Sen. Fetterman says he thought “this could be the end of my career” when he sought treatment for depression last year.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said he “thought this could be the end of my career" when he sought treatment for clinical depression last year.
“I am grateful, and I am just so happy to be in a much different situation right now. I have the opportunity to sit with all of you today to talk about mental health and how incredibly important that is to do that. And I didn't think I was gonna be in that same place when I was coming out there. When I decided to check myself in, I thought this could be the end of my career, and I maybe even lost my family,” Fetterman said Wednesday on “CBS Mornings.”
Fetterman checked himself in for treatment at Walter Reed National Medical Center in February 2023. The Pennsylvania Democrat had been elected to the Senate months earlier, and suffered a stroke during the runup to the election.
The senator was asked in his interview for his advice for anyone who might be hesitant to seek help for mental health treatment.
“Get help. It works. And if you're skeptical — I was too. Like, oh, this doesn't change. Like, nothing's gonna help. But it did, and it works,” Fetterman said. “I'm very grateful to have that opportunity, and I would want to have that same kind of opportunity for anyone that's suffering.”
“I'd also want to remind — that it is a red county problem, and that's a blue county one, and if it may not be you, then it's somebody that you love, somebody that you know, somebody that you work with, that they're having these kinds of issues.”
