When Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) It was revealed that he had checked himself into the hospital to receive treatment for clinical depression, the office gave a simple, direct explanation: Pennsylvania’s newly elected Democrat was sick and needed medical treatment before returning. work.
The claim is no different from other MPs when they’re sick – and that’s the beauty of it, mental health professionals say.
“Our brain is just another part of our body. They are asking for help to treat the part of the brain that needs additional help,” Julie Goldstein Grumet, who oversees the Zero Suicide Institute at the Center for Educational Development, said Fetterman. No one should disclose health information, but Fetterman’s “transparency really supports her ability to be a role model for others,” he continued.
Mental illness is very common, psychotherapist Ashley McGirt notes, and affects people from all walks of life – including politicians.
“1 in 5 of us suffer from a mental health-related condition,” he wrote to HuffPost. “This includes senators, lawyers, doctors, scientists, construction workers and many other working professionals. All too often we see a lot of labels being dismissed from mental illness.
“Our brain is just another part of our body. They are asking for help to treat the part of the brain that needs extra help.
– Julie Goldstein Grumet, Zero Suicide Institute at the Center for Educational Development
Fetterman won a hard-fought battle for the Pennsylvania US Senate seat last year against the TV-turned-Republican doctor Mehmet Oz, whose plethora of fringe medical advice includes discouraging people from public, established treatments for depression. Although some of Fetterman’s political opponents have used the announcement to cast doubt on his fitness for office, his colleagues in Congress have largely supported him and praised him for his honesty.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (DN.Y.), who has been vocal about his own experience in the hospital with depression 13 years ago, was among them, told HuffPost that Fetterman’s announcement is a strong denunciation of the shame around depression.
“I am living proof of the life-saving power of psychotherapy and psychiatry, and I would not be alive today if it weren’t for the mental health care and stability you brought to my life in my time of greatest need,” she said. HuffPost is there. When running for Congress in 2020, Torres said, “I made a deliberate decision to be honest and open up about my own struggle with depression in hopes of breaking the taboo that often surrounds mental health.”
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Torres believes that because of, not despite, his mental health issues, he is a good leader for his constituents.
“I see the battle with mental illness as part of my life experience that informs what I do as a public servant. Far from being weak, it strengthens me as a public servant,” he said. “The most important value that I can have as a public servant is empathy for the situation Americans, and there are millions of Americans who struggle with depression.”
Fetterman, a middle-aged white man, belongs to a demographic group with one of the highest suicide rates in the country, and many like him don’t seek help.
“We know that middle-aged white people tend to be more reluctant to seek treatment, because of the stigma and because of the cultural norms that we propagate about strength and pain,” said Goldstein Grumet, saying he hopes Fetterman’s announcement can help change that. .
McGirt, who founded the Therapy Fund Foundation — an organization that provides free mental health services to the Black community — said she wants to see Fetterman’s announcement also spark a conversation about the unique mental health experiences of minorities.
“Sen. Fetterman is a white man with health insurance and a high-paying position that makes treatment easily accessible,” he wrote. “He would also receive treatment from someone who looks like him and shares the same racial ethnicity. This is not the norm for members of the BIPOC community.
“I see my battle with mental illness as part of my life experience that informs what I do as a public servant. Far from weakening me, it strengthens me as a public servant.
– Rep. Ritchie Torres (DN.Y.)
People of color, he continued, often struggle to find “culturally appropriate clinics that represent them” or pay for basic mental health care, which can cost hundreds of dollars an hour. In an inpatient treatment facility such as that in which Fetterman received treatment, eEthnic minorities are often unable to access the types of hair and hygiene products they need, because “treatment facilities generally cater to Eurocentric bodies,” McGirt writes.
But those who are optimistic about Fetterman’s impact on mental health awareness also feel that the announcement represents the progress that has been made.
The loss and isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has become “disaster for mental health in America,” Torres said, but also helped drive an ongoing cultural shift in mental health awareness.
“The kind of transparency we’re seeing from Senator Fetterman on mental health,” Torres reflected, “would have been unthinkable ten years ago.”
If you or someone you know needs help, call 988 or call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You can also get support via text by visiting suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat. Outside the US, visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention’s database of resources.