TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/022089/02208900.007

Text File | 1992-09-23 | 5.6 KB | 108 lines

                                                                                BEHAVIOR, Page 79

The Struggle of Kitty Dukakis


Her bout with alcohol shows the dangers of cross addiction


    During the presidential campaign, Kitty Dukakis stumped
tirelessly for her husband Michael. But since his loss at the
polls in November, she has kept a low profile, particularly in
her home state. She even failed to put in an appearance when
her husband announced a month ago that he would not seek
another term as Governor of Massachusetts. Last week Michael
Dukakis revealed that his wife was suffering from more than
postdefeat blues. He explained that Kitty had checked into a
private clinic in Newport, R.I., for treatment of an alcohol
problem that had surfaced suddenly after the election. Said the
Governor: "A combination of physical exhaustion, the stress of
the campaign effort and postelection letdown all combined to
create a situation in which, on a limited number of occasions
while at home, she has used alcohol in excessive quantities."

    The announcement shocked friends and reporters, who describe
Kitty as a social drinker who enjoyed a glass of wine with
dinner. But the news came as no surprise to drug-abuse experts.
Kitty, 52, had confessed early in the campaign to a 26-year
addiction to amphetamine diet pills, a reliance she had overcome
in 1982. Increasingly, counselors recognize that dependence on
one substance increases the risk of abusing others.

    This phenomenon is known as cross dependence, or cross
addiction. Researchers estimate that between 40% and 75% of
people in treatment programs are multiple-substance abusers.
Sometimes people mix several drugs at once -- liquor and
tranquilizers, for example, as in former First Lady Betty
Ford's case. Others, like Kitty Dukakis, may slip from one
chemical to another. Says counselor Fred Holmquist of the
Hazelden Foundation in Center City, Minn., where Kitty was
treated for amphetamine abuse: "It's like switching staterooms
on the Titanic."

    Why addictive tendencies cluster in some people is still a
mystery. Researchers know that some sufferers have an inherited
physical susceptibility to alcoholism and perhaps to abuse of
other substances as well. There may also be a psychological
vulnerability. Experts dismiss the popular idea that there is a
set of personality traits, say, low self-esteem and a streak of
perfectionism, that puts people on the path to dependency.
Explains Dr. Sheila Blume, director of a treatment program at
South Oaks Hospital in Amityville, N.Y.: "There is no evidence
of a single addictive personality type. You cannot go to a
class of junior high kids and pick out who will become an
addict." Nonetheless, addicts do have a common pattern of
behavior. Observes Blume: "They have translated feelings of
distress like `I'm bored' or `I'm lonely' or `I'm angry' into
feelings of `I need a drink' or `a hit' or `a fix.'"  Tina
Tessina, a therapist in Long Beach, Calif., points out that
people with dependencies try to "meet their emotional needs"
with alcohol or drugs.

    Friends and observers agree that her husband's presidential
defeat was an emotionally crushing blow to Kitty. An energetic
and ambitious woman, she had thrived on the demanding schedule,
tumult and attention of the campaign. Sandy Bakalar, a close
friend, says, "Kitty was going 1,000 miles a minute. Then on
Nov. 8 it was suddenly over. It was a terrible loss." Her
husband, meanwhile, handled the loss in his usual stoic
fashion. "Kitty had to do the mourning for both of them," says
Richard Gaines, editor of the Boston Phoenix, who has long
reported on the Dukakis family.

    Kitty tried to put together a new life, signing a $175,000
book contract and registering with a speakers' bureau. She also
traveled, taking a trip to an Arizona spa. And apparently she
drank. Enough to alarm her family and, most important, herself.
Doctors do not believe she has had the time to become heavily
dependent on alcohol, but they say her earlier experience with
amphetamines evidently set off warning bells. "She recognized
that her recovery was a day-to-day thing, and she is an
addictive person," says Paul Costello, her press secretary
during the campaign. She has struggled mightily but
unsuccessfully to stop smoking cigarettes, a habit she picked up
as a teenager. On the hustings Kitty frequently talked about the
dangers of drug abuse, using herself as an example.

    That keen self-awareness should stand her in good stead at
Edgehill Newport, the 12 1/2-acre residential facility where she
is expected to stay for about a month. Patients there are
assigned to one of six 24-bed rehabilitation units. Treatment,
which combines medical and psychological therapy with elements
from Alcoholics Anonymous, includes intense group and peer
counseling designed to break down addicts' denial of their
problems. Sessions with family members are also offered.

    Cross-dependent people as a rule are more difficult to treat
than single-substance abusers. Often they admit to having
trouble with one chemical -- cocaine, for example -- but hide
the fact that they are misusing sleeping pills or alcohol. Says
Dr. Roger Meyer of the Alcohol Research Center at the
University of Connecticut in Farmington: "It's hard to get them
focused and to realize that they need to be talking about total
abstinence from all mood-altering drugs." Kitty Dukakis has
understood the message but must translate it into practice. Said
her husband: "As she has now discovered, whether it comes in a
bottle or is solid, if you're chemically dependent, you're
chemically dependent."