Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004 | 8:11 a.m.
A former gaming industry advertising executive has created a film about living with addicts that features a man dealing with his wife's gambling addiction.
Gambling is just one type of obsession featured in Toni Verbon's "Breaking Free: Drawing the Line with the Addict in Your Life." The 45-minute film will be shown free at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Summerlin Library Performing Arts Theatre, 1771 Inner Circle Drive. (That's just off the large traffic circle at the north end of Town Center Drive.)
The film uses actors to illustrate the manners in which addicts affect their family, friends and co-workers -- people who often are considered secondary in dealing with someone's addictive behavior, Verbon said.
"It focuses on the trauma these people go through," she said.
Verbon came up with the idea about three years ago after taking some classes about addiction counseling at the Community College of Southern Nevada. She was looking to change careers, and had enrolled in CCSN's new addiction studies program with the intention of counseling others.
She came up with the idea of creating her new company, You Can Help Yourself, and the film about addicts' victims while creating a final presentation for a class.
Throughout their studies Verbon said she and her classmates had the opportunity to talk with people who were addicted to everything from nicotine, alcohol and drugs to gambling, shopping, the Internet and exercise.
The one common characteristic among addicts, beyond the actual disease itself, was other people, Verbon said.
"And there's rarely anyone focusing on these people who are affected by (someone else's) addiction," she said.
After spending a yearlong internship counseling teenagers with substance abuse problems, Verbon already had realized that direct counseling wasn't right for her. She was drawn more toward public education and helping people learn to help themselves.
With help from her husband, David, two filmmaking sons and one son's longtime companion, Verbon spent two years creating the film that features vignettes showing how various addictions affect the non-addict.
Even her ex-husband, her sons' father, got into the act by portraying the main character, Joe, whose wife's gambling addiction causes the couple to lose their home, car and children's college fund.
The film was shot entirely in Las Vegas offices, restaurants and clinics, which business owners allowed the crew to use -- often for free, but always during odd hours when the businesses were otherwise closed.
The video is being shown free but will be available for purchase Dec. 10 from Verbon's Web site, www.help- yourselfinc.net. She also will be conducting seminars on living with addicts.
"(Addiction) is a disease that people don't think they have to deal with if it's someone else in their lives who is addicted," she said. "But they need to look at themselves and help themselves."
About 22 percent of Americans are addicted to something, she said, which means a huge segment of society also is affected.
"There are people we all know and work with who have these other lives where they are being affected by someone else's addiction."
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