NYC Mayoral candidate Christine Quinn, who is currently the Speaker of NYC’s City Council, revealed this week that she had been struggling with both alcoholism and bulimia earlier in her life. Ms. Quinn grew up in NY State, on Long Island, attended Trinity College, in CT, and has now served two terms as City Council Speaker. She is considered throughout New York City to be both a tough politician, well-practiced with political brinksmanship, and a rugged champion for the disadvantaged of that city. She lives in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, NY.
An excerpt from The New York Times article this week:
The Healing Process
“For the first time, Ms. Quinn also examined her drinking. She arrived back in New York with a meal plan and a referral to a therapist who specialized in eating disorders and alcoholism. She cut back to drinking moderately, having only the occasional glass of wine, which she continued until about three years ago, when she stopped entirely. She says she considers herself an alcoholic.
“The rehabilitation and therapy were essential to her overall healing, Ms. Quinn said, as was her introduction, later, in 2001, to Kim M. Catullo, a corporate lawyer from New Jersey who is now her wife.
“Asking for help, going to the rehab, dealing with bulimia, cutting back on drinking, getting drinking out of my life altogether — all of that helped me put the pieces back together,” she said. “And then when I met Kim, she was the final piece that really put me in a place where I was to some degree whole and could be happy.”