Coming Clean - 9780547615608

Since he was a teenager, Patrick Kennedy has battled depression and addictions.  For years, he hid it from everyone: the stigma was too great, not just for him but for his family, themselves no strangers to problems of addiction.  Now, he is coming clean.

Patrick first ran for office in Rhode Island at age 21, and went on to win eleven straight elections, including eight terms in the U.S. House--the most electoral victories of anyone in the entire Kennedy family.  Yet for much of his career, even as a prominent member of Congress, Patrick self-medicated wtih drugs and alcohol.  On May 4, 2006, he crashed his car in the early morning hours near the Capitol, and his public image began to crack. This book is the first step in a campaign not just for one man, but for every family touched by mental illness and addiction: a spare-no-details, utterly honest memoir of growing up a Kennedy in the spotlight of constant public scrutiny, while secretly suffering. By telling his story, Patrick is embarking on a fight on behalf of everyone who suffers as he did, or indeed with any brain disorder.