Talking to Your Kids About Drugs

Parents with Addiction Need to Put Extra Effort Into Educating Their Children About Drugs

by Francine Brokaw

Christopher Lawford knows a lot about drugs. He hit rock bottom when drugs ruled his life. His best-selling book, Symptoms of Withdrawal, about his drug and alcohol addiction and recovery, will be released in paperback this month. For the past 20 years Chris has been sober and living a fruitful life as an author and an actor and is now developing a book about adolescents and drugs.

"Basically...This is a family disease. If one person gets sick in the family, everybody gets sick. And everybody needs to be treated, on some level. So, there's a lot to be done." Lawford is optimistic that kids can get help. "In every community there's somebody that knows something about this illness. This was not true 30 years ago. [Today] in any community you can call a 12-step program, you can call a therapist, and you can call a certified addiction treatment counselor. There are doctors who specialize in addiction now."

A father of three, Chris is mindful that his kids have probably inherited the tendency toward addiction. "There's a gene, a genetic component to this, but so far my kids are having the normal issues that kids have growing up on the West Side of LA," he says. "In terms of the society at large, there's a much greater awareness today of what drugs and alcohol can do to you." Talking to your kids about these issues is something Lawford stresses every parent has to do. "These are difficult conversations to have initially, but once you start having them they become second nature...The best thing to do is to open a dialogue, and if you need help with that go to a therapist," he says. "I have the same struggles with my kids that every parent has with their kids...But I can say, no matter what my kids end up doing, that I've done my part."

Chris' parents never had "the talk" with him when he was a kid, and he admits he doesn't know if it would have made a difference in his life, stressing that the times were quite different in 1969 when he started doing drugs. The late 60's and 1970's was the time when "Sex, drugs, and rock and roll" was the mantra of the day. "There were a lot of people doing this stuff," he points out. "It was celebrated. I don't think the same kinds of things are going [on today]...the awareness was not there. By the time I really got an understanding of what was happening, I was so far down the road that I couldn't stop."

Lawford has been very open about his addiction and recovery and although he says he is not an expert, his personal experience enables him to talk about the subject with proficiency. "I think the critical time is in the beginning when you...can really make a radical intervention in a kid's life...It would seem to me that those parents that are really on top of their kids, and can intervene early and quickly and profoundly, may have a real chance of altering a kid's trajectory."

An actor and writer, Lawford could have remained silent about his experiences. Instead, he is baring his soul and opening up dialogues about addiction to help others. Talking to your kids about drugs and alcohol is not easy but it is important. To borrow a phrase from a well-known company, "Just Do It!"

Chris Lawford is the son of Actor Rat Packer Peter Lawford and Patricia Kennedy Lawford, and the nephew of President Kennedy and Senators Kennedy.