Arcade, candy, and the draw
Seventh grade, a video arcade, and the candy that explains the draw. About a minute and forty seconds.
Download this sample (MP3)Recovery speaker
It took trip after trip to treatment before I finally stopped gambling.
Talks on addiction and the long road to recovery, for people in treatment and recovery, Gamblers Anonymous groups and other 12-step meetings, and the clinicians, staff, and programs that work with them.
The lecture
Both Sides of the White Coat
One addict’s descent and the long road back, from a coin pusher in a seventh-grade arcade through trip after trip to treatment. What addiction is, why understanding it isn’t the same as treating it, and what finally worked. I happen to be an emergency physician, and that plays into the talk a little bit: I’ve been on both sides of the white coat.
“My best ideas bought me this chair right here.”
Speaking samples
Two short samples
Two short samples from “Both Sides of the White Coat.” The full talk is not posted here.
No idea what addiction was
Board certified for years, and still no idea what addiction was. About a minute.
Download this sample (MP3)Topics
What I speak about
- Addiction. Drinking, Gambling, Drugs or Sex, and why it’s a disease and not a choice
- The long road to recovery: trip after trip to treatment, and why it finally stuck
- Early recovery, one day at a time, when forever is too far to look
- What treatment and monitoring feel like from the inside
- Professionals with addiction, and how they hide in the profession
- Working with the programs rather than against them
Outcomes
What a room takes away
- That understanding is not treatment. I knew the science of my own addiction cold and kept gambling anyway. “These programs didn’t fail. They were all very useful. I just wasn’t willing.”
- The one question I ask anyone who wants to go back to treatment…one more time: “What do you think is going to be different this time?”
- That recovery is a today thing, not a forever thing. Forever is what kept me paralyzed.
- Gambling isn’t the only thing. I’ve dealt for years with depression, emotional eating, and anger, and I handle them the same way, one day at a time. As my sponsor says, each day I try to be a little bit better than I was yesterday.
- For the staff in the room: what the people you refer are actually walking into, from someone who walked into it more than once.
- Why honesty with a program is the practical move and not the noble one. The fastest way to damage that relationship is to lie to them, or to skip facts that are going to come out anyway.
Formats
How long a room has me
Short engagement30 to 45 minutes
Keynote1 hour
WorkshopHalf day
Staff in-serviceFull day
Family programOn Zoom, 2 to 3 days based on the number of participants
Other speakers
Some audiences want more than one voice. I can also arrange speakers who work inside a professional health program, and clinicians who have treated professionals going through one. Tell me what your audience needs and I’ll tell you honestly whether I can put it together.
About the speaker
Marshall R. Naquin, M.D.
Board certified, American Board of Emergency Medicine
“My name’s Marshall, and I’m a compulsive gambler.” That is how Marshall R. Naquin, M.D., introduces himself. He is a board-certified emergency physician in recovery from gambling addiction, and it took him trip after trip to treatment before it stuck. His work has ranged from offshore in the oil and gas industry to medical director of an emergency room. He speaks to people in treatment and recovery, and to the clinicians, staff, and programs that work with them, about addiction and the long road back.
More about me, and how I got here