ADDICTED WITHOUT KNOWING IT

Ex-CNN anchor finally got help

Susan Rook does not fit the stereotype of a crack addict. But the former CNN
anchor says that while she was hosting the live, hourlong program "Talkback
Live" in the mid-1990s, her nose was so messed up from cocaine that she
started cooking her powder to smoke it.

"I was under a doctor's care for continuous nose bleeds, sinus infections,
bronchial problems," she said during a phone interview from her new office
in Alexandria, Va., where she just took a job as director of communications
for a group called Faces and Voices of Recovery.

When she overdosed about six years ago on 50 antihistamines and wound up in
the hospital with a blood alcohol content of 0.3 percent, it surprised a lot
of people at CNN, who were unaware she had a drinking and drug abuse
problem, she said.

Doctors thought it was a suicide attempt and kept her in the hospital long
enough for her to detoxify, Rook said.

"I asked a nurse what was wrong with me, why I got so sick, and she said,
'You're a drunk and junkie and you are detoxing. What do you think is
happening to you?' And the minute she said that, I knew that was right. I
just knew it. And I was so relieved to finally have an explanation for this
unexplainable behavior."

Rook will appear Saturday, along with Tom Farley and Mary Anne Farley, the
brother and mother of the late comic Chris Farley, at "Recovery Rally 2002"
from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. outside the State Capitol on the State Street side.

In Wisconsin, there are nearly half a million people who need treatment and
only 21 percent of them get it, said Brian Young, director of Wisconsin
Recovery Advocacy Partnership, which advocates for recovery support
services.

"Factor in the criminal justice system figures for rates of recidivism and
treatment availability for those incarcerated, and the picture becomes
bleaker still," Young said.

Depending on what study you look at, the state saves anywhere from $3 to $11
for every $1 spent on treatment, he said.

The savings come not only from reduced crime and lower medical care and
unemployment costs. There is also the added value of people in recovery
becoming productive, contributing members of society, holding jobs, caring
for their families and paying taxes, Young said.

According to state statistics provided in 2001 by the University of
Wisconsin Medical School, abuse of alcohol and other drugs brings
significant health, social, public safety and economic problems.

Each year in Wisconsin, there are 1,300 deaths, 2,400 substantiated cases of
child abuse and 8,500 traffic crashes resulting in 6,800 traffic injuries,
all attributed to substance abuse.

Alcohol and other drug abuse is the fourth leading cause of death in
Wisconsin behind heart disease, cancer and stroke, and it is the fourth
leading cause for hospitalization behind mental illness, heart disease and
cancer, the report says.

The fact that less than a quarter of the people in Wisconsin who need
treatment actually receive it is due primarily to the lack of awareness that
a disorder exists, recovery advocates say.

That was the case with Rook, who at the time of her overdose knew little
about her addiction and even less about recovery. So when she woke up in the
hospital and found out she was an alcoholic and an addict, she thought she
had just been handed a death sentence - "like you have inoperable cancer,"
she said.

But CNN management and human resources intervened, told her that help was
available and effective, and offered her the opportunity to go into
treatment. She eagerly accepted.

Rook received 28 days of inpatient treatment, followed by two months off
work while she continued to get help. Earlier this month she became a
full-time advocate at Faces and Voices of Recovery, an organization that
gives local advocacy groups a louder voice in spreading the message of
recovery.

Rook - who was one of three journalists on a panel that questioned the
candidates during the final, high-profile 1992 presidential debate between
President George Bush, Gov. Bill Clinton and Ross Perot - had seen a doctor
for her nosebleeds, but no one asked her if she was using cocaine. When she
complained about unexplained bruises, she was tested for lupus.

No one asked about the amount of alcohol she was drinking either, and she
didn't mention it. It was a normal amount in her world, she said, and to
outsiders it looked like hard partying rather than an addiction.

She said she wasn't in denial. "You can only be in denial if you know
something. This condition is characterized by warped thinking."

At the time of her overdose, in March 1996, she was under a psychologist's
care. When he asked how much she was drinking, Rook replied, "Oh, a normal
amount."

Had he then asked "How much is normal?" Rook said she would have replied, "A
six-pack a night."

For a profile on Rook when "Talkback Live" debuted, Rook took the reporter
to her favorite local bar. It was clear that Rook knew everybody and
obviously went there all the time, she said.

"And it was presented as 'color.' I wasn't trying to disguise this."

Rook said she was a blackout drinker from the time she started drinking at
age 13.

Statistically, people who are drinking at 12, 13 or 14 are four times more
likely to become an alcoholic as an adult, she said.

Forty percent of the kids who are casually experimenting with alcohol at 15
will be alcoholic as an adult. That number goes up to 60 to 70 percent if
they - like Rook - began drinking at 13, she said.

Because she starting drinking so early, it was almost a foregone conclusion
that she would become an alcoholic, she said. Drinking and then drugs became
part of her life. She never worried about whether she would lose her job.

"Have you ever had food poisoning? Could you stop throwing up and having
diarrhea? It's like that. It feels exactly the same way," she said.