It’s an awfully sad and terrible way to live.

Upward of 9 million Americans – including more than 300,000 Washingtonians of all ages – know all too well the hellish existence that is a gambling addiction. Yes, a “problem” gambler is no different than anyone else held fast and enslaved in the bottomless pit of servitude to the hunt for their next high.

Who recovers? Who stays addicted? Most Americans by now understand the help, hope and recovery available through treatment, as well as through Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Is there anyone in our country who isn’t either personally involved in substance-recovery – or doesn’t have a loved one or friend who is, one day at a time, beating the devil’s odds?

These days, we respect the recovering alcoholic. We admire the addict who builds a clean and sober life. And well we should. To come back from that inferno is a great American success story, if ever there was one.

But problem gambling is a different story. Very different. Only a small fraction of the millions of folks who sure could use the help have actually sought treatment or recovery-group support. They’re falling – and their families are falling. Ignorant of available safety nets, these men and women may never escape their abysmal free fall. It’s so important that we mobilize public knowledge of this all-too-secret storm.

Along these lines, I’m very encouraged by the state and national proclamation of Problem Gambling Awareness Week, March 6-12. This is a great time to celebrate recovering problem gamblers – men and women who have come back from the brink. And it’s an even greater time to rally round those who teeter still.

The Legislature last year set up a comprehensive program to strengthen awareness and treatment for problem gamblers and their families. Prevention, professional training, public education and treatment are the goals and objectives.

A Problem Gambling Helpline is part of the program. (Call toll-free, 1-800-547-6133.) During this Awareness Week, treatment providers will do a free screening for any Helpline caller who asks for one. You can also call this number if you’d like folks from the Washington State Council on Problem Gambling to share a presentation with your community group, business, college class or other organization.

In fact, the Council on Problem Gambling – which has worked 15 years to help people who are sick and tired of being sick and tired – co-authored last year’s legislation that is now state law. The Recreational Gaming Association, the Washington Lottery, the Washington Indian Gaming Association and many individual tribes also worked to put this legislative package together.

What’s at stake in the mission to help problem gamblers turn their lives around? The problem gamblers themselves are looking at continued job losses, for one thing. Physical and mental health slipping away. Bankruptcy. Jail. Whatever precinct of Hades you can imagine for any other addict, that’s just what awaits the gambling addict.

Problem Gambling Awareness Week is truly a perfect time for each of us to take a little inventory. Maybe take a little look at ourselves, if need be. Take a little look at some of our family and friends, perhaps. And no, I don’t mean haranguing one’s self or one’s family or anyone else who isn’t a genuine candidate for treatment. All I’m talking about is helping folks get across the Nile, so to speak, before the crocodiles get them. Let’s not leave help, hope and recovery to chance.

State Rep. John McCoy (D-Tulalip) represents the Everett, Marysville and Tulalip communities. McCoy also manages the Quil Ceda Village retail-development complex on the Tulalip Reservation.