What the Alcoholic Owes to Marty Mann

Out of her suffering has been born a network of hope and help for thousands.

By Floyd Miller

An ashen-faced man in search of help New Orleans. “No alcoholic wants to be the way made his way into a quiet office on New York’s he is,” she was saying. “Alcoholics are not upper Fifth Avenue. He was an alcoholic, and he bums. They are sick, and they can recover from poured out his despairing story to a handsome this disease just as from others.” woman in her 50’s who sat behind a large desk. The words penetrated the man’s numbed After a few moments he paused, spread his brain, and for the first time he began to hope. He hands helplessly and said, “its difficult to make picked up the phone, called the radio station and you understand how I feel.” asked to speak to the woman who had just “Oh, but I know exactly how you feel, ” broadcast. Marty not only talked with him; she she said. “I, too, am an alcoholic. I wouldn’t be put him in touch with someone in Jacksonville here if I hadn’t gone through the valley of the who could give him immediate help. shadow.” Marty Mann can supply almost The woman was Mrs. Marty Mann, immediate help from coast to coast through executive director of the National Council on NCA’s network of affiliates operating Alcoholism Alcoholism, a voluntary health organization she Information Centers in 74 cities. Without charge founded 18 years ago. A remorseless crusader and without humiliation, the alcoholic or his against ignorance and prejudice concerning family can telephone or come to these centers alcoholism, she has been largely responsible for for consultation and referral. Depending on the the fact that the nation’s attitude toward the individual’s condition and need, he is sent to a “drunkard” is changing, that alcoholism is now doctor, a hospital, a clinic or to Alcoholics recognized as a disease and that thousands of Anonymous. our five million alcoholics are today being Science now believes that two basic successfully treated. (Only one drinker out of 15 conditions must be present to make a person or 16 develops alcoholism. Like an iceberg, the prey to alcoholism: an emotional vulnerability, symptoms are below the surface at first; but the and a body chemistry which makes him disease progresses relentlessly until the victim, sensitive to the alcohol he consumes in an effort once he takes a drink, stops only when he is too to ease his emotional stresses. Marty Mann’s drunk to continue. It usually takes 10 to 15 years own case demonstrates these concepts with of drinking for a potential alcoholic to acquire the classic simplicity. disease full-blown. If un-checked, it can end only Born to a wealthy Chicago family, she in insanity or death.) went to the best private schools. As a debutante On the lecture platform Marty Mann is she entered a world that was all champagne and electric. Her handsomeness is deepened by caviar. In her set it was gay and smart to go to marks of suffering, and she summons up a New Orleans for the Mardi Gras. On the spur of power of purpose that transfixes her audience. the moment she married a young man she met Her husky voice speaks of reasoned facts, but there; she was 22. A year later tuberculosis, with with a spirituality that drives them hard into the which she had had a bout as a child, flared up, hearts as well as the minds of those who hear. and she went to a Western ranch for both Once in Jacksonville a man awoke in a recovery and divorce. hotel room after a week of drinking, turned on Though she did not realize it until much the radio and heard Marty Mann speaking from later, her real descent into the hell of alcoholism

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began when she was 24, the year her father lost followed. She never knew whether she fell or his fortune. Suddenly thrust against the buzz jumped. Even the moment of impact on the cruel saw of life, she went to New York to look for a stones was mercifully fogged by alcohol. She job. She moved into a small Greenwich Village fractured her leg at the hip and broke both flat with two other young women, and if there hinges of her jaw. were days when they were without food, they After having her leg in traction for six were seldom without bootleg whiskey. For this months, she recovered from the accident – but was the Roaring Twenties. not from her drinking. Her inheritance gone, she Marty got a job reviewing books, and got jobs and lost them. Now she huddled in a then became an editor of a glossy magazine. secluded corner of Hyde Park, sipping from a Her talent was apparent and her career well bottle. There one day a friend found her and launched, but so was her social life. A writer who begged her to do something about herself. squired her to speakeasies and flamboyant “Maybe you should go back to New York, ” she parties of the era recalls with awe, ” I can’t suggested. remember dating a more beautiful and intelligent This struck a response in Marty’s dulled girl. And she could drink any man under the mind. Typical of the later stages of alcoholism is table. A hollow leg, that girl!” the desperate conviction that a geographical A high alcohol tolerance – the ability to change will somehow work a cure. Marty drink a lot without showing signs of drunkenness borrowed money and sailed for New York. But – is one of the early symptoms of alcoholism. the transfer only changed the location of her Others soon followed for Marty. She became drinking. dependent on alcohol in order to enjoy a party; In rare moments of clarity she was then dependent on it to cope with difficult completely disgusted with herself, and events. concluded that she must be insane. She went to The death of her grandmother brought a a series of psychiatrists, none of whom would small inheritance, and Marty quit her job and accept her as a patient after she described her travelled to London. She was as sought after drinking. The only suggestion the doctors could there as in New York, for she was bright, witty, make was that she commit herself to a mental the gayest of companions. institution. This compounded her fears, and she Now the first drink of the day was returned to alcohol for forgetfulness. advanced to noontime and became increasingly Some hard, brave corner of her mind important. Also, she began to drink refused to give up the search for help, however, surreptitiously at parties, belting down two while and finally Dr. Harry Tiebout agreed to take her, others were taking one. And she began to have free of charge, as a resident patient in memory blackouts. Then, in 1931, her tolerance Blythwood Sanitarium in Connecticut. Here, for a for alcohol reversed. She began getting drunk year, she had regular psychiatric sessions, but on lesser and lesser amounts. the doctors remained baffled. “What has happened to you?” her One morning Dr. Tiebout brought a friends demanded. “Why can’t you drink the way manuscript to her. “This was written by people you used to?” like you,” he said. “They seem to have found a No one asked these questions more way out of trouble. Perhaps it can help you. Let urgently than Marty. What frightened her most me know what you think of it.” was the fact that, despite the most desperate She began to read slowly, skeptically. As exercise of will, she could not cut down her she read on, her skepticism gradually began to drinking. lift, to be replaced by a mounting excitement. One summer afternoon in 1934, at a These people were drunks; they had suffered weekend houseparty in the country, she had the just as she had suffered, and they had survived! blind staggers and had to be led upstairs to She discovered that her ailment had a sleep it off. Her bedroom opened on a small name – it was called “alcoholism.” It seemed a balcony. Below was a paved courtyard. Marty blessed thing just to have a name pinned to her. was only vaguely aware of the events that As she read on the fog or fear and ignorance

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began to part, and she learned that alcoholism remove the stigma from alcoholism and allow was a disease! They described it as “an allergy alcoholics and their families to seek help openly, of the body coupled with an obsession of the without shame; a program that would marshal mind.” She learned that the “allergy” was sufficient public interest and support to provide irreversible and that the affected person could adequate diagnostic and treatment facilities. never put alcohol into his sensitized system. The One February night at 3 a.m., Marty got “obsession” was that the alcoholic was driven to out of bed, went to her typewriter and outlined a take a drink despite his knowledge that disaster plan of action, which was to become the waited. National Council on Alcoholism. It was What was the answer? presented to a group of scientists who had It came with stunning simplicity: she founded the Yale Center of Alcohol Studies. must discard attempts at moderate drinking; she They underwrote it financially. On October 2, must give up all drinking. But wasn’t this beyond 1944, the NCA opened a modest suite of offices her power? The manuscript spoke of God’s help. in the New York Academy of Medicine at 2 East Through the recent hellish years, though, she 103rd Street. had lost God. Now, suddenly, she knew for a Marty now found support for her dream certainty: He could help her. from many sources. Within five years the NCA As she pondered this, something was able to function without the subsidy from the happened that she cannot fully explain. She Yale group, and took its place as a full-fledged seemed to lose the upper-most level of voluntary health organization. The bulk of its consciousness, and when she regained it she money came, as it does today, from individuals found herself on her knees beside her bed, her gifts. The council now employs 45 persons in pillow wet with tears. And through her body national headquarters, and its affiliates across surged a feeling of serenity and soaring the country employ 150 full- time counselors in confidence such as she had never known. the Alcoholism Information Centers. She ran to Dr. Tiebout to tell him what Inquiries flood into the NCA, and since had happened. “have I lost my mind? Am I each represents a personal need, it receives a insane?” she demanded. personal answer, many from Marty herself. Thoughtfully, he said, “Something very Besides, Marty travels more than 50,000 miles real has happened. Let us watch and learn each year, speaking at meetings of all kinds, together.” appearing on TV and radio. Largely because of They did watch and learn. The road back NCA’s educational work, more than 80 large to health was difficult, but Marty was never again corporations have established procedures to to feel alone, to know despair. Old friends noted handle their problem drinkers as sick persons; the difference in her appearance; there was a the AFL-CIO has installed programs in unionized new radiance about her. She explained, “You let industries and shops; some 3000 general God in, and He comes out of you.” hospitals now accept acute cases. Within a year she had an excellent job, Most important, out of Marty Mann’s but she knew now that her life would have real suffering has been born a network of hope and meaning only if she served other sufferers. help immediately available to any lost or Alcoholics Anonymous was helping many, but it frightened individual. In the areas served by the could assist only those who sought it out. Most NCA’s Information Centers, no man or woman alcoholics were hidden, closed in by their need face his illness alone – he has only to lift ignorance and fear and shame. Marty dreamed the telephone. of a vast program of education that would

Source: Reader’s Digest, January 1963

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