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 Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).

“I, for one, have been marked safe from depression today,” Boebert mockingly told TMZ. “I think it’s embarrassing … I mean sure, like, take care of yourself, get healthy, but who gets to take four months off of work because they’re sad?”

Psychologists and mental health experts acknowledged how difficult it is for people to go public with a depression diagnosis.

“Many times, people who are depressed have profound feelings of worthlessness, or that they’re not as good as other people. Well, that’s very difficult to talk about publicly,” said Lynn Bufka, the American Psychological Association’s executive lead psychologist for practice.

“That requires an incredible amount of vulnerability to be willing to share that with others.”

Experts interviewed spoke carefully about Kean and noted that everyone copes with a depression diagnosis in their own way.

Most psychologists said it was important to have a man in a position of political power put a label on his experience, no matter the circumstances.

“Any sort of naming of it, any bringing it into public focus, any discussion about it, acknowledgement of it, is a positive thing,” Komisar said.

“When we see what’s happening with depression … this is progressive, more normalization of the fact that if you have a serious medical illness, you can be honest and say I’m getting help for it,” said Sagar Parikh, a professor of depression and clinical neuroscience at the University of Michigan.

But public figures being open about their own struggles can help break the stigma, experts said, which raises questions about why Kean took four months to say something.

“I am a private person by nature,” Kean said, adding that when his office first disclosed his vague “medical issue,” he was “still trying to understand what was happening myself.”

“When I said I hoped to return in a matter of weeks, I believed it,” Kean said. “There is no timeline for healing. There is no timeline for recovery. Only the work of getting better, one day at a time.”

Kean did not say why he never corrected that initial statement from his office once it became clear he would remain hospitalized for a much longer period.

The fact that Kean essentially disappeared for four months also puts his acknowledgement in a different light.

“Rep. Kean is very fortunate in that he has access to health care and was able to have hospitalization to get the kind of treatment that he needs. Many people with significant depression may not have that level of health care or may not have the financial resources to just not be present in the world,” Bufka said.

“I’m sure many of us, when we’re faced with a really overwhelming health condition, would just love to retreat from everything and focus only on that, whether it’s our own or somebody that we love deeply who we’re caring for. And the world doesn’t always make that possible,” Bufka added.

While the subject still has a lingering taboo, more lawmakers have talked openly about mental health struggles.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), for instance, was on the opposite end of the spectrum from Keane.

Shortly after being sworn in, Fetterman openly checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to be treated for depression for six weeks. He offered public updates about his condition and began speaking out about the importance of getting help.

However, he later told The New York Times that he regretted his candidness.

“It shook me that people are willing to weaponize that I got help,” Fetterman said.

Kean is in the middle of a tight reelection campaign in a key swing district, and it remains to be seen if his long absence impacts the race.

While not attacking him for the diagnosis, Democrats and Democratic-aligned groups were already pointing to Keane’s legislative record that they say will make it harder for families to access the same type of care he was able to receive.

Andrew Kessler, founder of Slingshot Solutions, a consulting firm that specializes in behavioral health policy, said he hopes that Kean will be an advocate for mental health.

“I can only hope that he maintains his health, and he will now be dedicated to bringing the services and the level of care he received to all Americans who require it,” Kessler said.

“I will say had he been more open, it would have been a great step forward in fighting the stigma. But it’s hard to condemn him for how he deals with such a complex issue that the public is so uneducated about. Because as far as we’ve come, all you need to do is look on social media to see how far we need to go,” Kessler said.