Sen. John Fetterman opens up about depression in Time cover story

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- In Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman's cover story for the latest issue of Time magazine, he opened up about his treatment for and recovery from the severe depression that followed his victory last November and left him hospitalized for weeks. 

In the interview, Fetterman talked about his stroke right before he won the Democratic primary in May. He said the debate against Dr. Mehmet Oz in October, which showed how he struggled with speech after the stroke, made him feel like "a national embarrassment" and "lit the match." 

He said as a newly elected member of Congress, his wife had to force him to go to an orientation in D.C. the week after he won the election. 

"Think of the insanity of that," Fetterman told the magazine. "I work for two years. And at the end of that, after nearly dying, after the most infamous debate in American politics, I was going to not show up for orientation. That's what depression does."  

In February, Fetterman checked into the neuropsychiatric unit at Walter Reed National Medical Center, where he stayed for more than six weeks.   

Fetterman gave Dr. David Williamson, the director of ­Walter Reed's inpatient neuropsychiatry program who oversaw his treatment, permission to talk to Time. Williamson said after a couple of weeks of medication adjustment, Fetterman began to improve. Williamson also tried to educate Fetterman about his illness and gave him "Understanding Depression," a book by Dr. Raymond ­DePaulo. 

Fetterman said when he let his family visit and they left him messages on sticky notes that are now preserved in a wood frame, it was a "pivot" and "catalyst" that helped show him the way forward. 

Williamson told Time he believes Fetterman's openness about his struggle has the power to help countless others. Time cited a recent Gallup survey that showed 18% of Americans said they have a depression -- a rate that has nearly doubled in the past decade.   

"We struggle in the health care world to message this condition to the public," Williamson said. "People feel like losing their drive, their emotional repertoire, their passion, that these things are somehow an indictment of their personality or something that they've done wrong. If you get chest pains, most people know that's bad and you've got to go to the ER. We need to get there with depression, and the way we're going to get there is when public figures like Senator Fetterman speak out and say help is out there and you can get better."

In:
• John Fetterman