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Patrick Kennedy has broken the political dynasty's 'code of silence' by describing how he turned to drink at 13 to deal with the multitude of his family's problems.

The former Congressman told CBS' 60 Minutes how his alcoholic mother Joan would walk around in a bathrobe 'inebriated' during the day while his father, Senator Ted Kennedy, would self-medicate by drinking.

The 48-year-old politician said the constant partying he was involved in even as a child was not for the family's enjoyment, but a 'relief from the pain', and described how his father's drinking got so bad they were forced to stage an intervention. 

In the end, he believes 'disabling alcoholism' killed his father, mother and sister.

He was speaking ahead of the release of his memoir, A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction, which he says has left relatives angry. 

Patrick, who struggled with depression and addiction during his political career, told correspondent Lesley Stahl: 'This is like breaking the family code here. I am now outside the family line.'

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Patrick Kennedy has broken the political dynasty's 'code of silence' by describing how he turned to drink at 13 to deal with his family's problems

The former Congressman told CBS' 60 Minutes how his alcoholic mother Joan would walk around in a bathrobe during the day and how his father, Senator Ted Kennedy, would self-medicate by drinking

He revealed his father Ted's drinking was so out of control that his family were forced to stage an intervention

During the candid interview, he detailed the 'shame' he felt growing up while watching his mother battle her drinking problem.

He said: 'It was so tense. My mother clearly would be inebriated and under the influence. She would walk around in the middle of the day, you know, in a terry cloth bathrobe. And the amazing thing is, here you have all of these leading policy makers in the country in and out of the house, coming in and out, watching this and no one's saying a word.'

'You get infected by the pathology of silence. And that is sickening to your soul.'

He said his father Ted turned to drink during his battle with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following the assassinations of his brothers John F. and Robert F in the space of five years.

'When my Uncle Bobby was killed, it was like absolutely the floor dropped out for my father, absolutely the floor. Because they got to be buddies in the United States Senate.'

Even though he was just one when his uncle was killed, he still felt a connection to him because of his father's reaction.  

'Those were the glory days for my dad. You ever ask anyone, my dad was the happiest he ever was when he had his brother. Then his brother was killed. Boom. Over - show over.'

He said that as time went on the family turned into zombies because they wouldn't talk about the issues confronting them. 

'If you think we couldn't talk about my mom, we couldn't talk about my Uncle Bobby and the fact that his murder was still so present, you know, in all of our lives because it was unprocessed,' he added.

'We were living in a limbo land where all of this chaos, this emotional turmoil, was happening. And we were expected just to live through it 

By 1991, his children were so concerned they held a tearful intervention for Ted, reported New York Daily News.

But their attempts to reach out to their father only ended up driving him further away.

At a time when his infamous booze binges had make him a public laughing stock, he saw his children's attempt to curb his intake as an act of betrayal, according to his son Patrick, who has fought his own well-publicized battle with drink over the years. 

Describing the attempted intervention he told CBS: 'I remember him closing the sliding doors. And then sitting down in his big, blue suede chair and we all said, "We're worried about your drinking. You need to get help. It's affecting us. It's affecting the family." And, uh, he stood up, you know, opened the sliding door and walked out.

'And then he wrote me a letter. And he basically said, you know, "for the time being, you know, don't think of coming by to, you know, visit."

'That's the way it came down. He felt that we really had no place, no place whatsoever to question him. That's the defensive position of every alcoholic. Go mind your own business. Back off! That was the message.'

During the candid interview, he detailed the 'shame' he felt growing up while watching his mother battle her drinking problem and how his father wouldn't admit he was an alcoholic 

Political family: Patrick's father the late Senator Ted Kennedy (right, seen with his brothers former President John F Kennedy at the left and former Senator Robert in the middle) was said to be a heavy drinker

As the problems got worse, there was no way Patrick could seek help or talk about it with anyone.

He added: 'I was hostage to the family code that no, don't say anything about it. Anything you say, it's disloyal. It's against the family code, and it doesn't matter whether it's in a private therapy session. That psychiatrist could go out and tell somebody.'

In a bid to deal with it. he turned to drinking at the age of 13 - and nobody did anything because it was so prevalent in the family.

He added: 'You know, it was ubiquitous. There were, there was alcohol and there's parties all the time. It wasn't like, oh, I stood out.'

Patrick's book has divided the Kennedy family after his brother hit back at the claims - calling them 'unfair and inaccurate.'

Teddy Jnr. said his mother had 'been fearless and forthright about her own addiction issues' and applauded his brother for his work in mental health and 'candor about his own challenges.'

But he said he was 'heartbroken' that Patrick had written an 'unfair portrayal of our family', and that his own recollections of their parents and different events were 'quite different from my own.'

'Our father was a man with an extraordinary capacity for empathy and intimacy who cherished many lifelong friendships; my dad and I shared a deep, emotional bond,' he told Sys-Con Media.

Patrick, a full-time advocate for addiction prevention, admitted his family were 'angry' but the former eight-term Democratic congressman from Rhode Island is no stranger to controversy.

His own battle with alcoholism has landed him in the headlines on several occasions.

When he was elected to Congress in 1994, he struggled not only with alcohol  but with mental illnesses - anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder.  He was drinking and popping pills in his Capitol Hill office.

'I put vodka in Poland Spring water bottles and I put Oxycontin in Bayer Aspirin bottles,' he said. 

On an Air Force One flight with President Bill Clinton, he famously got so drunk he spent the majority of the journey throwing up in the bathroom.

In Ted Kennedy (pictured with Jackie) own memoirs, he acknowledged his many boozy benders, but insisted he was not an alcoholic

In 2006, he checked himself into the Mayo Clinic to seek help for an addiction to alcohol and Oxycontin following a late-night crash into a security barrier outside Congress. He maintains the car accident was a result of mixing Ambien with another medication. 

He has been sober for five years, is married and has three children. 

Ever since he has candidly talked about his struggle with alcoholism and has been an advocate of addition charities for years.

His father, however, was less willing to accept the label.

In Ted Kennedy's own memoirs, he acknowledged his many boozy benders, but insisted he was not an alcoholic.

True Compass only touches on his drinking a handful of times, but most of those involve admissions of excess. Kennedy said he often sought alcohol to ease his pain. 

His book discussed his battle with brain cancer and 'self-destructive drinking,' especially after the 1968 death of his brother Robert.

But none of the drinking ever interfered with his work in Senate or ever got as bad as the well-chronicled alcoholism of ex-wife Joan, he claimed. 

Ted said he had found it difficult to return to the Senate after his brother's death - and that even after he did, he was unable to concentrate.

When he could finally work again, he drove his staff likes slaves, trying to 'stay ahead of the darkness'. His drinking, he admitted, drove wife Joan 'deeper into her anguish'. The couple finally divorced in 1982. 

Patrick Kennedy, pictured with his wife Amy, left, has shared his long battle with addiction and his father's struggle with drink, in A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction (right)

On an Air Force One flight with former President Bill Clinton, Patrick (pictured with Clinton) famously got so drunk he spent the majority of the journey throwing up in the bathroom

'A family plagued by drink': Patrick Kennedy (left) attends the funeral service of his father Ted, with (L-R) Kara Kennedy Allen, Edward Kennedy Jr., father's widow Victoria Reggie Kennedy, former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

The shooting of both his brothers traumatised him, and he flinched at loud noises, and hit the deck when cars backfired.

In his book, Patrick recounts what happened after a 1979 CBS interview when his father famously choked when asked why he wanted to be president.

The two went sailing, and the elder Kennedy tried to pretend everything was fine, but kept shaking his head and muttering.

'I had never seen him so upset with himself,' he wrote. 

That his stark problems with alcohol were affecting Ted's political career became clear once again in 1991.

That year he went drinking in Palm Beach with his son Patrick and his nephew William K. Smith. The night took a dark turn and Mr Smith wound up being charged with rape.

Though he was later acquitted, Kennedy said the episode left him unable to protest the appointment of Clarence Thomas, a man accused of sexual harassment, to the Supreme Court later that year.

The 'hard truth', he wrote in True Compass, was that 'with all the background noise about Palm Beach and my bachelor lifestyle, I would have been the wrong person' to raise questions about the allegations.

While he admitted: 'I have enjoyed the company of women,' he wrote. 'I have enjoyed a stiff drink or two or three, and I've relished the smooth taste of a good wine.

He always denied the 'totally false, bizarre and evil' theories that had appeared in the media against him.

Edward Moore Kennedy began a sparkling political career taking over the U.S. Senate seat once held by JFK in 1962 aged just 30 - the youngest age allowed.

Ted Kennedy and his son Patrick Kennedy during 1979 Special Olympics in Brockport, New York

Angry: Patrick admits some of his family will be furious over the claims made in his new book (pictured, L-R: Joan Kennedy, Kara Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Jr., and Ted Kennedy, Sr.)

But tales of Kennedy's legendary drinking began to emerge making him an easy target for his opponents.

It would be a fatal crash, where alcohol is thought to have been a factor, which would finally put an end to his presidential ambitions.

The Massachusetts senator, who had seemed primed to inherit the presidency, became embroiled in the Chappaquiddick Incident in 1969, where his pretty, young campaign assistant Mary Jo Kopechne was killed.

Kopechne was found dead in the senator's sunken car's seat ten hours after he accidentally drove off a bridge into the pond.

Kennedy, then 37, had swum to safety, leaving her trapped in the car. He did not report the accident for eight hours.

He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of the accident. He got a suspended sentence and probation.

The scandal not only helped to destroy his first marriage, it effectively destroyed his political ambitions. He later wrote of his regret over the crash.

Patrick said his father spoke with him only once about the crash - as its one year anniversary approached.

'I just want you to know how bad I feel about everything, and I'm really sorry you have to hear about it,' he says his father told him. 'That was it. Then we just walked in silence.'

Patrick Kennedy said his relationship with his father deteriorated so badly that it was suggested he stay with his sister Kara or stay with his mother Joan on Cape Cod when in Boston

But Patrick's book has divided the Kennedy family after his brother Teddy (pictured with father Ted in 1969) hit back at the claims, calling them 'unfair and inaccurate'

As Ted's drinking spiraled, one congressional aide, just 16, claimed she was propositioned by Kennedy from the back seat of his limousine in Capitol Hill. She testified that he leaned from the window, waved a wine bottle and asked whether she or a friend she was with wanted to join him.

In Washington's top La Brasserie restaurant, he allegedly once threw a waitress over a table in a private room and tried to have sex with her.

Others whispered round Capitol Hill that the Senator would reek of alcohol by nine and be drunk by four in the afternoon. 

Patrick believes his father's drinking was a way for him to self-medicate. 

'I can now see my father suffered from PTSD, and because he denied himself treatment - and had chronic pain from the back injury he received in a small plane crash in 1964 when he was a very young senator - he sometimes self-medicated in other ways,' Kennedy wrote in his book, '

During his family's desperate intervention, Patrick said: 'We had our heads between our knees, almost, saying 'Dad, we're concerned, we're worried about you, and we think you're drinking too much. 'And then we all cried.'

But Ted was infuriated by the intervention staged by his eldest son Teddy and daughter Kara alongside Patrick, which came shortly after the rape scandal involving his nephew Smith.

'What he heard was that we were abandoning him when he felt most vulnerable to the world and the judgments being made about him and his fitness as a father, a senator, and as a man.

'We suddenly became part of the chorus of criticism that isolated him and made his life harder.'

Senator Edward 'Ted' Kennedy surrounded by his children, left to right, Patrick Kennedy, step-son Curran Raclin, Teddy Kennedy Jr., and daughter Kara Kennedy (who died September 2011) after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He passed away in 2009

It resulted in their father walking out on his children. Patrick's relationship with Ted deteriorated to such a that when he decided to run for Congress in 1994, he did not bother to tell him.

But after he took office the following year, the relationship began to repair itself. 

Ted Kennedy passed away from brain cancer aged 77 in 2009. After his death, Patrick was given a letter that his father had written in 1980 in case he was assassinated during a run for president, reported Irish Central.

'In it, he talked about how much he loved me, and how I had given him so much love,' Patrick said. 'He said he would never forget the times we went fishing and sailing.'

Sadly, his Patrick was unable to avoid the vice that gripped his father. 

Even after he took a public avowal of sobriety in 2006, the congressman continued to booze heavily.

On a congressional trip to Liberia he had to be rushed home after he went into withdrawal after running out of Oxycontin.

He even made plans to move to Australia where he could drink himself to oblivion, free from the responsibilities and obligations that waited for him at home.

Patrick went onto spend years balancing his role as a politician with his addiction. 

He was even called out of rehab on one occasion to vote on a health care reform bill before he was returned back to care.

'When I look back at the things I did impulsively during that time, I'm terrified that the thought of jumping crossed my mind,' he wrote, admitting that he had contemplated suicide on the way to an interview on 'The Today Show' after his partner Amy Savell had discovered he was cheating.

'Alcoholism didn't run in my family, it galloped', Christopher Lawford famously once said

'There was very little distance back then between what I thought and what I did.'

After 16 years in congress, Patrick left the House in 2010 and went into the 'roughest detox' he had ever endured.

He claims he has been sober ever since. 

His cousin, Chris Lawford told Kennedy's wife Amy that he had 'never seen a case worse than' Patrick's.

But the father and son are far from the only Kennedy's to have been plagued by drink.

'Alcoholism didn't run in my family, it galloped', Lawford famously once said, putting his own battle with addiction down to the family's history with substance abuse.

Lawford said that he began drinking and using drugs when he was only 12-years-old and he 'had desire to stop, I had all the resources to stop, and it was difficult for me'. 

Among the other cousins, three of Bobby Kennedy's 11 children have all had public issues with drugs.

RFK Jr. was arrested for heroin possession in 1983, and more recently his estranged wife Mary killed herself amid an on-going battle with depression and addiction.

His younger brother David died of a drug overdose in 1984 while on vacation in Palm Beach.

Their sister Kerry, who used to be married to current-New York governor Andrew Cuomo, was in a car accident earlier this year after allegedly becoming disoriented while on the sleeping pill Ambien.

Jean Kennedy's son William Kennedy Smith was accused of drunkenly raping a woman after returning home from a bar. He was later cleared of all charges.

Patrick and Christopher say that their family's struggles with curbing addiction- even though they are wealthy enough to afford treatment- shows that the disease cannot be won or lost because of money. 

'I come from a family where when we have a hardship or we have a challenge we meet it and we try to make lemonade out of lemons and that's sort of what I did here. The need was so profound and I come from a family that the ethic of public service is really strong,' Chris explained to Huffington Post Live as the rationale for his new book. 'My Uncle Teddy would be really mad at me if I turned my back on this.' 

A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction, published by Blue Rider Press, is available from October 5.