organizations with proactive and responsive actions to build, protect, improve or rebuild credibility and trust.
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