The Struggle of Kitty Dukakis

By Anastasia Toufexis

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."

With reporting by Georgia Harbison/New York and Melissa Ludtke/Boston