John Cleese’s daughter Camilla: the story of a highly functional polydrug addict
John Cleese, the comic genius of Fawlty Towers and A Fish Called Wanda fame, finally offered the sort of uncompromsing tough love I suggest in my book, “Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse.” His daughter Camilla triggered alcoholism at age 11 and hid it well. She was an “A” student and a highly ranked (horse) showjumper while drunk and high almost every waking moment. Hers is a classic in the annals of high-functioning addiction. Her story is at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1099149/John-Cleeses-daughter-Dads-tough-love-saved-hell-drink-drugs.html and I posted the following comment on that site:
In my first book, “Drunks, Drugs & Debits,” I coin the phrases “uncompromising tough love” and “uncompromising disenabling.” As John Cleese learned, this is the “cure” for alcohol and other-drug addiction.
Note that the therapists, who usually do not understand addiction at all, enabled. “You use because you are insecure, you use because of this or that…” which Camilla unfortunately give credence to. No. As I point out in my books, she drank and used because she could–she was biologically predisposed to alcoholism. Aside from that one glitch, it’s a great story that other enablers–those close to addicts–would do well to emulate.
At the risk of being seen as self-promoting, I can be found at DougThorburn dot com or AddictionReport dot com. My work shows that Cleese could have–and should have–intervened the way he did far earlier. Their family is lucky greater tragedy didn’t ensue before Camilla finally got sober.
