As reported by: The Times West Virginian
Kim Murphy is a Charleston woman who has lived through a real problem.

She's a gambler.

Murphy just wishes that the Problem Gamblers Help Network of West Virginia had started in time to get her some help before she lost literally everything she had through gambling.

She couldn't stay away from it.

Murphy visited Fairmont recently with Mia Moran-Cooper, director of the Problem Gamblers Help Network of West Virginia.

She says this organization was started too late to help her.

“This group was too late for me,” Murphy says. “I recognized seven or eight years ago I had a problem. I hit rock bottom and lost everything I had. I ended up in a mental hospital. ... They treated me for depression and (thoughts about) suicide but they had no clue about my gambling.”

And to what form of gambling was she addicted?

“Video machines were my drug of choice,” she says. “They were my addiction. I have now 19 months of ‘clean' time. Sometimes I would go seven or eight months and then would slip back and go gamble.”

She knows exactly when she last went “off the wagon.”

“My last day of gambling was on Dec. 12, 2001. ... I lost $3,000 in two days.

“Then you feel terrible. But at the time it's the rush ... the release. ... You think of nothing else when you're in front of that machine. It's like a high. You forget about the money. You forget about who you are and what you're all about.”

She says she faithfully goes to Gamblers Anonymous meetings now every week.

And Murphy doesn't relate gambling to drugs or alcohol.

“I know people who have had alcohol, drugs and gambling problems,” she says. “They've kicked the first two but are struggling with gambling. You have to watch. Some people want to replace one addiction with another. Gamblers Anonymous has a 12-step program.

“I know if I want to gamble, I can call the 1-800-GAMBLER line. That wasn't around seven years ago. ... The literature and the education is very important.”

Murphy says her addiction had nothing to do with winning or losing.

“It was the adrenaline. ... The escape that the machines brought me. I probably started gambling when I was 12 or 14 years old. I bet on everything. I've been to Vegas and Reno and all the tracks in West Virginia. I used to drive six hours to Charles Town just to escape to go gamble. I'd go to Wheeling to the track there. Probably the last four years of my compulsive gambling, I was at the track every day. I had about a $300-a-day habit. I was working two jobs, and getting whatever I could beg, borrow and steal.

“I was very suicidal. That's why I ended up in a mental hospital for about 10 days.”

She wishes the Problem Gamblers Help Network of West Virginia had been around when it became a serious problem to her.

“I now get help through Gamblers Anonymous and a lot of peer support. I work with the West Virginia Mental Health Consumer Association. I'm project director for transportation throughout the state.”

She says convincingly that “gambling doesn't discriminate. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do.”

Moran-Cooper believes that “most problem gamblers say that they are in denial. Kim probably wouldn't admit she had a gambling problem. The level of denial is very deep.

“But for every problem gambler in denial, there's a family member who is aware. They see the diminishing bank account and declining household possessions. We encourage family members to call us. For them the appointment is a little different. It helps them to understand the severity and what to do to protect their credit, their assets.

“We give each family member a 55-page booklet entitled ‘Personal Financial Strategies for the Lives of Problem Gamblers.'”

“What a problem gambler will do when they run out of money is second-mortaging on their home, pawn jewelry and televisions, cash in their IRAs. Things like that.”

How does her organization measure success?

“We do post-appointment calls to find out if the client thought the appointment was helpful. We are able to get a hold of about 50 percent of people who call us. Others have moved, had phones disconnected, etc.,” she says.

“Out of that 50 percent, 52 percent of those told us they were no longer gambling. The other 48 are still gambling some or a lot. Many of them haven't taken advantage of the help available. We try to redirect them.”

She said the 1-800-GAMBLER phone number is supposed to be on all video lottery or video poker machines and it's also on some billboards.”

Moran-Cooper recently met here with college professors, several race track officials and consumer credit counselors, discussing how to better address the issue of problem gambling in West Virginia state.

She explained the four risk factors that contribute to a gambling problem.

“One is an early big win or payoff,” she says. “A family history of addictions is one. (Another is) their own personal history of prior treatment for other mental health problems.

“But the one that's interesting to us, we call it the SL - stressful life event. We find that many folks are in-control gamblers. They are in control until something traumatic happens to them (a death, job loss, marriage, child born) and they begin to gamble compulsively as a way to escape stress of other problems.”

She says her organization is in the yellow pages under “gambling addiction.”