It’s easy to not connect with what you’re reading. Words are recognized but become senseless shapes of squiggles and angles. You skim over the page and nothing settles.

But sometimes connection is important. Sometimes meaning can be found in the simplest sentences; concepts can be understood in clarity.

You need to connect now.

In these Special Edition pages, you will find ordinary people dealing with a traumatic addiction.

The scariest thing about this problem is there are minimal signs—no alcohol tinged breath or smoke reeking t-shirts. This addiction is psychological, and it is no less serious than any other addiction.

Are you connecting? This is important. This is about compulsive gambling.

I created this Special Edition to make you aware of this serious, growing problem. According to the National Academy of Sciences, almost one in three high school students regularly gamble. That is too much, and it is too pointless.

In September, I assigned five Lightning Strike journalists to pen-pal in spiral notebooks with an assigned Gambler’s Anonymous member. I exchanged the journals weekly, as each pair opened up to each other about their daily lives, struggles and desires.

I wish that every student in this school could read those journals. I’ll admit, I cried reading their stories, and I hope that you can feel the magnitude of pain and loss that they experienced.

One man contemplated suicide, while another was so addicted to gambling he bet on the weight of his baby while his wife gave birth.

This is what they experience every day. This is what I hope to prevent.

Stay connected, stay with me. This is for you. This is for our generation. More than half of teenagers gamble before they’re seniors in high school.

It doesn’t have to be at a casino, either; purchasing lottery tickets or playing bingo for money all fall into the category. In fact, most teenagers are known to bet on sports games. Hello, ever hear of Fantasy Football?

Scientifically, some gamblers become addicted to the notion of winning big: four story yachts, artificial pool waterfalls, a nice glass of Cristal in Fiji.

So they gamble. They throw down cards, spin the roulette wheel, and click reload in their online poker account. They mourn when their team loses a football game—there goes another $600.

Less than one percent of gamblers make a stable living income. My question to you: is it worth it? What cost would you pay to make a few harmless bucks? Maybe you will reconsider; the average amount lost by a compulsive gambler is over $40,000.

After The Lightning Strike journalists were done with their pen-pals, they wrote the articles in the next three pages of this Special Edition.

To me, “article” seems like too dull a word. These are the stories of life dealing with addiction, suicide, torn families and money.

I named this project Gamblers Anonymous Connect.

So I hope you’re connecting.