Patrick Foster

Started to combat all that by drinking too much, taking drugs without people knowing.

And the next six months, my life just started to spiral in a very, very different direction.

Yeah, big time.

And I think back now what I could have done with 35 grand at the time, age 22, my life would look very different, that's for sure.

But there was an element of naivety there as well, because I was just like, well, it's mine to spend.

Yeah, and I think this is probably one of the biggest myths about addicts is that it's going to manifest itself in certain ways.

Actually, a lot of people continue to be incredibly high-functioning, high-performing addicts.

And that was the case for basically the whole time I was going through this, which is hard for people to believe.

But also I'm obsessive, I always have been.

So when I was sat at my desk, I worked harder than anybody.

And to everybody, I looked like kind of perfect professional, but actually what was going on away from it was anything but.

But I managed to put on this kind of facade that,

I was completely the opposite.

And that was definitely kind of consistent through my whole addiction.

Not really.

And I guess that's the scary thing is for me, gambling was about feeding my addiction.

So money one was money to spend on gambling.

It was more money that I could gamble with.

I mean, I guess it afforded me at times a lifestyle that...

I wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise because I was going out pretty much four or five times a night in London.