Newsweek. June 4. 1984

HEALTH

More and more Americans are struggling to i ,i l break the.grip of drugs and alcohol-and they’re tu rning to a .l ?

growing network of treatment programs for help.

he snapshot is frightening: a -/ l’

trying to kick habits and fewer getting r o ‘O,, h tr 11 l”l ;!1 7l

indicate that between 1976 and 1981 there grinning skeleton of a man hooked is beginning to be borne out by was an astounding 600 percent increase in wearing a LaCoste shirt. statistics on cocaine abuse. According to the number of Americans who sought help a “Look at that,” says Paul,* NIDA, of the 35 million Americans who for cocaine abuse in publicly funiled pro-, 37, a lawyer and owner of a were users (defined as those who used drugs grams. While there are no available statistrucking firm. “Matchsticks for arms and 20 days out of the month immediately pre- tics that reflect a surge of enrollment in thq l slits for eyes. Eighty-seven pounds and ceding the survey) ofillicit drugs in 1982, private programs that coke users prefer, coked out of my gourd.” In the five years 4.1 million used cocaine-down from 4.5 experts also note that reported membership’, before the photo was taken, Paul explains, million in 1979. And government surveys in Alcoholics Anonymous-which has l-rehe “snorted away” his wife, his subur- come increasingly involved with coban home and $500,000. After the caine abuse-has more than tripled. drug ate away the cartilage inside his since 1968, from 170,0@ to a total’ nose, he bought liquid cocaine and of 586,000. droppered it into his eyes. Then a year Candon By all accounts, the “getand a halfago, shortly after posing for ting straight” movement began with;, the cadaverous photo, Paul pointed a an unlikely addict: former First Lady” .38 pistol at his head; luckily, his girl- Betty Ford, who courageously anfriend managed to wrestle it away. nounced in I 978 that she was about to’ ,i “That riight I saw an ad on TV for a enter a hospital for treatment to cc’ncocerine hot line,” recalls Paul, who bat her dependency on alcohol irnd now weighs 200 pounds. “IfI hadn’t painkillers. Most drug counselors called, you would have read an obitu- agree that just as Mrs. Ford’s candor ary last year about an 87-pound man about her mastectomy a few years who blew his brains out.” earlier made it much easier for other Paul is just one of hundreds of American women to handle their thousands of Americans who in the own struggles with breast cancer, her past few years have tuned in to the public acknowledgment of her addicrealization that drugs and alcohol tion to alcohol and drugs took awaya were killing them, turned on to the great deal of the stigma and shame help offered by a growing network of attached to those problems. “Betty treatment facilities-and dropped Ford has done more to get people in out of the drug culture. The common treatment than any government properception is that more Americans gram,” declares Dr. David Smith, than ever before are abusing drugs who in 1967 founded-and still and alcohol while comparatively few runs-the Haight-Ashbury Free ofthose already addicted are seeking Medical Clinic in San Francisco (box, help, but U.S. government officials page 69). Adds Larry Meredith, pro maintain that the opposite is true: gram chief of San Francisco’s. they call it “the cooling of America.” Community Substance Abuse Serv: “Since 1979, in terms of national lev- ices: “Betty Ford made it okay and els of the numbers of people using respectable-almost in vogue–to ‘ drugs and, to a lesser extent, alco- have a problem and deal with it. She hol,” reports Dr. William Pollin, di- o has been a national treasure.” rector of the National Institute on z But she was only the beginning’ Drug Abuse, “there has very clearly za After she went public with her prob’ been a peaking, a leveling offand the lem, a stream of similar announce’. beginning of a downward trend. This o ments lrom politicians, athletes is really a dramatic change from the r and especially entertaineis quickly explosion of past years.” Ridgeview teen: Battling debilitating dependency swelled to a flood, as every actor:l In fact, the surprising possibility in Hollywood suddenly seemed to b.e that there may now be more people ‘The lront line ol the light against drug queuing up lor a chance to confess all -S* th. rr.* i, ,hir tt*y hr* b.., on “Good Moining, A-..i.u.” St”. changed. “l addiction is in the lilth and sixth grades.’ eral-including rec-overed alcoholics’ 62 NEWSWEEK,/JUNE 4. Iq84

policy: “When someone with a position of influence or name recognition says, ‘I have an alcohol problem,’ or ‘I have a drug problem,’ it gives a lot of other people the courage to do the same.” One of those people is Julie, 29, a story editor for a film-production company in Hollywood, who 1l months ago joined Cocaine Anonymous and kicked a heavy cocaine and alcohol habit that was destroying her life. Julie exemplifies several significant trends that characterize a new breed of addicts who are showing up for treatment: she is a woman, she was addicted to more than one drug and she sought treatment in a program based on Alcoholics Anonymous, the venerable organization founded in 1935 to help alcoholics stay sober through mutual support, self-examination and spiritual guidance. Also like Julie, a growing numberof the men and women who are flocking to alcohol and drug (A and D) rehabilitation programs are educated members of the upper-middle class: doctors, Iawyers, bankers and other professionals. Mixers: They seek help in a wide variety of settings, ranging from church basements to locked units in psychiatric hospitals to cabins with breathtaking mountain views. But what distinguishes them most from an earlier generation ofaddicts is “polyabuse,” the current medical buzzword that describes their dependency on a Morrison, an ex-addict and Ridgeview adolescent counselor: Preaching what she practices combination of alcohol and drugs, or on more -than one ‘Polyabuse’is the newest buzzword among rehabilitation experts. These days it’s chemical substance. hard to lind a pure alcoholic. ttlost addicts are hooked on a comhination of irugs. An estimated l0 million Americans are problem drinkers. “But it’s very hard to flnd a Jason Robards and Daniel Travanti, star of Basketball Association players dabbled in pure alcoholic these days,” notes Paul Sher- NBC’s popular “Hill Srreet Blues”-have cocaine proved exaggerated-but the im- man, a Rye, N.Y., consultant on executive taken an active role in the crusade to help age-conscious league and its players’ union substance abuse. “Most of them are mixother alcoholics; both gave up the bottle in did adopt the strongest antidrug code in pro ers,” agrees DonnieBrown, executivedirec- 1973. Some cele’britiesllike Elizabeth Tay- sports. Former Super Bowl heroes like tor of Metro Atlanta Recovery Residences, lor and Johnny Cash-who both went for Washington Redskins safety Tony Peters Inc., “and I’m talking about everyone from treatrirent to the Betty Ford Center that and Cincinnati Bengal runner Pete Johnson street people all the way up to doctors.” A opened in 1982 at the Eisenhower Medical were caught in the cocaine glare. In base- good example is Johnny, 30, a Los Angeles Cenler near Palm Springs, Calif.-put out ball, Kansas City outfielder Willie Wilson actor and ex-abuser who started doing torthright press releases that l0 yeirs ago has been wearing earplugs to keep out the drugs at 1 5 and who got straight two years would probably have euphemistically al- gibes of fans who resent his conviction and ago. “I was a garbage-can addict,” he reluded to a hospitalization lor “gastritis.” jail term flor possession. calls. “I wasn’t choosy. I took pills, drank Others. like comedian Richari pryor, Whether they resorted to public confes- like a fish, used hallucinogens, did bocaine. I spoke out only after their drug or alcohol sion, intensive treatment or earplugs, the would carry a small aspirin box which conproblems landed them in public trouble. celebrities who went public probably tained all the pills I needed,.according to Athletes, the cherished role models of opened the straight road to many of their how I wanted to feel.” youth, were also catapulted out of the closet. Arlaim that 75 percent of National admirers. Says Dr. Carlton Turner, special Cocaine users are especially likely assistant to the president on drug-abuse to abuse-and become dependent on-a NEwsws.er,zruNE +,

For one thing, the enormous numbers of looked at in a moralistic way,” says Dr. HEALTH young people who experimented with mari- G. Douglas Talbott, a rehabilitation exjuana and LSD in the 1960s and 1970s pert who operates the Ridgeview Institute smorgasbord of “downers” to combat the jittery, strung-out irritability coke. induces- didn’t all grow up and grow out of their Chemical Dependency Program in Smyrhabits. Some kept on trying new highs and, na, Ga. “But now it’sbeing recognized more Alcohol, sedatives and tranquilizers are widely used for this purpose, along with inevitably, many of them got hooked. Now and more that this is a disease. That per- I another depressant that a small but growing entering middle age, these “baby boomers” ception has made more people come into. number of heavy users consider the perfect are trying to put their lives in order by treatment.” antidote to the cocainejitters: heroin. kicking drugs. Another important factor, Economic factors have also played a role The new candor about A and D addiction says NIDA’s Dr. Carl Leukefeld, is the in encouraging drug-dependent Americans may be the catalyst that has enabled so current American enthusiasm for physical to get help. Large businesses have realized many drinkers and drug users to throw fitness and self-improvement, .combined that it is far more cost-effective to get away their pipes, syringes, pillboxes’ bot-, with a growing awareness of the health risks substance-abusing employees rehabilitated tles,- spoons and straws, but a number of drugs and heavy alcohol use carry. than to hire and retrain new ones; thus, social, economic and historical influences Perhaps most important, America has many flrms have developed Employee Ashave also combined to providejust the right changed its attitude toward addiction. “The sistance Programs (EAP’s) for addiction. climate for the getting-straight movement- alcohol and drug addict has always been Although many insurance plans will still

day. During the after-midnight hours, when the hard-core llot-Lining for HelP abusers traditionally call in, one counselor is on call. Many on the hotJine staffare former abusers. Running on empty, theY dial. Whattayd, snorting? Smoking? How much? You got health insurance? They had to lock me upfve times before I got straight. Some hang up, most hang on. Twenty-four hours a day they Unsurprisingly, the hot line logs more calls from New York light up thJphone bank on the second floor of Fair Oaks and Los Angeles than anywhere else. Still, callers frequently dial ffospitit with toll-free, nameless renditions of the cocaineblues’ from the Midwest and small towns. Recent surveys show that 85 Halfareactual coke abusers looking formedical advice, hospital percent ofthe callers are white, one in seven makes over $50,000 referrals or a nonjudgmental ear; the rest are stumped h-ealf!- iyear,63 percent consider themselves addicted and four offive care orofessionals or traumatized family members like the 10- suffer from severe depression. But to those who answer the y*r-bld *ho tecently called the Summit, N’J., hot line to say-his phones it’s the voices, not the numbers, that haunt. – “There was this state trooper despondent on cocaine,” reiooted-up father would not stopbeating his mother- Most callers start haltingly. members Richard Jensen, hospital coordinator for the phone Yeah. . .”in*. . . I’m intofreebasing and I want to stop. I’ve bank. “He said, ‘I’ve got my revolver in one hand and the phone been hitting the pipefor two months I’ve been trying to stop on my in the other. It’s uo to vou to make me decide which to use.’ We own, but it’s not working, kept him on for awhili, but he never told us who or where he Last May Dr. Mark Gold, chief of research at Fair’Oaks (a was.” Although those handling the phones are trained in crisis psychiatriCand drug-dependency hospital), set up the hot line to intervention, Jeusen says S0O-COCAINE s main function is prbvide public information on cocaine abuse and treatment. A education, not suicide prevention. “Only one of eight of the ioo* wis set aside, a phone plugged in and asmall computer abusers who calls here,?’ he remarks, “is looking for treatment. programmed with the names and numbers of 700 doctors and Some want to talk about how the drug is atrecting them; others dru[-treatment centers across thecountry- “At first, say^s drug want to cdnfess; they feel better after they talk about it'” couiselor and phone-bank supervisor Jeffrey Shore, “we figured One of Jensen’s most disturbing calls came from a 23-yearwe’d just have someone near the phone in case it-rang.” – – old woman who said she had just sold her baby for $5,000 worth It aid. Originally, the hot-line staff thought they would re- of cocaine. “l could hear her mother in the background ceive 10,000 calls a year. saying, ‘Don’t tell them, Soon after the first iine it’s none of their busiwas operational, howev- ness’,” details Jensen. er, 1,000 calls a day be- Pausing, he muses over gan streaming into the the 350,000 calls the hot tiny room. “We never line has received in the year it has been in operaslepl,” says Shore of the old times when only he tion. “We want people to and a skeleton staffwere know,” he finishes, “that on board. “We just kept they can talk to us, and answering the phone.” we can get them help.” Norv, with a better sense The message is out: on of how badly they are the second floor, the butneeded (and a concur- tons glow. rent rise in grants and Yeah, listen, how long donations), the not-for- after you take’cocaine proflt phone bank has does it stop showing uP expanded a bit. Still in your urine? Ya see, squeezed into the three- they’re going to be testing ‘us ot work in 35 days and desk, two-ashtray office, the hot line now boasts a I only did it twice ond. . . mostly volunteer pool of Yasure? , “‘ 25, three.to five of whom NEAL KARLEN man phones during the Counselon answer cocaine crisis calls: Haunting voices in the night at Fair Oaks HosPital

offer coverage for treatment of alcohol but not other drugs, next month Blue Cross and Blue Shield will launch a pioneering new “substance abuse benefit” that emphasizes early identification and intervention and will cover up to I 65 days of treatment. Discneec Withou t insurance, the cost of getting straight can be truly prohibitive-as much as $350 a day at posh private hospitals like Silver Hill in New Canaan, Conn., and Laurelwood, a three-yearold psychiatric hospital near The Woodlands, Texas, that may soon become an official ‘ B

treatment facility for the drug- z1 plagued National Footbill League. Outpatient programs, c=i of course, cost much less. At Nen’\’ork’s Regent Hospital, a = discreet Private facility that #EfuF– ,caters primarily to affiuent coke addicts, an outpatient program that includes both individual and group therapy costs $185 a week-far less than the $300 to $500 that patients have typically been spending on cocaine. The seemingly insatiable dernand for drug- and alcohol-rehabilitation services has spawned a thriving new American industry. Comprehensive Care Corp., based in Newport Beach, Crlif., launched its first E F CareUnit hospital for A and D treatment in 1972; today there 5. @ are 150 CareUnits in 42 states, zI with new ones opening up at o the remarkable rate of two a o i month. In some cases health- z care entrepreneurs have joined I

wardsintoprontabredrut;i;’in M has more than tripled since lg0B. CareUnit rcs. In Denver, older rehz flflrtlt at tlle astounding rate of two hospitals are opcning :’d:ti”1l”:T:”rl#1#ffi1# a month. Reliance 0n others is a bitpart 0f recouery. their images and facilities to attract self-helpsupportgrouplikeAA,sometimes today’s younser, more hip polysubstance getting seduced by other problems,,, he io. tr,3 iJli-G” p;tii”it iir”. iays. ;chemical dependency is their main abuser’ Staffers with some of the nonprofii -indivioual programs refer disparagingly^to thi p;y;’h;A*”;v, -notoriousiy i’t *”t uu oil”or””r, and if they are loaded when you p”.t, l:ry ireating” ugr””, is ineffective “* in ir”ut tn”*, you are wasting your time.,, outfits 2s “finger-lickin’ -il””#i,1::,1″t there ch;.ho, The granddaddy of treatment aahi”ii.”.’::U”i”‘r.tunately 1;iii”J,i”,”issomecontroversyoverthe best way to treat addictio”, tt’e uu’st :f ?:i:i,:Ti,:::’:fi9r=, H;”H'”,H:I :fBtmi.:i,*X#i1H[$,,:f: -alorl- -“”irr; intoxicaied witii ilL-e.ot, tatki.rg to place their faith in a ..higher power,, to ty of private rehabilitation centers-some ofwhicharealsononnrofit—onttt”g,-“”t about-ihei.*otrr”..,i;ourJve^sDr.Thomas L”ri*t”y,.*.*tir”il.””i”.LftheUniversi help them stay sober. while AA,s tenets that can be described as variationi on a theme’ The frills and activiti.t In;,y tv”rc.i”i.a”‘:iit;hi;;’GtedAddiction after”;J structure its remain unaltered 49 years founding, there are winds of oir.i- [“]r”u.”t uno rr”itrriort 5I.ri””, (ARTS) change whistling through the churches, from strenuous hiking and aquatic relax- :”#t;G:il.’Jir”y.,””a”o atlon to “meditation walks” and household ;-.'”il;. to oo schoJl auditoriums and hospitals where chores-but the basics remain the same: ;.s’stop using Demerol.il’Murray Fire- ;;;;., gather. At almost iny meeting, ,toir”, u p.y”hJrogirt *h; lreads thi rehab *rr”it about AA is immediately apdetoxification (with or .without -;Ji”;- o.ft.*.; Beveiiy cten rrospital tton)’ group therapy, family -i in Los parent; “* recently, there has been a steady counseling.ana i-ng'”r”r, ug..”.. “ih. iio. in rreat- iro Lute upswing in the number of a long-terrn outpatient involvement-in a in!’people’with chemical dependency “.io. is ;;;;, young people and polydrug NEwswEEK.auNE4, 1984 65

HEALTH f^’l:1l.”,”lTt:g:991:’:11:,”11c”,: that you have acquired another body abuserswhohavejoined.Under-30needthatyoumustpayattentionto membershiprosesoRercentobeffi “”i:::lJ,”””rT.r”t#,;;, by the 1977 and 1980, and the tr ues.Womennowmakeupone-thirdAmericanMedica1Association,s ofthemembership,comparedwithre#-:;:CommitteeonAlcoh.olism,justas 22percentin196d.AAliasbecomemanywomenasmenfee1that..body theprogramofchoiceforsuchuneed.”.Butinthepast,womenwith diveisepopu1ationthatsomemeet-alcoholanddrugproblemswere ingsnowattractmembersjustfrom-…=..mhkelytohideat.home-behind’the specin” groups; there are special .+; convenient curtain of housewifery. meetingsfordoctors,lawyers,gaysToday,inmostrehabprograms, andpeopleintheentertainmdntin-w.omelaccountfor30to40percent dustry-and one is on posh Rodeo of patients. DriveinBeverlyHills.Nomatterrmmoral:Buttraditionalattitudes whattheirincomeis,AAmembersstillmakeitdijflcultformanywompay nothing. en to adr.r.rit- to a .drug or. alcohol Chigwiththeinfluxofyounger,problem…We’restillchauvinisticin hippermembersandaless1opsidedourthinkingaboutwomenwhouse , mili-femaleratio,SomeAAmeet.Hd*g’,’,saysWi11iamJohnsonof ingshavebecomedecidedlymoreso-!Georgia’sDepartmentofHuman ciible,andevenchic:bottlesofPer-QResources…Theyarethoughtofas rierareappearingalongwiththe=…’:.::ffi1weaksisters,immoralandloose. traditional cofee and cookies. Mem- Haun, with photo of parents: A ‘bom alcoholic’ . Men are excused much more easily.” bers are discouraged from dating . .r r r Apparently: the National Council withinAArorthenistv#I,rr,li;: Staying S0[Sf iS the hafd paft, ‘AlCOhOl iS 9,i er-onor!* Iepg{s that e out or r0 wives of alcoholic the Los Ar-rgeles .O1ror, admits, — -r.-‘–.-, husbands stand ..Sometimes r go to *;ti”;ffiB patient,’ SayS HaUn. ‘lt’S alWays thGf8.’ iy them, but only I in l0 husbands ” be uplifted but because I know a married to alcoholic wives does greatJookingguyisgoingtobethere.”But cal addictions are diffierent faces of the thesame. ihatdoesn’tiLnstrireglasher 1l-month same demon, a eravlng so strong that it “society expects a lady to drink, but not sobriety lightly. “So it’s chic,” she shrugs. cannot be controlled despite its destructive tq have a drinking problem,” notes Betty “So much the better.” consequences. “Everybody has bodily Ford. “I consider it my life’s work to re- Whether the problem is booze, pills, pot, needs: to breathg to eat, to have sex, to move the stigma from women admitting coke or a pharmacological potpourri, AA urinate,” observes Dr. David Fram, direc- they are alcoholics.” She has made a formiis often the solution that works. Indeed, tor of drug-abuse treatment at Washing- dable start at the Betty Ford Center she many drug experts believe that all chemi- ton’s Psychiatric Institute. “The best way founded with recovered alcoholic and tire-

she rernembers decidiag: “I might aswell go to this place. If it doesn’t work, what the hell, I can kill myself in Georgia just as well as in:Arkaasas.” Thirty-six hours after entering the Im- During the worst of it, when she was confined to the psychiat- paired Health Professionals program at Ridgeview, she tried to ric unit attheRidgeview Institute in Smyrna, Ga., aftera suicide hang herselfwith a rope belt tied to a tree, but the kuot broke. attempt, another patient approached Martha Mori{son and , :., Morrison stuck it out numbly through detoxification, folirsked who shewas. !’Myname’s Martha Morrison;t’ shereplied. ,lowed by individual and group therapy sessions, Narcotics l

‘ “I’m a psychiatrisl” The patient pointed at a man aid said, “Oh Anon;rmous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, still with sure, and he thinls he’s Napoleon.” ft was an old joke, only Iittle hope. l’I was so lost,” she says. “I knew I was dying.’: 611” funnier and sadder. rainy March afternoon she walked to a bluff overlooking the Morrison, in fact, was a senior residell in psychiatrywith an Chattahoochee River and knelt in the mud. “I just prayed to let extraordinary curriculum vffae She had begun a careering spin me die or get better,” she says. “And the rain stopped, the sun through the drug culture at 12 wit\her mother’s Darvon pills, came out, there was even a rainbow. It was so bizarre, but the real tumblingetrortlesslythrough speed” pot and drug dealia-g at her compulsion’to use drugs just left me. I really came to believe I Fayetteville, Ark., higb school. Confined to a psychiatric unit could get better.” three times before her l8th birthday, she graduated from a tcod’scracd: Ittooknine months instead oftheusual four, but halfway house to premed studies at the University of Arkansas she was right. At 31, the tall, willowy Morrison is associate without changingherhabits. “Ibasicallyjust conned everybody, director of Ridgeviewls highly regarded adolescent chemicalbecause I was using drugs the whole time,” she recalls. Remark- dependancy unit. She has been totally chemical-free for two ably, she managed to garner topgrades at school despite a brush years and eight months, although she’s a confi.rmed cigarette with death from an overdose of heroin and a failed marriage. She rr1sftsr-“3ddictive personality,” she says with a wry smile. On even won several awards for her medical research. But by the her oftce bookshelf, next to the psychology and medical texttime she began her serrior residency she was an across-the- books, is an oversize glass model of a hypodermic syringe, witha spectrum drug abuser, suffering from recurrent blackouts and small, frantic figure trapped inside. It is an appropriate enough blood infections. symbol for a drug-treatment institute, but for Morrison, more – d;”;#; Mrrrison was confronted by two recovering ad- than that: a kind of stark, cautionary self-portrait. Gazingatit, dicts from an Arkansas impaired-physicians committee who shesays: “I should have died a thousand times. Onlyby th egrace urged her to try the Ridgeview Institute. She was skeptical. That of God am I here.” same night, in a suicidal mood, she bought a .25 attomatic, but DAYID GELMAN with BOB LEyIN at the Ridgeview Itrstitute

66

ticular attention. Martha Mor- HEALTH rison refers to the “M.D.-eity fortune heir Leonard Fire- complex. Doctors say, ‘I prescribe all these drugs, I make stone. Men and wotnen maY ihoose to live separately dur- life-or-death decisions; it will never happen to me’.” At Den- s ing the lour- to six-week Program. “Women shy awaY from ver’s ARTS, which consists of a lot of subjects when men are a network of specialized clinaround,” explains the former ics, including two strictly First Lady. “Also, men tend to for cocaine and one for addicttake advantage of women’s ed health-care professionals, nurturing nature in grouP ther- . counselors are studying an inapy, and the women end uP i triguing but controversial new worrying about the men in- .: sobrietv incentive that has been stead of themselves.” { aescriulo, accurately, as sell- Although the BettY Ford 3 blackmail. The plan is known p as contingency contracting. Center looks like a country club, the program is ascetic. E An addicted doctor, for exam- Travanti and Ford: Private struggles-and public inspiration ple, writes a letter to the state The day begins with an 8 a.mboard of medicine admitting he 4 meditation walk and includes assigned housework for all Pa- Celehrities who have admitted their problems haue is an addictThe and surrendering letter is depoStients, including male movie his license. stars and Elizabeth TaYlor, made it 0K-even chic-fot others to seek treatment. ited with ARTS director crowwho didn’t flinch when she had ley, and a contract is drawn up to take out the garbage and hose down the whom died from alcohol-related prob- directing Crowley to mail the letter if the patio. No telephone calls are permitted dur- lems-Haun claims she was “born alcohol- patient fails-or fails to show up for-one ing the first five days, and television-an ic”; her mother would slip whisky into her ofhis regular urine checks for the presence addiction of a different type-is confined to baby bottle when she was cranky as an of drugs. Unfortunately, some of the letters weekends. The program closely follows AA infant. Addicted to pot and a variety of pills have had to be mailed. tenets, especially the emphasis on reliance as well as booze, Haun dropped out ofqol- Skiing: Although alcohol and coke are on others with thesameProblem. lege and drifted from job to job. One morn- sometimes called “social” drugs, addiction The Palmer Drug Abuse Program ing last year, she says, .”I woke up and is fundamentally a solitary, isolating way of (PDAP), founded in Houston by an Episco- looked in the mirror and saw an old woman life. Thus, a critical aspect of treating alcopal minister 13 years ago, offers another at 3 l. I said to myself, ‘If there’s a God, I hol and drug dependency is pulling the paiegimen based on AA principles of mutual hope he hears me’.” Now in the program’s tient out of his or her self-involvement and support, with a special emphasis on social six-month aftercare phase, Haun recog- into constructive relationships with others. activities for teen-age addicts. PDAP’s divi- aizes that her recovery is only just begin- At the Aspen Addiction Rehabilitati’-;:r sion for abusers older than 24 is whimsically ning. “Alcohol is very cunning and pa- Unit of the Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medicalled Over The Hill, or OTHers. To Jill, tient,” she explains. “It will wait forever. cal Center, group cohesiveness and reliance 42, tt was a godsend. A secretary addicted It’s always going to be there.” on others are fostered by rigorous outdoor to Valium and alcohol, she first joined Recently the special hazards facing activities that include rock climbing, cross- PDAP because her five children were all health-care professionals have received par- couiltry skiing, rope crossing and log walkdoing drugs. It took her three years to ac- ing. The cooperation required, explains knowledge her own problem. “Finally,” she program director Allen Drum, teaches pasays, “you get sick and tired of getting sick iienis to count on each other for help and and tired.” prepares them for long-term involvement in Outcon: AA also plays a prominent part support groups like AA, Narcotics Anonyat Talbott’s 50-acre Ridgeview Institute. mous or Cocaine Anonymous when thty Talbott, whose career as a prominent Day- leave. The three-month-old facility, which ton, Ohio, cardiologist crumbled under the treats 10 patients at a time in its 28-day weight of alcoholism and drug abuse, be- program, operates out ofa converted 1945 lieves AA offers the most eflective form of irrJt hor.ri situated at the base of scenic treatment available. “And it’s nothing more Buttermilk Mountain. than group therapy,” he says. Talbott was Abusers can also benefit enormously instrumental in the rehabilitation of Mar- from the involvement of theirfamilies. “This tha Morrison, now head of the institute’s is not the kind ofillness a person can have all adolescent unit (box, page 66), who says he alone,” saysHoward McFadden, founderof was the only one she couldn’t outcon. “It’s The Ark, inother A and D “retreat”‘in the very difficult to outcon a con, manipulate a Colorado Rockies. “This is a family disease’ manipulator,” says the 59-year-old Talbott. Family members need treatment, too.” In Boulder, Colo., the Boulder Psychiat- In the past, AA and other rehab groups ric Institute has launched an addiction pro- “l’m Jasn Robards. And l’m al@holic. Thse emphasized that an addict had to “hit bot- 6 a wld @t there that thought of me as a big gram that captures the atmosphere of an succs,butlthoughtonlyl@6bsamealcc holiG. Then llound odaloholism isa dis*. tom” before treatment could be effective’ exotic retreat within the confines ofBoulder My wile convinced me tMt drinking, fs me, res Now many programs encourage deliberate 1,ft commitinRsuicide. I 8ot intoa proSram lo Memorial Hospital. Called Day At a Time, stopdrinkinS,and I don’tdrink anymde. Now I intervention by lamily, friends or employabod. Not justwith ers, belore the abuser has wrecked his ltle’ Mllvk@trls(csisall the treatment regime for up to 12 patients mv;6. butwithmvwife, mychrldlenand my life.” ‘Get help like JM Robards gd.

includes art therapy, yoga, meditation, CallTltc Iauonal Cound Sometimes the direct approach works-a aquatic-relaxation therapy-and a soltjl oilAlcoholkm hlbl,Atc.- firm but friendly confrontation with tne , Orwite NCA,733Third Avenue, NY, N.Y lool7 AA orientation. When Sandra Haun, 32, tubE^h,{.+”,r0,ob, addict about rhe’likely consequences ofhis came to Day At a Time, she was desperate. orherbehavior. (Both Betty Fordand Eliz’r- The daughter of two alcoholics-both of The Robards crusade: Bringing people in beth Taylor got straight only after thcrr xrr\r/crr/EEz /rrTNTtrt , 1984 1

HEALTH mitting addicts as young as 12. “The front clear idea of what it feels like to be sober. As line in the fight against drugs is the fifth and a result, the goal of treatment seems less children intervened in this manner.) In other sixth grades,” declares James P. Comstock, comprehensible. If they do successfully cases, the intervening person may shock the program manager of San Francisco’s ado- complete a rehab program, they may face abuser into self-realization by provoking a lescent CareUnit. Lee Dogoloff, head of the relentless peer pressure to take drugs again crisis; a six-year-old, for example, might say White House office on drug policy in the once they get back to school. Or even soonto his father, “I’m afraid of you.” Carter administration, agrees. “By adoles- er. Cathy, a young girl who was on the verge Bottom: Some counselors say that families cence it’s too late,” he warns. “Once the of release lrom the adolescent unit of Washshould-if necessary-force the abuser to juices start flowing, they can’t hear you.” ington’s Psychiatric Institute after struggo it alone without their emotional or finan- Gary, now 18, didn’t hear much of any- gling to kick an amphetamine habit, was cial support, so that he or she will hit bottom thing after discovering the thrill of mari- horrified to receive an envelope containing and have to face the problem. At least one juana four years ago. “It became a con- two brightly colored capsules of speed-a psychiatristbelieves thiswas where the Ken- stant struggle to hold onto the feeling,” “welcome home” present from her dealer. nedy family may have made its mistake with says the youth, who progressed rapidly to NoCure: For addicts ofany age, perhaps Robert Jr., 30, who has long struggled with speed, Quaaludes, cocaine and LSD until the most effective point any program can heroin dependency, and David, who died “it was like my brain was fried.” At 15 he make is that drug and alcohol abuse, once last month ofa polydrug overdose at the age started dealing. “I’d walk into the bath- under way, has no permanent cure. Like of28. With continuingprotection from their room at school and say ‘Quaaludes,’ and diabetes, it can only be arrested or confamily, says the physician, the young men they’d be gone,” he reports. By his senior trolled. Cathy’s dealer will always be lurkwere partly cushioned from the reality of year he was shooting drugs—cocaine, Per- ingjust around the corner, and every addict what they were doing to themselves. codan, anything he could find. It was knows that getting straight is a piece ofcake Teen-agers who abuse drugs and alco- Gary’s uncle, a counselor at the Ridgeview compared with staying straight. “All AA hol rarely bottom out before their parents Institute, who finally interrupted the cycle asks you to do,” observes Ken, a recovering drag them-sometimes literally kicking of disaster. Now drug-free and living in a alcoholic, withsomeawe, “is to changeyour and screaming-into a rehab program, and recovery house, Gary works full time and whole life.” A sobering thought, to be sure. their prospects for recovery are not always is thinking of going to college in the fall. bright. According to a just-released NIDA “But my main priority,” he asserts, “is just IEAN SELIGMANN wirh LISA DE MORAES in Denver, ELIZABETH BAILEY in Los Angels, study,40 percent of American high-school not doing any drugs.” NIKKI FINKE GREENBERG in Washington, seniors have used an illicit drug other than Teen-age abusers face other special prob- BARBARA BURGOWER in Houston, SANDRA GARY in San Francisco, BOB LEVIN marijuana, and some iehab centers are ad- lems. For one thing, they often do not have a in Atlanta and NEAL KARLEN in New York