Symptoms of Withdrawal: A Memoir of Snapshots and Redemption

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Harper Collins, Sep 27, 2005 - Biography & Autobiography - 389 pages

Born into enormous privilege as well as burdened by gut-wrenching family tragedy, Christopher Kennedy Lawford now shares his life story, offering a rare glimpse into the private worlds of the rich and famous of both Washington politics and the Hollywood elite. A triumphantly inspiring memoir, the first from a Kennedy family member since Rose Kennedy's 1974 autobiography, Lawford's Symptoms of Withdrawal tells the bittersweet truth about life inside America's greatest family legacy.

As the firstborn child of famed Rat Pack actor Peter Lawford and Patricia Kennedy, sister to John F. Kennedy, Christopher Kennedy Lawford grew up with presidents and movie stars as close relatives and personal friends.

Lawford recalls Marilyn Monroe teaching him to dance the twist in his living room when he was still a toddler, being awakened late at night by his uncle Jack to hear him announce his candidacy for president, being perched atop a high-roller craps table in Las Vegas while Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack swapped jokes and threw dice, and other treasured memories of his youth as part of America's royal family.

In spite of this seemingly idyllic childhood, Lawford's early life was marked by the traumatic assassinations of his beloved uncles Jack and Bobby, and he soon succumbed to the burgeoning drug scene of the 1970s during his teen years. With compelling realism mixed with equal doses of self-deprecating wit, youthful bravado, and hard-earned humility, Symptoms of Withdrawal chronicles Lawford's deep and long descent into near-fatal drug and alcohol addiction, and his subsequent formidable path back to the sobriety he has preserved for the past twenty years.

Symptoms of Withdrawal is a poignantly honest portrayal of Lawford's life as a Kennedy, a journey overflowing with hilarious insider anecdotes, heartbreaking accounts of Lawford's addictions to narcoticsas well as to celebrity and, ultimately, the redemption he found by asserting his own independence.

In this groundbreakingly courageous and exceptionally well-written memoir, Lawford steps forward to rise above the buried pain that first led to his addiction, and today lives mindfully by his time-tested mantra: "We are only as sick as the secrets we keep." Symptoms of Withdrawal keeps no secrets and is a compelling testament to the power of truth.

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About the author (2005)

Christopher Kennedy Lawford was born in Santa Monica, California on March 29, 1955. He received a bachelor's degree from Tufts University, a law degree from Boston College Law School, and a master's certification in clinical psychology from Harvard Medical School. He struggled with drug addiction from a young age and wrote several books about his recovery including Symptoms of Withdrawal, Moments of Clarity, and Recover to Live. He became a public health advocate. He was a member of California's Public Health Advisory Committee since 2009 and was named a Goodwill Ambassador on Drug Dependence Treatment and Care by the United Nations in 2011. He also worked as a public advocacy consultant to Caron Treatment Centers, which runs rehabilitation programs. He acted in the late 1980s and had parts in television shows including Frasier and The O.C. and in films including Terminator 3. He died from a heart attack on September 4, 2018 at the age of 63.

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