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.