When Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-N.J.) finally broke his silence after more than 100 days away from the House, attributing his absence to depression, he ignited a fraught discussion: How much are elected officials obligated to disclose about their personal health?
Kean returned to Washington on Tuesday, delivering a brief five-minute speech to a nearly empty chamber. “I was given the diagnosis of depression,” he said. “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 affects millions of Americans—21 million adults reported at least one major depressive episode, according to the latest federal data. Yet experts argue that society still treats mental illness as a character flaw or permanent disability, rather than a treatable medical condition.
“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 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.”
Kean’s colleagues offered a mixed response. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said, “If it were me, I would have been more specific about that, and I encouraged him to be.” But Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) took a harsher tone, mocking Kean’s disclosure in comments to TMZ. “I, for one, have been marked safe from depression today,” she said. “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?”
Mental health professionals stressed the difficulty of going 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, executive lead psychologist for practice at the American Psychological Association. “That requires an incredible amount of vulnerability to be willing to share that with others.”
Experts also noted the importance of a male political figure openly naming his experience. “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. Sagar Parikh, a professor of depression and clinical neuroscience at the University of Michigan, added, “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.”
Kean’s four-month silence, however, drew scrutiny. “I am a private person by nature,” he said, explaining that his initial vague statement about a “medical issue” came while he was “still trying to understand what was happening myself.” He acknowledged, “There is no timeline for healing. There is no timeline for recovery. Only the work of getting better, one day at a time.” He did not address why he never corrected the initial timeline from his office.
Bufka highlighted the privilege in Kean’s situation. “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,” she 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.”
Other lawmakers have handled mental health disclosures differently. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), for instance, openly checked himself into Walter Reed for depression treatment shortly after being sworn in, offering regular updates. The contrast between Fetterman’s transparency and Kean’s prolonged silence raises questions about the evolving norms of political accountability and mental health stigma.
