I am the mom of a 27 year old gambling addict. We all unwittingly and willingly enable our addict children. It kind of comes with the territory of being a mom so you are certainly not alone in that respect 🙂
Unfortunately we all reach a point when we realise that all our good intentions aren’t helping and in fact are making things worse. We think I will just help this one more time and the penny will surely drop that they will figure out that the gambling has to stop. However, with gambling addiction as long as someone is paying they will continue playing.
I agree with Velvet… I think all the family (parents included) need to know exactly what is going on. Secrecy with addiction never ends up working . Your son will end up manipulating ,deceiving and playing you all off against each other.
Your husband is correct in that once we start to look after ourselves with boundaries you will feel stronger and more able to cope.
I am sorry there are no easy answers to this. It will take a lot of conscious effort on your part to deal with this. Can you get to a Gam Anon meeting? It can be a great source of support.
Cathyx