"Marcia Brady" actress writes about drug addiction

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Maureen McCormick played the perfect teenager on the hit 1970s television show "The Brady Bunch," but when the series ended the actress fell into a life of drugs and failed relationships.

In her autobiography, "Here's The Story," McCormick, who played Marcia Brady in the series, writes candidly about her addiction to cocaine, Quaaludes, pills and mushrooms as she struggled to find work when the series was canceled in 1974 after five seasons.

"My life after Marcia Brady was a whirlwind of experimentation and searching that evolved into a grim spiral of avoidance, denial and self-destruction," writes McCormick, 52, who also talks about battling her weight and depression.

"Sometimes I wonder how my life would've been different if I'd said no and never done another line (of cocaine) again. But that's not what happened," she added. "It was if I had stepped out of my normal shell full of insecurities and worries and into a different and far cooler, mellower, and more fun skin."

McCormick soared to fame in "The Brady Bunch" that portrayed a model family living in suburbia. The show has lived on in syndication and developed a cult-like following among TV viewers.

She said strangers still associate her with the role she played for five years more than three decades ago.

"I'll always be struck by how much a part of people's lives Marcia is and always will be and how, whether I like it or not, I'll always be her, just as she will always be me," McCormick writes.

"But now I'm not bothered by the connection. It took most of my life, countless mistakes, and decades of pain and suffering to reach this point of equanimity and acceptance."

"Here's The Story" goes on sale in the United States on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Patricia Reaney)