Forum; The Inaugural John P. McGovern Lecture: Mrs. Betty Ford

song. From the Longhorn Radio Network, the University of Texas at Austin, this is Forum. And it all started about 10 years ago when following the recommendations and guidance of my family, I entered Long Beach Naval Hospital for the treatment of my chemical dependency, my dependency on prescription drugs and alcohol. Former First Lady Mrs. Betty Ford at the University of Texas at Austin. Once those lights went down and there were a few people in the audience who actually did listen

and they heard what I was saying. And I was truly becoming a communicator. Not a brilliant orator, but people were listening and they were understanding. And that was all I really cared about. This is Olive Graham. Today, Forum features the first John Pima-Govern lecture of the College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. Mrs. Betty Ford, wife of former president Gerald Ford, has established a reputation for communication in her own right. In her address at the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, she identified the messages sent to our culture that ensure and enable our attraction if not our addiction to controlled substances such as prescription drugs and alcohol. She particularly recognizes the problems that women have when their lives are affected by these substances. Mrs. Ford slowly accepted her newfound role as a model for recovery and is now a willing example to the public at large for her message of common sense and sobriety.

Mrs. Betty Ford. Now I'm certainly not suggesting that I single-handedly turn the tide of public awareness about alcoholism. But I was part of one of the many who were speaking out with concern, who were able to share their stories as I could share my story at a time when the American public was finally beginning and ready to pay attention. In my first book, which was written as I was after I left the White House and as First Lady, I spoke about an ordinary being, really, and it was the way I felt the time my husband went into office. An ordinary woman called on stage in extraordinary times. I think the same is true of my place in the chemical dependency field. White spread social changes can happen only in extraordinary circumstances.

And this country was going through just such a change. Public awareness of the problems caused by our nation's preoccupation with alcohol and drugs had finally surfaced. The stigma along associated with alcoholism had made it difficult, almost impossible for people to feel comfortable asking questions to gain needed information. It was feared if you asked about alcoholism or drug abuse, it must be because you or someone in your family had a problem. And nine years ago, few people would risk that. Today, as you can see tonight, coming to hear me, is no such risk. Changing attitudes and the news media are making all of us more aware of the drug and alcohol problems. As a former First Lady, which I'm very proud to even have that title, I realize I am a public persona.

And as that public persona, I can help others. But with the advent of the Betty Ford Center, it has also put me in a rather ticklish position of becoming a generic term. At first, I was very hesitant to allow my name to be placed on the treatment center. But since that center had become so very near and so dear to me, I was honored. However, I never realized what it would lead to. The loss of absolute use of my given name. Now, when I hear people refer to Betty Ford, I have to check and see, is it me or is it the center they are loading to? Imagine, if you will, hearing and reading about people who have gone to Betty Ford. That makes me sound like some kind of a guru, doesn't it?

Well, I'm not. Then there's that recent Playboy magazine interview. It's an interview with a well-known actor who talked about his, quote, life since Betty Ford. With that kind of a headline, I am thankful my husband isn't a subscriber. There is even the endearing derivative form in use now, Camp Betty. This appears on sweatshirts, in conversation with people who say, what do you hear from Camp Betty? But my very favorite example involves a group of brownie scouts who came to visit me. And their scout later asked them if they knew who I was. And one little girl was very quick to answer and speak up. She said, oh, yes, she's the lady who's named after the Betty Ford center.

So much for maintaining my identity. Communication takes many forms. It's just me talking to you here tonight. It's television, it's theater. It's books, it's magazines. And perhaps most persuasive of all, it's advertising. That subtle, sophisticated brainchild of the capitalistic system. Our economy is based on the theory of supply and demand, selling and buying. And each buyer has many options. So the seller attempts to influence our decision making process with advertising. Advertising gives us the good side of a product. It persuades us, it coercises us, perhaps, into wanting that product. Advertising provides messages.

But sometimes those messages are a bit slanted. Sometimes they are even misleading. Because while showing the good, they fail to point out that a product may also have some potentially harmful effects. Advertising can be delightful and funny and entertaining. Just as in the recent spade of serial commercials showing boxes and boxes of cereal erupting from kitchen cabinets. Or people falling through the floor as they're told which cereals have too much fat or too much salt or too much sugar. And which ones are good for us? The best examples of what I think is irresponsible advertising are in the alcohol beverage industry. Particularly as those are currently being directed at the young people and at women. Look at almost any beer ad and you'll see a good looking group of young people playing some sport and drinking beer.

Or a famous athlete telling of the pleasures of his favorite brand. The obvious message that goes out to our young sports and fitness conscious population is that American sports tradition more than often includes ice cold beer. In 1987, a little bull terrier dog became such an advertising phenomenon that sales of that beer rose by 21% in one year alone. The use of the party animal was an ingenious piece of advertising. And the popularity of that beer pushing puppy among high school students was so intense and so popular that serious questions arose about the influence of such advertising.

In an attempt to control the negative messages being received by those underage potential drinkers, some high schools finally resorted to banning the wary of t-shirts, accessories, shoes, they had everything touting this little dog. Now, I don't honestly fault the beer companies for using athletes or dogs to try and increase their beer sales. I mean, increased sales are what they're all above and I'm all for free enterprise. But nowhere are our young people being told that even great athletes can't function well under the influence of alcohol. And nowhere is their mention of the dangerous issue of drinking and driving. And drinking and driving is an issue that must be considered particularly when we remember that automobile accidents are 50% the cause of 50% of the deaths of the young people between 16 and 24 years of age.

According to a recent press clipping and a survey that I read and perhaps you saw this, I was amazed to find out that young people in the age bracket of 8 to 12 that group were better able to spell and identify correctly more liquor and beer labels than they could presence of the United States. Now, that's really says something about the impact of learning through ads. Beer sales and advertising are not going to stop. I'd be very unrealistic to think that. But I just hope that a larger portion of the liquor industries $2 billion a year advertising tab will go toward public service announcements and education about alcoholism

and its dangers. The most responsible reaction that I have seen within the advertising community may welcome from that former football star, Bubba Smith, when he gave up his advertising contract. And I quote him, when kids start to listen to you, you want to tell them something that's truth, a whole new perspective on truth and advertising. The advertisers are also focusing on the new image woman and her potential for consumption of alcohol. This woman has become their marketing discovery. Ten years ago, women represented a largely untouched market. In this country, the American woman is still the one in the family who does the most buying.

And yet, she still doesn't drink as much as the men do, so perhaps she could be buying and drinking more alcohol. To convince her of this, what must be done, why gender specific advertising, of course. Communication through advertising is an omnipresent part of society. And these ads are found everywhere, whether they're on billboards, sides of buses or radio or television. You know they're on the back of our sales slip, even. Look in any magazine today and you'll find ads which tell a woman how beautiful and romantic drinking is. Women as a gender, they like romance and they want romance. If according to the ads, it's true that alcohol can provide it, then it must be a wonderful elixir. In the current phase of advertisements, all of the women are beautiful and well-dressed.

They have lovely, expensive looking jewelry and an immaculate home full of fine crystal and antiques. And they do their drinking in the company of an equally attractive man, probably dressed in one of his several tuxedos. And nowhere is there the suggestion of dirty dishes or whining children or a disinterested husband hiding behind the newspaper. And nowhere is there the suggestion of a bottle tucked away in a closet or an ample stock of cooking cherry hidden in the kitchen cupboard. But there is another side to the picture, a side that advertising doesn't address when the drinking goes bad and alcohol becomes a problem. For the woman searching for the romantic life, the lure of that bottle can be very deep and very dangerous.

The truth about the woman who becomes alcoholic is not nearly as romantic as the ads tell us. It is the truth that has been one of my major concerns in the last ten years. You see, for many years, men were the only ones that were seen or considered to be alcoholic. And the data available was gathered exclusively from men's and their recovery study groups. All the figures were coming in as far as men were concerned. Consequently, it was very difficult for a woman to find successful recovery in these groups. They were expected to fit in and they couldn't. Society couldn't believe that a woman could have an alcohol problem. Women were perceived as the wives and the mothers.

They were saints and they were Madonna-like creatures who were the caretakers but who were seemingly untouched by the traumas of life. Since she couldn't be an alcoholic, the woman who had a problem with alcohol hit her disease with great caution. And she was aided in this by her family who denied that there could be a problem. And this was true of the friends and the ones who surrounded her and loved her. Female alcoholism was not acknowledged and it was never, never discussed openly. Denial of the illness is still a cornerstone and it's still the biggest stumbling block to recognition of the disease. Recently, the stigma of alcoholism has lessened as treatment has become more acceptable and it's more widely available.

The ads you see now on your television in your newspapers has brought it out into the open. Each day brings more and more women into treatment and we're discovering with these many more women in treatment that the disease of alcoholism for them is different. Now today these differences are being recognized and their special needs are being addressed. The truth of a woman's physiology is that her body composition is made up of more fat tissue than a man's. Her body correspondingly has a lower water content. Since alcohol is water soluble and not fat soluble, a woman's body absorbs alcohol more rapidly. She becomes intoxicated more easily.

Her internal organs are more susceptible to the damage caused by alcohol. Alcoholism is a chronic and a progressive disease and for a woman it progresses even more rapidly. So while women usually start drinking at a later age than men do, they end up in need of help about the same age but with many more physical problems due to their disease. Women suffer from alcoholism have more than just physical differences in their disease. Their sexual problems are more complicated and more dysfunctional. For these women there is a higher rate than average of incest, rape, attempted suicides. And if they're responsible for children they probably are going to have more parenting problems than the average woman. Another risk for the woman who drinks is the fetal alcohol syndrome.

Pregnant women who drink pass the alcohol directly through the embellical cord to the fetus. This tiny developing child will experience higher blood alcohol levels than the mother does. And these higher blood alcohol levels are going to cause much greater risk of developmental damage. Fetal alcohol syndrome can be the cause of death through spontaneous abortion or stillbirth. It couldn't cause physical malformation, it causes growth deficiencies and learning and behavioral problems. Consumption levels that may not be damaging to the mother can be disastrous to that baby. The study of fetal alcohol syndrome is still imprecise. So it's impossible to tell just how much can be consumed before the potential of fetal alcohol syndrome begins.

For now the only responsible answer is not to drink at all during pregnancy. Another difference for a woman that can cause complications is her monthly hormonal change that her body experiences. We now realize that alcohol can and does intensify the mood swings that often accompany these changes. Premenstrual syndrome is relatively new issue as far as women's health concern. Now premenstrual syndrome in the alcoholic woman is part of a woman's treatment. The woman alcoholic has all these negative aspects to her disease plus she has a dual dependency problem which is unique to her gender. You see generally women go to their doctors much more often than men.

They go on an annual basis and they look to their physicians for more than just medical support. They take their emotional problems to them as well. And when they spend all that time and money on those office visits, most women feel very justified when they leave with a prescription. And many doctors they find it less time consuming to write a script rather than listen to the long list of female complaints. Us study done recently in Southern California collected information on men and women sent to their doctors with identical problems. The men were sent for lab tests and x-rays. And the women were given prescription drugs. It's estimated that among women dependent on alcohol, 70% of them are also dependent on one or more mood-altering drugs. Many years the largest category of drug addict in this country was the prescription addicted woman.

And now cocaine is competing with the use of pills. I am not suggesting that the medical profession should be burdened with all a blame of this overuse and abuse of prescription drugs. I believe that all of us, each and every one of us, is responsible for what we put into our body. They say, we are what we eat. We are what we eat and we are what we drink. And we must be aware of the effects and the side effects of the drugs that we take. We must ask our doctors questions about what and why they prescribe. And we should expect the medical profession to be able to answer these questions. Through education and communication much has changed for women, thank goodness in the past few years. And fortunately our understanding of the effects of alcohol and mood-altering drugs can have on them is part of that change.

Communication is an essential part of all our lives and our livelihoods. And our ability to communicate is shaped within the first relationship we ever form. That relationship between parent and child. It's within this communication that we gain our first and most forceful messages, messages about sociability and acceptable behavior. The messages from parent and child may be direct. You know you've heard it, keep your elbows off the table. Share your toys with your brother. Or that old familiar, hang up your clothes or you can't go out. These messages may be indirect, messages that are sent with behavior rather than words.

The acceptable use of alcohol and drugs may be implied by the parental use of these substances. And do what I say, not what I do, can be a difficult role for any child. The parent who tells a child not to drink and who then drinks and draws with that child as witness is sending mixed messages. The parent who says, thank goodness my kid doesn't do drugs. He only drinks beer is tacitly giving permission to that teenager to consume a substance that he cannot legally use. Only drinking beer can be a dangerous beginning for any youth. But it is especially dangerous for the young person who has alcoholism within his family. The genetic makeup of chemical dependency.

In the treatment field we find that beer and marijuana are often referred to as the gateway drugs. And we know their use can be the initiation into much more harmful substances. Their use should not be caused for parental side of acceptance. Parents have to begin to live their lives in a way that lets children see and hear positive messages. Asking a child to open another can of beer and bring it to daddy or giving a sip of a drink to a baby are not positive messages. If we are to end our national crisis of substance abuse, we must do more than just saying no. We must set examples. We must have the answers to the tough questions that kids ask through our own improved education. And we must act and live the role of responsible parents as if our lives and theirs depend upon them.

The ability to communicate is a natural attribute. And it begins with the first words we speak and the first sites we remember. For most of us, it is a natural part of everyday life. And for some of us, it can become a finely honed skill and enterprise. In the field of alcoholism, communication is often on a person-to-person basis in that ever evolving, sharing of recovery. And no matter how the communicating is done, we must draw to give positive messages to say what we mean, someone just may be listening or learning from our words. This is Betty Ford, delivered the inaugural John P. McGovern lecture of the College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin.

The views expressed on this program do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Texas at Austin or this station. Technical producer for Forum, Diane Stubbs, Production Assistant Christine Drawer, I'm your producer and host, Olive Graham. Cassette copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing, Forum Cassettes, Longhorn Radio Network, Communication Building B, UT Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712. From the Center for Telecommunication Services, the University of Texas at Austin, this is the Longhorn Radio Network. And it all started about 10 years ago when following the recommendations and guidance of my family, I entered Long Beach Naval Hospital for the treatment of my chemical dependency, my dependency on prescription drugs and alcohol.

This week on Forum, former First Lady Mrs. Betty Ford.