ABC News anchor Elizabeth Vargas is working on a memoir about her struggles with alcohol addiction and anxiety, due out in early 2016. The 20/20 co-anchor opened up about her battle earlier this year, saying it took her a long time to finally admit that she had a problem. She discussed the details of her recovery on Good Morning America.
"I started thinking 'Well, you know, I'll only drink, you know, on weekends. I'll only drink, you know, two glasses of wine a night,'" she told fellow anchor George Stephanopoulos. "I won't drink on nights before I have to get up and do 'Good Morning America.' But those deals never work."
Like many alcoholics and addicts, Vargas also suffers from severe anxiety and has a history of panic attacks. She says they began when she was still a very young child after her father left to fight in Vietnam. As an adult, she turned to alcohol to keep her anxious feelings at bay.
In 1989, when Dr. M.K. (Khal) El-Yousef founded Fairwinds Treatment Center in Clearwater, Florida, too few healthcare professionals recognized the link between alcoholism and mental health problems like anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. For 25 years, Fairwinds has been using its unique dual diagnosis treatment plan to address both patients' substance abuse problems and their underlying psychological issues.
Nationally, Fairwinds Treatment Center is one of the only drug and eating disorder treatment centers to receive accreditation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) as a dually licensed psychiatric and substance abuse treatment facility. If you think your or your loved one is abusing alcohol and battling anxiety, contact us today.
