Vargas’ journey highlights painful, stigmatized trajectory of addiction

SAN DIEGO — During the William C. Menninger Memorial Convocation Lecture here, Elizabeth Vargas, co-anchor of ABC’s 20/20, shared her experience with addiction and illustrated the need to end the stigma against substance use and mental health disorders.

“Addiction to alcohol or drugs is just devastating,” Vargas said. “It’s painful to the addict, and it’s painful to everyone one in that person’s orbit.”

Elizabeth Vargas

An estimated 21 million Americans have substance abuse disorders, which is greater than the total number of Americans with cancers combined.

Further, only one in 10 individuals with addiction receives appropriate care.

Vargas explained that her journey began when she was a child, when anxiety was just a part of life for her.

At age 6 years, she began having panic attacks after her father was deployed to Vietnam.

She was introduced to alcohol at her first news job after college.

“That glass of wine had a profound effect on my anxiety, on my raging insecurity. Suddenly, I could relax. Suddenly, the world seemed gentler, rosier,” she said. “Those nightly glasses of wine became a routine for me. Over the years and over the decades, I needed that wine to relax. I tell people I drank to feel like other people looked.”

Through her journey, Vargas learned that anxiety and alcohol addiction are linked, particularly among women. Sixty percent of women who abuse alcohol also experience anxiety, compared with only one-third of men.

Her drinking significantly increased following the birth of her son. However, drinking more no longer achieved the same effect. Drinking began to consume her life.

Eventually, she found recovery after two stints in rehab and 2 years of sobriety.

“According to many of the experts we interviewed for the special we did with Diane Sawyer, people with anxiety who are drinking to self-medicate are four times as likely to relapse,” she said. “An anxious person relapses, on average, six times before getting sober.”

Vargas manages her anxiety through daily meditation and nightly focus on spirituality.

“Somehow, I realized part of the reason I didn’t seek help was because I thought I was alone. Maybe taking what had been devastating for me, my story being leaked to the press and made public, could be turned around. Telling my story, perhaps would lead to more men and women being able to talk about the things that we keep hidden deep within ourselves,” Vargas said. “If I convinced one other person to get help who needs it, or if I convinced one other person to reach out to someone else and share their experience with anxiety or with addiction, I feel profoundly grateful for that opportunity. The stigma around this disease needs to be mitigated. We can’t have 90% of the people who need help going without it.” – by Amanda Oldt

Reference:

Vargas E. William C. Menninger memorial convocation lecture. Presented at: American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting; May 20-24, 2017; San Diego.

Disclosure: Vargas reports no relevant financial disclosures.