Sad. It seems so many woman suffer at the hands of the Kennedy's.

Remember ladies, money and "a name" won't bring you happiness.

"You remember Joan, she's the one who stuck with Teddy after he killed Mary Jo Kopechne..."

Come on now... that's all "Water under the Bridge"!

I wonder if she was found soaking wet clutching an AAA triptich...

Stealing a page from Michael Schiavo, Mary Jo wasn't drowned to death at the hands of Teddy, she was denied oxygen due to over hydration.

All kidding aside, I feel bad for this woman. She was treated poorly and is suffering the consequences of the Kennedy Curse.

If I'm the new wife of any of these guys, I'd watch my back.

"New Wife?" C'mon Mike. Mary Jo wasn't a wife and she woke up dead. Women just need to avoid these Kennedy guys. Joan isn't a "new wife" and she's been sucked down to nothing.

Joan has had plenty of time and money to enter rehab as many times as it takes. That she won't says a lot about her. OTOH, I'm not sure the circumstance in which they found her was alcohol related. Anyone know for sure?

"... has struggled with alcoholism."

Hers or Ted's?

julie, Joan has been in rehab as often as you've been to church. She's unfortunately one of those people who just cannot stay recovering. I don't know how her psyche was before she got mixed up with that family, but it has been well chronicled how poorly she was treated by them, and her self- esteem suffered mightily from it. A very bad story.

This is the photo that always made me boil, Teddy with the fake neck brace on. What a despicable scumbag.

You can't know the special hell of alcoholism or addiction unless you've lived through it - either personally, or through someone that you love.

Some people are able to recover - and some, tragically, cannot.

As long as one is alive, however, there's hope. Best wishes - and prayers - to Joan Kennedy. I don't care what her politics are.

Interesting that this happened the same day her son Patrick announced he wasn't running for the Senate.

I found a story about him and his brother seeking to be her legal guardian before the story on her was online yet but I can't find it as a separate article now.

If she can't stay recovered, then she needs to go back into rehab. Again. And again. And again. I don't criticize people for being alcoholics. I do criticize alcoholics for not trying and giving up.

Ted looks like Tom Berenger in that photo.

I remember my mom telling me that when the newspaper headlines around the country announced "Man lands on the Moon", that right next to that was this story about Ted and Mary Jo. It was like he would never be able to escape it since it was along side the biggest headline of the century

Didn't he get expelled from college for cheating?

well julie, some people simply don't have the strength to recover -- Joan will surely keep going back, time and again, and have periods of sobriety...hopefully some of them will last -- she did have a fairly successful period (at least, she wasn't in the papers) for some time. But she's been in bad shape lately, as evidenced by the kids being appointed guardian. I am guessing here, but one of the reasons family members get themselves appointed guardian in cases like this is to be able to have the ward INVOLUNTARILY committed for in-patient psych care. Hmmmm where have we run into a similar issue recently......

Hopefully Joan will find the peace that she desperately seeks and deserves. Her children are her greatest assets.....Ted was (is) just an ass.

God Bless them all

How soon before the Lunatics of the Left start screaming that in some manner, Karl Rove was responsible?

The story doesn't say that she was found "drunk" or even suffering some effects due to alcohol intake, just that she was "found on the street".

She could have been bumped from a car, hit on the head, pushed through a window nearby...the possibilities are nearly endless that would leave a person lying or wandering or incompetently situated on a street...unless there's more information, there's no way to know just what her circumstances were.

Not saying that the woman hasn't obviously been identified as someone suffering chronic alcoholism, or that she wasn't suffering from alcohol abuse when found, just that what the article states doesn't provide any clues as to her circumstances beyond being found on a street.

Yes, it's a confounding illness and yes, there's still hope. I hope she gets into recovery by whatever means possible. A lot of people end up on the street due to the very same circumstances, unfortunately...

julie: a key characteristic of alcoholism IS that "giving up" behavior (it's referred to as the "what's the use" thinking/behavior of not being able to perceive improvements and changes, most of all to have hope and to take initiative toward other behaviors).

It's exactly what alcoholism is so getting frustrated and irritated with it is exactly (also) part of the social problems surrounding alcoholism. Alcoholics DO "give up" and resort to just drinking and drinking and drinking and drinking...there's no use in trying to change, so might as well just drink and drink and drink and...

That's the 'diseased' element of the syndrome right there. It makes no sense to a non affected person, you're right, but it also makes no sense and effects little to expect a person with that problem to behave differently. They won't, they don't and that's what alcoholism is...which is why it takes profound intervention of one type or another but it's never, usually, someone managing to reason through the disease part of the faulty psychology of alcoholics.

And, it's not a case of "strength" or "will power" and such...it IS to a person who is not an alcoholic who attempts to apply a non-alcoholic reasoning to someone else, but to someone with the problem of alcoholism, they have a lot of will power, a lot of strength, a lot of determination...it's just for the wrong goals.

Because, they're determined to drink, they have the strength to get all that alcohol, they have the will power to remain drinking...you just can't use sober reasoning with alcoholism because it's a nonsensical feedback loop.

And, after a point, there's a very serious physical addiction to alcohol that sets in and that's probably where Joan is around now. It's both a behavioral addiction and an actual substance addiction, so chronic alcohlics really do NEED to have their daily doses of alcohol on a mere physical addiction level alone.

Poor Joan...a lot of abused people resort to substances inorder to self medicate and that might be a large part of Joan's problem but it doesn't diminish the problem she then and now appears to have. Changing her social/emotional environment would probably be a great place for her to start but I have no idea if she even gets that point.

Surely she's been around long enough to know better than to accept a ride from her ex. Maybe he just ran into her on the street.

There is both a physiological as well as a psychological dynamic to alcoholism (or any chemical addiction). Even 12 step programs recognize they can only work the later part of the addiction and they are the most successful of the non-medical rehabs. They help get the alcoholic sober and try and give them strategies to stay sober inspite of the alcoholic's brain crying for the chemical.

Luckily, many doctors recently are having success treating the physiological side and shutting down the cravings cold, which allows for the person to turn their life around without the "monkey on their back" and give them a chance to regain the moral fortitude to refuse the first drink.

bullwinkle: Is he still driving that soggy Buick?

Yes, Darleen, you are so right...but people have to actually find their way to those doctors which many with the problem when it's at it's worst never do, can. I've heard stories from many who recovered/are recovering from alcoholism who received great detox care from recovery programs from healthcare providers, their insurance covering, their employers providing the coverage...and I always marvel that they still have jobs and insurance and spent their few weeks 'away' and then returned to work...

While so many are so completely wrecked from the problem otherwise and lose their jobs, their housing and families, and long earlier insurance coverage, before they realize they feel badly and that the car they no longer have might have been a good place to sleep.

I'm just saying, that Joan Kennedy's street experience -- she's still undoubtedly insured -- could be and is often very worse in desperation by many with similar problems.

But, yes, if treatment options are available, today there are some that are effective in more completely treating the ailment, you're very right.

Mary Jo: "Ted, I think I'm pregnant".

Ted: "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it". The greatest line in history.

well julie, some people simply don't have the strength to recover –

Boy, you're a real enabler arent you.

julie: a key characteristic of alcoholism IS that "giving up" behavior (it's referred to as the "what's the use" thinking/behavior of not being able to perceive improvements and changes, most of all to have hope and to take initiative toward other behaviors).

They may believe that – I don't. Look, I've been dealing with alcohols and drug addicts professionally my entire adult life. So, I'll pass on any lectures.

Joan Kennedy is the child of alcoholics. Both parents. Her mother died of the disease around
1975. Of course, that does not mean her ex-husband's philandering had nothing to due with
her sad state. For all of EMK's achievements, he was a failure as a husband. Joan was quoted
as saying people point out her alcohlism but never realize that she drank because there was always another mistress. Joan took Ted's place on the 1964 campaign trail when he was hospitalized following a plane crash. Ted rewarded her by leaving the hospital and heading straight to his mistress.

Ted would be a nobody if his last name wasn't Kennedy.

Jerseygrl - in the ways that matter, Ted is a nobody.

At least he did no kill her.

Joan was never accepted into the clan. She had
the worst times at the times. Her son with cancer
most have torn her up, but she saw it thru with
him and have children to be proud of. Ted's
constant fooling around is very, very hard to
live with for an average family to hold together.
Being in the limelight with the world knowing
all about it it such humiliation for the wife.
I wish as teens they'd teach what alcohol really
does besides NOT be the answer to problems, but
the fact that women do not have the gene that
men to do to handle it. It reeks havoc on the
body. Not only cirrosis, but the pancreas is
thought of as a tool to buyn sugar, also fat.
If that is damaged by alcohol, you don't have
much of a chance if you continue to drink. There
are a few surgical procedures that may work IF
you stop drinking. The pain of pancreatitus is
horrible. Some drink to dull a pain that only
a shot of demoral in the hospital can take care of
every 3 hours. Worse than having a baby. It does
not take long to get into that state or killing
organs. It needs to be taught in high schools.
Biology is a good place to show what the body
goes through under severe drinking as in college
for example. My heart goes out to Joan. She's
blessed to have her two sons to care for her now.

Joan Kennedy can be very proud of her ability to campaign for Ted and stand by a man who did not deserve her. He can probably thank her for getting him elected. Too bad for Massachusetts and the country that he is still in office. He is the one who should have been kicked to the curb. It is so tragic how she battled with her addiction. Let you who are without sin cast the first stone.

Most people who relapse from any length of sobriety into active drinking don't have their picture and the story splashed on the front page of newspapers all over the world. Most people get to do that privately. How much worse it must be for her.