THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 4, 1995 TAG: 9510030108
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 181 lines
TO ALL APPEARANCES, Alice Johnstone of Virginia Beach and Lionel Aldridge of Milwaukee have little in common.
Johnstone is a somewhat frail but definitely feisty 81-year-old who gets around the house with the aid of two canes, resorts to using a wheelchair occasionally and grew up in the genteel atmosphere surrounding Long Island's Garden City Country Club, which her father managed.
She came to Virginia Beach as a young woman and has remained here since.
Aldridge is a 54-year-old gentle bear of a man who was born in the dirt poor bayou country of Louisiana and spent his teen years in California.
He eventually found his way to Utah State on a football scholarship, was drafted by Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers and played in the first two Super Bowls. He spent nine seasons with Green Bay and two more with San Diego before retiring from the game. He was inducted into the Packers' Hall of Fame in 1988.
Despite the divergent paths that Aldridge's and Johnstone's lives have taken, they will cross this weekend in Virginia Beach, where they will help make the public more aware of mental illness and how the disease has changed their lives personally.
Johnstone and Aldridge will mark the final day of National Mental Illness Awareness Week by participating in the Alliance for the Mentally Ill's Walk for Hope Saturday morning along the Boardwalk.
Aldridge will be the walk's grand marshal, when they step off their march at 10 a.m. from the 24th Street Park. Johnstone, who has spent the last few weeks garnering pledges for her participation, will make the walk in a wheelchair pushed by her good friend Becky Fahrig.
While many in the Virginia Beach mental health community already know Johnstone's story, they'll have a chance Saturday evening to hear Aldridge tell his. He will be the keynote speaker at a banquet at 7 p.m. at the Pavilion.
Although Johnstone suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and Aldridge from schizophrenia, their stories have striking similarities.
Each has known firsthand the fears, hospitalizations, broken relationships and stigma that go with mental illness.
For Johnstone the long journey into mental illness began when she graduated from high school in Garden City and took a job with Doubleday, the publisher whose corporate headquarters were located in the elite Long Island suburb.
``I worked in returns,'' she said, ``and that involved counting thousands of pieces.'' The compulsions of her disorder caused her to count, and recount and count again.
``I'd even talk the watchman into letting me in after hours because I was afraid I had miscounted something,'' she said. ``And then I'd start counting all over again.''
It was a pattern that was to continue through much of her life. Over the years she held a series of jobs, most of which, ironically, included the need to count something.
Added to the compulsions were the obsessions, the thoughts that moved unceasingly through her mind. ``The radio was the worst,'' she explained. ``I'd hear the news and I couldn't stop worrying over everything I heard.''
Added to that was a failed marriage, a daughter to be cared for, a six-month hospitalization and years of involvement with the mental health system.
Varying diagnoses were made over the years, but obsessive-compulsive disorder was finally identified in the 1980s and Johnstone has been relatively free of symptoms since.
She also has, over the years, made dozens, if not hundreds, of friends especially at Virginia Beach United Methodist Church where she is a treasured member.
She's well-known in the local mental health community for her speeches at budget hearings and her letters to newspapers in support of mental health services.
These days she does most of her advocacy work from the tidy apartment she shares with her cat, Tash. Her lunch and dinner are provided by Meals on Wheels, and a pair of home health workers tend to her personal and medical needs.
After she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease a few years ago, Johnstone began having difficulty writing so she went to work learning a new skill. Fahrig, a computer consultant, set her up with an aging but usable computer and a variety of software. These days Johnstone's letters have a professional look, her checkbook - with the help of a personal finance program - stays balanced.
Aldridge's fall into mental illness was more sudden and frightening.
``The worst moment of my life was when I was going down that slippery hell, going crazy, and couldn't stop it,'' said Aldridge, whose face still graces green-edged football cards. ``It just got worse and worse. It was like I was on the outside looking at myself but I couldn't put the brakes on.''
The first time he heard the voices that heralded the onset of schizophrenia was in 1974, shortly after he had stopped playing football.
``They weren't too frightening at first,'' he said. He sought therapy but managed to continue functioning, even doing a stint as a sportscaster for NBC.
But the voices continued and the visual hallucinations began. A plate of spaghetti turned to worms in front of him. His two daughters appeared to turn into old women before his eyes.
The losses - his wife, his children, his job - began. From 1977 until 1984 he was in and out of treatment.
At one point, he fell asleep on a street in Salt Lake City with his Super Bowl ring in his pocket. When he woke up the next morning it was gone.
Eventually, in the course of treatment, a doctor came up with the right dose of the right medication to control the symptoms of his disease.
In 1987, he made the decision to become a spokesperson for the needs of the mentally ill.
``I never felt the need to keep my illness a secret,'' he said in a telephone interview from his Milwaukee home last week. ``I felt that my life would not be affected by going public.''
On that point he has found that he was wrong. His life is profoundly affected by the reaction of those who hear them.
``The only reward I'm looking for is for someone to say, `I'm better today because of something you said or did. Your coming here has helped me get a better grip on myself,' '' he said.
Like Johnstone, life is good for Aldridge today. He speaks frequently, runs a small business with two partners and frequently sees his daughters, both of whom live nearby.
``I just had lunch with one of them today,'' he said proudly last week. That kind of relationship was something he could only have dreamed about in those dark days on the streets of Salt Lake City. MEMO: [For a related story, see microfilm on page 9 of The Beacon for this
date.]
ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
[Color Photo]
HELPING THEM COPE
ON THE COVER
Gerald A. Lavandosky prepares Alice Johnstone for her part in the
Walk for Hope, a benefit for the mentally ill, to be held on the
Boardwalk Oct. 7
Staff photos, including color cover, by CHARLIE MEADS
Alice Johnston, 81, takes a walk with the aid of nursing assistant
Marcy Maynard. Johnson, who has an obsessive-compulsive disorder and
Parkinson's disease, is learning to use a computer with the help of
a friend, Becky Fahrig.
Lionel Aldridge, a defensive end for Green Bay Packers when they won
the first two Super Bowls in the late 1960s, suffered from
schizophrenia after his playing days. Now a spokesperson for the
needs of the mentally ill, he will be in Virginia Beach on
Saturday.
SOME FACTS ON MENTAL ILLNESS
What is it? Serious and persistent mental illnesses such as
schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder (formerly known as
manic depression), panic disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder
are neurological brain diseases involving an imbalance in brain
chemistry.
Because the organ affected by mental illness is the brain,
symptoms show up in feelings, thoughts and/or difficulty relating to
the environment.
What isn't it? Serious mental illnesses are not caused by poor
parenting or weak character. Schizophrenia is not the same as a
``split (or multiple) personality.'' Schizophrenia is a far more
serious disease, which, when uncontrolled, impacts every aspect of
the victim's daily life.
Whom does it affect? According to a 1993 study conducted by the
National Institute of Mental Health, at least 2.8 percent of all
adults and 3.2 percent of children ages 9 to 17 will suffer from
serious mental illness each year.
25 percent of all families are affected by a serious mental
illness.
60 percent of patients with schizophrenia can be successfully
treated.
80 percent of patients with panic or bipolar disorder can be
successfully treated.
85 percent of patients with major depression can be successfully
treated.
What can be done? Great strides have been made in all areas of
mental illness treatment over the past 10 years. New generation
drugs such as Clozapine, treatment teams that provide mobile care in
the community and innovative employment programs for the mentally
ill have gone a long way toward allowing people with mental
illnesses to live successfully in the community.
Source: Alliance for the Mentally Ill
KEYWORDS: MENTAL ILLNESS by CNB