When They Say Alcohol Made Me Do It
By ALAN FEUER
Published: October 8, 2006
IT’S no secret that alcohol is often used as a balm for human frailty to cover the pain that comes with rage or guilt or grief.
But what about alcohol treatment programs? Can they be used as a sort of salve as well?
When Representative Mark Foley announced last week he was entering a drug rehab clinic after being confronted by ABC News with sexually explicit messages he sent to teenage pages, he joined a growing list of public figures who blamed the bottle for their sins and misbehavior. At the height of a Washington sex scandal, Mr. Foley focused on his drinking, which may or may not have been the most pressing issue on his plate.
Mel Gibson underwent something similar last summer when he declared he was taking “necessary steps” to combat his alcoholism after an anti-Semitic rant against a Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy during a drunken-driving stop in Malibu. Last month, Representative Bob Ney of Ohio said his drinking, in part, was behind his taking of free meals and an all-expense-paid golf trip to Scotland from the lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Declarations like these, in which nefarious activity is linked to — even pinned on — alcohol use, have been debated of late by the professionals who treat substance abuse.
Some expressed concern that high-profile personalities were entering drug rehab just to cleanse their image, contributing to a creeping skepticism about alcohol treatment. Others said that the greater concern was not that too many people — including the rich and famous who may not need it — were getting alcohol treatment but that too few people who genuinely need it still don’t.
John Schwarzlose, president of the Betty Ford Center in Southern California, said that substance-abuse treatment had gained a certain cachet.
“At different times in the last 30 years it’s certainly been to your advantage to say, ‘I went to alcohol treatment,’ ” he said. “I worry people do it for that reason sometimes, to revive a career.”
To Mr. Schwarzlose, this phenomenon may, in fact, point to another challenge.
“It’s a warning signal to the addiction-treatment field that you better be doing good assessment, that you’re treating people who are clinically appropriate,” he said. “If someone is trying to ‘hide’ or find sanctuary, hopefully addiction places are not going to take them in.”
For Ed Diehl, president of Seabrook House, an in-patient drug rehab in South Jersey, public perception is crucial. “We worry that the larger public will begin to become cynical as people say, ‘Oh, I’m in trouble, I’ll enter an alcohol treatment facility,’ ” he said. “My concern is someone gets caught cheating on their taxes and says, ‘Oh my God, I must have been out of my mind drinking.’ ”
Bear in mind, Mr. Diehl said, that it is almost always a crisis — whether it’s a drunken-driving arrest or a sex scandal — that motivates people to seek alcohol treatment, which is often to the good.
Terry Allen, who directs the Hanley Center, a 95-bed drug and alcohol treatment facility in West Palm Beach, Fla., said most people don’t check into treatment centers unless they actually want help.
“The reality is we seldom question people’s motivations because not many people seek rehabilitative services that don’t need them,” he said.
Nonetheless, Mr. Allen said he believed it was common practice in public relations to play on people’s emotions by “attributing bad behavior to addiction.”
Some public relations executives do not disagree.
“Never underestimate the power of ‘I’m sorry’ and the ability of people to forget,” said Sean Cassidy, president of Dan Klores Communications.
There is a caveat, he said. The tactic will only get a story off the front pages for a while. To wrest the full potential from the public relations cure, it does help, he said, to be sincere.
To Howard Rubenstein, the estimable New York public relations executive, the I’m-an-alcoholic declaration is hopelessly played out.
“So many celebrities have used alcohol rehab as a fig leaf lately to cover over their abhorrent actions,” Mr. Rubenstein said, “and as a result it’s become routine and lacks credibility.”
“I think it ought to be banned as an excuse,” he said.
