Kean’s depression disclosure prompts questions about mental health stigma

When Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-N.J.) disclosed that his monthslong disappearance from the House was due to depression, he opened a delicate but difficult conversation: How much information about their personal health are politicians expected to share?  

After vanishing from public life for more than 100 days and offering almost no details, Kean returned to Washington Tuesday to explain his absence.  

“I was given the diagnosis of depression,” Kean said during a roughly five-minute speech in front of a nearly empty House chamber. “I am grateful that I accepted help because today I stand before you healthier, stronger and excited to return to the work that I love.” 

Depression is extremely common in the U.S. According to the most recent federal estimates, 21 million adults reported at least one major depressive episode.  

Yet there is a misunderstanding about depression, and experts said society still sees it almost like a character flaw or permanent disability rather than a treatable medical illness. 

“If somebody comes to your office and they have high blood pressure, or they have diabetes, you wouldn’t tell them to just suck it up, right?” said Jonathan Komisar, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine.  

“The appreciation that something like that requires medication and it’s outside of someone’s control is much more accepted than with mental illness,” Komisar said. 

While some of Kean’s colleagues in the House gently pushed for more transparency and accountability given his lengthy absence, they were largely understanding of the sensitivity around a mental health diagnosis. 

“If it were me, I would have been more specific about that, and I encouraged him to be,” said Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). 

But despite the broad progress in making mental health a more acceptable topic to discuss, the societal stigma was on full display in comments from........

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