Published November 11, 2025 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

We underestimate how powerful we actually are. As addicts, compulsive collectors, or chronic chasers—we’ve proven that we can be relentless. We’ve found ways to stretch credit, juggle accounts, hide losses, justify purchases, and construct elaborate stories just to keep the illusion alive. That’s not stupidity—that’s resourcefulness. Misguided, yes. But it’s the same raw energy that built businesses, led movements, and fueled breakthroughs throughout history.

When I finally got honest about my own behavior, I realized something uncomfortable: I had built an entire part-time career around protecting the addiction. Every lie, every excuse, every “next time will be different” was effort—just misdirected. So what happens when you stop hiding behind that energy and start harnessing it for the greater good?

The power doesn’t disappear—it just needs direction. When we learn to harness what once fueled destruction, that same energy can build something beautiful, purposeful, and lasting.

That’s precisely what I did when I created Collectors MD. The same obsessive energy I once used to gamble, chase cards and dopamine, and protect the addiction at all costs—now drives building a movement that actually helps people heal. Every reflection, every meeting, every partnership—it all comes from that same place that once drove destruction. It’s the same wiring, just reprogrammed.

And I know I’m not alone in that transformation. Many of us have turned our chaos into creativity, our pain into purpose. The irony is, those of us who felt powerless in addiction were never weak—we were just powerful without direction. Once you find a mission that matters, the fire doesn’t burn you anymore. It lights the way forward.

We all have that switch inside us. The same drive that kept us chasing can keep us building—whether it’s recovery, community, or simply a more intentional life.

#CollectorsMD
The power was never the problem—it was the direction.

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We’re re-uploading every episode of our podcasts—one per day—to make sure our new members and followers can catch up from the beginning.

If you’re new to Collectors MD, these conversations are where it all started—honest, unfiltered discussions about the realities of collecting, recovery, and rebuilding a healthier hobby.

We’ll be sharing episodes from The Collector’s Compass & Behind The Breaks covering everything from gambling parallels in collecting, to mental health, to how we find purpose beyond the chase.

Whether you’ve been here since day one or just joined the movement, this is your chance to revisit the stories that shaped our mission.

Subscribe on YouTube, follow along daily, like, comment, and help us spread the message: the hobby gets healthier when we do.

Collect With Intention. Not Compulsion.

The Collector's Compass #1: Gambling & Collecting, The Two Addictions Flying Under The Radar

#CollectorsMD | #RipResponsibly | #CollectResponsibly

In this episode of The Collector’s Compass, we’re exploring the powerful intersection between gambling recovery and the modern hobby—how the same psychological triggers that fuel addiction in casinos are quietly reshaping how people collect, spend, and chase.

Our guest, Rob “ODAAT” Minnick, founder of One Day At A Time Gambling Awareness (ODAAT), joins Alyx to share his lived experience with gambling addiction and his journey toward recovery—one day at a time. Through his movement and growing YouTube platform, Rob provides education, resources, and daily encouragement to help others break free from the cycle of gambling and reclaim their lives.

Together, Alyx and Rob examine the shared mechanics between gambling and collecting—dopamine loops, random rewards, overspending, and the illusion of control—and discuss how both communities can build awareness, accountability, and support. They dive into practical guardrails for staying balanced, how platforms like Right Choice Recovery and Gamban are changing access to help, and why honesty and habit-building are at the heart of long-term recovery.

This episode also highlights the overlap between the gambling world and “the hobby”—from live breaks and razzes to repacks and high-stakes releases—and how education and transparency can help collectors and gamblers alike find healthier ways to engage with the things they love.

Whether you’re in recovery, questioning your relationship with risk and reward, or simply want to understand the psychology behind modern collecting, this episode is a raw, hopeful look at recovery through truth, awareness, and community.

Also make sure to check out our full discussion on ⁨OdaatGamblingAwareness's channel—where we unpack Alyx's story of addiction and recovery, where collecting crosses into gambling, the red flags to watch (break culture, dopamine loops, “just one more”), and how parents can protect kids.

Subscribe, share, and join the movement toward intentional collecting—because joy and history deserve to come first again.

Watch The Episode On YouTube

Learn More & Join The Movement:
Website: collectorsmd.com
Socials: hopp.bio/collectorsmd
Weekly Meeting Sign-Up: bit.ly/45koiMX
Contact: info@collectorsmd.com
YouTube: ‪‪@collectorsmd‬
Instagram: @collectorsmd

Follow Rob & ODAAT Gambling Awareness:
Website: odaatgamblingawareness.com
YouTube: @OdaatGamblingAwareness

Instagram: @odaatgamblingawareness

#CollectorsMD | #RipResponsibly | #CollectResponsibly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6wYe79BJ1E&t=1251s

Published November 02, 2025 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

In addiction recovery, there’s a concept called harm reduction—an approach that doesn’t always demand total abstinence but instead focuses on reducing the negative consequences of a behavior. It’s often applied to substance use, where the goal shifts from cold-turkey elimination to minimizing risk—helping people stay safer while they work toward recovery.

At Collectors MD, we don’t necessarily align with this philosophy when it comes to things like alcohol, drugs, or gambling. Those vices have no redeeming qualities. They destroy from the inside out—there’s nothing inherently meaningful about a drink, a fix, or a bet. But collecting is different. Collecting has roots. It’s tied to nostalgia, memory, and emotion—reminders of childhood, connection, and belonging. In its purest form, collecting can be creative, restorative, even joyful. It’s not inherently predatory or poisonous. But it can become those things if we’re not careful.

That’s where intentional collecting comes in. For us, it’s our version of harm reduction—a bridge between chaos and control.

Intentional collecting as harm reduction doesn’t mean buying recklessly or “rewarding” ourselves for restraint. It means cultivating awareness—slowing down enough to notice when the line between hobby and obsession starts to blur. Because while collecting may not create the same chemical dependency, the behavioral patterns of compulsive spending can be every bit as destructive.

And when it comes to the trading card hobby, that danger doesn’t appear out of nowhere—it’s strategically engineered. The gambling-like mechanics built into modern hobby platforms—box/case breaks, repacks, loot box odds, chase cards, “rip-and-reveal” dopamine hits—have transformed a once-wholesome pastime into a behavioral minefield. It’s not collecting that’s inherently corrupt—It’s the way a profit-driven industry has learned to monetize compulsion—conditioning young, impressionable collectors to believe that identity and self-worth can be bought or pulled from a box of trading cards.

Intentional collecting is how we take that power back. It’s about remembering why we collect—not how much we can squeeze from every pull. It’s about slowing the cycle, redefining “value”, and protecting the emotional connection that made the hobby meaningful in the first place.

#CollectorsMD
Harm reduction doesn’t mean surrendering to the addiction—it means reclaiming control from the systems designed to exploit it.

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Published November 01, 2025 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

We rarely see it in real time—but in the throes of addiction, and sometimes even deep into recovery, many of us become masters of distortion, quietly gaslighting the very people we love most.

It’s not always the obvious kind. Sometimes it’s more insidious—subtle redirections, deflections, or half-truths meant to protect ourselves from consequence. We justify it “damage control”, “buying time”, or “keeping the peace”. But really, it’s manipulation. It’s a compulsive attempt to manage the very chaos we’ve created—one calculated move at a time.

As addicts, we are inherently compulsive liars. Not because we want to be cruel, but because lying becomes the oxygen that keeps the illusion alive. We tell ourselves we’re protecting others when we’re really just protecting our addiction. We twist the story just enough to shift blame, bend timelines, and rewrite reality so it suits us. And when those closest to us start catching on, we double down—because losing their trust feels more terrifying than facing the truth.

The irony is that all our maneuvering, all our careful “chess moves” to stay one step ahead, only reveal how far behind we really are. We convince ourselves we’re controlling the board—but we’re really just scrambling, trying to rearrange the pieces before the truth surfaces. In the process, we erode the very relationships we’re trying to preserve.

When we stop trying to win the game, we finally start to rebuild the trust we spent years destroying.

Gaslighting is emotional theft. It steals another person’s sense of clarity and replaces it with confusion. It’s how our sickness spreads—outward, infecting the people closest to us. And even when we do it subconsciously, the damage is real. Every denial, every downplay, every “you’re overreacting” chips away at someone else’s reality until they start questioning themselves instead of questioning us.

When we apply this to collecting, the parallels become uncomfortable but undeniable. Just like in gambling addiction, the emotional attachment to material things—cards, boxes, hits, “grails”—can drive us to manipulate not only ourselves but those around us. We justify spending sprees as “investments”, hide purchases under the guise of opportunity, or convince our partners that everything’s under control when deep down, we know it isn’t.

Each lie protects the illusion of balance while pulling us further out of it. The chase becomes emotional currency, and when that’s threatened, we do what addicts do best: we distort the truth to keep the high alive. We manipulate reality just enough to keep the game going, convincing ourselves and those around us that each move is harmless, necessary, and even justified. But every small distortion feeds the same cycle we claim we’re trying to escape.

Recovery asks us to stop moving the pieces—and start admitting the game itself is broken. It asks for radical honesty, even when it costs us control. Because real healing doesn’t come from keeping people in the dark—it comes from finally turning on the light and facing what’s there.

#CollectorsMD
Gaslighting thrives in darkness—but recovery begins when we let others see the truth, even when the truth is ugly.

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