In this episode of The Collector’s Compass, Alyx sits down with Kim Freudenberg, founder of Parents Standing Together, a nonprofit supporting parents and families impacted by gambling-related harm.

After experiencing firsthand the devastating effects gambling addiction can have on a family, Kim transformed her pain into purpose. Today, she leads parent support groups, speaks nationally about prevention and awareness, and has become a strong advocate for families navigating gambling-related challenges.

Kim has also been an incredible supporter of Collectors MD. She serves on our Advisory Board, has made countless introductions throughout the recovery community, and has consistently recognized the growing overlap between modern collecting and gambling-related behaviors.

Alyx and Kim discuss her personal journey and the events that led to the creation of Parents Standing Together. They explore what addiction looks like through a parent's eyes, the fear, confusion, and isolation families experience, and why support for loved ones is often overlooked in recovery conversations.

They also examine how gambling has evolved over the past decade and why today's environments have become increasingly difficult for families to navigate. Kim shares what she's hearing from parents across the country, why younger generations face unique challenges, and why activities like sports cards, TCG's, and other gambling-adjacent behaviors are emerging in more family conversations.

They focus on the power of community, recovery, and hope. Kim discusses helping families move from isolation to connection, the challenges of supporting someone without enabling harmful behaviors, and lessons she's learned through leading support groups and advocating for parents nationwide.

Finally, they discuss prevention, education, and the future of support. They explore the roles schools, treatment providers, and public health organizations can play in raising awareness earlier, why collaboration matters, and what gives them hope as Parents Standing Together and Collectors MD continue to grow.

This episode is about family, awareness, prevention, and the reminder that no one should have to navigate addiction alone.

If you've ever wondered what addiction looks like from a parent's perspective, questioned how modern environments are shaping risk for younger generations, or wanted to better understand how families can support one another through difficult seasons, this is a conversation worth listening to.

Addiction never impacts just one person. It affects entire families. And often, healing begins when people realize they are not alone.

Subscribe, share, and join the conversation around awareness, prevention, family support, and building healthier communities.

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Learn More & Join The Movement:

Website: collectorsmd.com

Nonprofit: lohas.org/client/the-cmd-foundation

Socials: bio.collectorsmd.com

Weekly Meetings: bit.ly/45koiMX

Contact: info@collectorsmd.com

YT: ‪@collectorsmd

IG: @collectorsmd

Learn More About Parents Standing Together:

Website: parentsstandingtogether.org

IG: @parentsstandingtogether

FB: bit.ly/4oIQcua

LI: bit.ly/3T0mMMf

Help for Problem Gambling: Call or Text 800-GAMBLER

This Episode of The Collector's Compass is sponsored by ‪All Touch Case, a premium display and protection solution designed to showcase your cards while keeping them safe. Use code COLLECTORSMD for 15% of your order. Collect. Protect. It’s a peace of mind.

#CollectorsMD | #TheCMDFoundation | #ParentsStandingTogether | #RipResponsibly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T62NKD8B9U8

Alyx Effron | August 16, 2026

Presented By All Touch Case

For a long time, the collectibles industry and the recovery space have largely existed in separate worlds. One is deeply rooted in culture, excitement, products, communities, and behaviors that drive collecting. The other understands addiction, compulsive behavior, prevention, harm reduction, treatment, recovery, and the consequences that can develop when a behavior becomes difficult to control.

Collectors MD was created, in part, to serve as a bridge between the two. And that bridge extends far beyond trading cards. Cards may be where much of our work began, but collecting culture is enormous. Sports cards, trading card games, sneakers, memorabilia, comics, coins, watches, toys, luxury goods, digital collectibles, e-gaming, and countless other categories can generate the same feelings of excitement, nostalgia, identity, community, scarcity, competition, and pursuit.

For the overwhelming majority of participants, those experiences can remain exactly what they are supposed to be: a hobby. But for some people, the relationship can become more complicated. Spending can begin exceeding intentions. The chase can become more important than the item or activity itself. Purchases can become harder to control. Financial consequences can accumulate. Secrecy can develop. Collecting can become an escape from stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, or other problems.

And increasingly, certain collecting environments can incorporate mechanics and experiences that may feel familiar to professionals working in gambling prevention and recovery: randomized outcomes, variable rewards, scarcity, countdowns, live commerce, auctions, card breaks, pack openings, mystery products, social media-driven hype, and frictionless purchasing environments that make it easier than ever to spend, participate, and immediately chase the next hit.

All of this does not mean collecting is inherently gambling. Collecting in its purest form is about passion, connection, nostalgia, discovery, and the enjoyment of building something meaningful to you. It also does not mean we should ignore the gambling-like mechanics and experiences that have increasingly become embedded within modern collecting environments. One of the challenges is that the individuals who understand collecting culture best may not always understand addiction and recovery, while the individuals who understand addiction and recovery may not always understand modern collecting culture.

That disconnect matters. A treatment professional can understand compulsive behavior exceptionally well while having no idea what a ‘card break’ is, why someone is chasing a ‘case hit’, how live shopping platforms work, what a ‘one-of-one’ means, why a collector is willing to pay the additional cost to have a card professionally graded, or how and why someone could spend hours moving between livestreams, auctions, marketplaces, and product releases. At the same time, someone immersed in the collectibles industry may understand those behaviors perfectly while having little exposure to concepts such as loss of control, chasing, financial harm, triggers, relapse, self-exclusion, peer support, harm reduction, or pathways to professional treatment.

The result is a double blind spot: two worlds looking at the same behavior through entirely different lenses, each seeing something the other cannot. Neither perspective tells the whole story. Bridging the two is where meaningful change begins.

Collectors MD works at the intersection of collecting and recovery – helping the collectibles industry better understand behavioral health while helping prevention, treatment, and recovery professionals better understand the rapidly evolving culture of modern collecting.

Collectors MD is not trying to turn the collectibles industry into the recovery industry, nor are we trying to convince the recovery community that collecting itself is inherently harmful. We are actively bridging two worlds that have spent too long speaking completely different languages – helping each understand what the other sees, what the other may miss, and where working together can make a meaningful difference.

For the collectibles industry, that means introducing conversations around responsible engagement, consumer education, warning signs, intentional spending, support resources, and what can happen when someone’s relationship with collecting begins negatively affecting their life. It means giving hobby shops, breakers, live shopping platforms, marketplaces, manufacturers, grading companies, influencers, content creators, auction houses, and other organizations an opportunity to participate in building a healthier collecting ecosystem without asking them to condemn the hobby that their businesses and communities were built around.

Responsible collecting is not anti-collecting or anti-hobby. It’s about making sure the hobby remains something people can enjoy without losing themselves in it.

For the recovery and behavioral health community, the bridge works in the opposite direction. Professionals cannot effectively address emerging behaviors if they do not understand the environments in which those behaviors are occurring. Someone seeking help may not walk into a therapist’s office and say, “I have a compulsive collecting problem”. They may say they spent thousands of dollars chasing a card. They may be hiding purchases from their spouse. They may be buying into breaks every night. They may be repeatedly selling pieces of their collection to fund new purchases. They may describe the rush of opening packs, winning an auction, hitting a rare item, or watching a wheel land on their spot. They may insist they are investing even as their finances continue deteriorating. Or they may have already recognized that their behavior needs to change but have no idea where to find someone who understands what they are experiencing.

If the individual on the other side of that conversation doesn’t understand the culture, language, and mechanics surrounding the behavior, an important part of the story can be missed.

That is why the bridge matters. Over the past year and a half, our work has increasingly brought us into conversations with people on both sides of it.

Collectors have joined our community and support meetings. Families have reached out looking for guidance. Treatment providers and prevention professionals have asked questions about emerging collecting behaviors. Industry organizations have begun incorporating #RipResponsibly and healthier collecting messaging into their ecosystems. Through The CMD Framework, we are beginning to give that work a shared structure – connecting education, prevention, responsible collecting, peer support, and pathways to professional help across both sides of the conversation. Councils, clinicians, recovery organizations, hobby businesses, marketplaces, manufacturers, shops, breakers, creators, and collectors are no longer operating entirely in separate worlds. They are beginning to become part of the same ecosystem.

The CMD Framework bridges the collectibles industry with prevention, peer support, recovery, and treatment to promote healthier, more intentional engagement with collecting. It combines education, early identification, accessible support, and clear pathways to professional help when needed.

Those groups do not need to agree on every issue to recognize that education, prevention, support, and clearer pathways to help are worthwhile. The goal isn’t to wait until someone’s collecting has caused catastrophic consequences before introducing those resources.

A bridge can work in both directions, but it can also exist at multiple points along someone’s journey. Education can help someone who is just entering a collecting community understand the environment before spending their first dollar. Responsible collecting tools can help someone recognize that their behavior is beginning to change. Peer support can give someone a place to speak openly with people who understand. Recovery resources can help someone who has decided they need to make a significant change. Professional treatment can be available when the problem extends beyond what a hobby community or peer-support meeting can address.

The stronger those connections become, the less likely someone is to find themselves wondering where they belong or where they can turn for help.

There is also a much larger opportunity here. The collectibles industry is not standing still. Technology is making purchasing easier. Livestreaming is making commerce more interactive. Marketplaces operate around the clock. New collecting categories continue emerging. Gamification, entertainment, social interaction, and commerce are becoming increasingly intertwined.

At the same time, prevention and recovery are evolving too. That makes communication between these worlds more important, not less.

The collectibles industry should have access to people who understand prevention, behavioral health, and recovery. The recovery community should have access to people who understand collectibles, modern hobby culture, and the environments in which these behaviors are actually taking place. Collectors and families should have access to both.

That is the role Collectors MD is working to fill. Not as an opponent of collecting. Not as a replacement for treatment. Not exclusively as a sports card organization. But as a place where collectors, industry stakeholders, prevention professionals, treatment providers, recovery organizations, families, and people with lived experience can begin speaking the same language.

Meaningful change rarely happens when two sides operate entirely independently of one another. As industries mature, so does the responsibility to recognize new challenges, learn from outside perspectives, and build better systems around the people they serve. Sometimes progress simply requires someone willing to build the bridge.

#CollectorsMD
The collectibles industry understands collecting. The recovery space understands addiction, prevention, and treatment. Collectors MD exists to bridge the two – creating education, support, and pathways to help while protecting what makes collecting meaningful. Collect with intention. Not compulsion.

—
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https://collectorsmd.com/where-the-hobby-recovery-meet/

Dopamine is often oversimplified as the "pleasure chemical". The science is much more complex.

Dopamine plays a major role in motivation, anticipation, learning, and the drive to seek and pursue a potential reward.

In many situations, dopamine activity can spike right before the reward is received - when we believe something rewarding might be coming.

That anticipation is part of what can make a card break, a blackjack hand, a close game, or even a near miss so compelling. The activity itself isn’t inherently the problem. But for some people, repeated exposure to these reward cycles can become difficult to control and, over time, contribute to addictive patterns.

Understanding the science isn’t about judging the activity. It’s about understanding why our brains can find the chase so compelling, and why that experience can affect people differently.

Awareness is everything. Collect with intention. Not compulsion.

#CollectorsMD | #RipResponsibly

https://www.instagram.com/p/DcEeOQ0xQdj/

Extremely proud of our very first community member and now group facilitator, Sean Harding, who had the opportunity to join The Journal podcast to continue sharing his story of addiction, recovery, and the meaningful work he's doing with Collectors MD.

Sean has been part of our community from the very beginning, and watching him turn his own experiences into an opportunity to support others has been incredible. You can either allow your weaknesses to become your identity, or use them as the catalyst to build the person you were always capable of becoming. Sean continues to be an incredible example of the latter.

Listen to the episode HERE.

And if you missed The Wall Street Journal article published last week featuring Sean's story and the work we're doing at Collectors MD, you can read it HERE.

Proud of you, Sean! Keep using your story to make a difference.

Grateful to see Collectors MD featured in an article that appeared on the front page of The Wall Street Journal yesterday.

As the modern collecting hobby continues to grow, so does the importance of conversations around intentional engagement, education, support, and ensuring that collecting remains a positive part of people’s lives. It’s incredibly encouraging to see that conversation reaching broader audiences through national platforms like The Wall Street Journal, and we're grateful to have the work we're doing at Collectors MD included in the story.

We're especially proud that Sean Harding, our very first community member and now an important member of our team, was featured in the piece.

Since joining our community last year, Sean has made incredible progress in his recovery and has gone from seeking support himself to helping provide it for others. Today, Sean helps lead peer support meetings through both Collectors MD and The Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado's Unboxed: Powered By Collectors MD, and has become an important voice in the work we're doing.

Sean is a shining example of what's possible in recovery - and of the spirit behind Step 12 of GA & The CMD Recovery Guide: paying it forward by using his own experience to help others find hope, support, and a path toward healing.

We're also excited to share that Sean will be joining The Wall Street Journal's podcast to talk more about his recovery journey, his experience with Collectors MD, and the work he's now doing to help others navigating similar challenges.

Very grateful to Hanna Krueger, Sarah Nassauer, and The Wall Street Journal for the opportunity to be part of this story, and especially proud of Sean for continuing to use his experience to help others.

If you'd like to read the article, you can check it out here: https://bit.ly/4g0ac7R