Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Friday morning, and is back home in Braddock. He’ll return to Washington D.C. when the Senate reconvenes in mid-April.
Sounds like treatment was humanizing as well as effective; good news all around. Mental health needs an advocate as well as understanding.
ETA: and humanity certainly does need its advocates these days. Carry on Senator Fetterman, do.
I am so proud that Sen. Fetterman sought treatment, and thankful that he got it. Will be a powerful voice for policies that will help Americans that suffer from mental illness. Our insurance stinks, we must do better. For physical AND mental health.
I’m rooting for you, Senator!
And just think how much good he can do for other people who are struggling with similar challenges. I believe he’ll be great at humanizing this issue and cutting through the BS.
Pulling for you, Sen. Fetterman! (Oh,and your body-double with the much smaller head. Which is the latest conspiracy about Fetterman based on his having lost a good bit of weight. Check the fever swamp/Twitter, if you dare.)
Depression can be so difficult to overcome. I’ve had mild depression for some years but function more or less alright. After a major stroke, my wife experienced episodes of psychotic depression and they just don’t go away, with any medication she’s tried. They only pause and then restart.
It’s wonderful that improved hearing, some new reading about depression and whatever else they were doing for Fetterman have helped.
Welcome back my Senator.
I believe in you.
Very much looking forward to what he will share with us.
This is excellent news! Bravo!
Welcome back, brother, and none too soon. We need all hands on deck. This does have me curious about his treatment modality. He has the kind of depression that is obviously debilitating, and often for recalcitrant depression electroconvulsive or electromagnetic therapies are indicated, and can be life changing. It can be very hard on a patient and sometimes needs to be repeated down the road. Best of luck and good health, John.
Welcome home and best wishes, Senator.
[Edited. Had the wrong date. My bad. h/t @dont ]
OT with apologies …
Dr. Cadet Toadglans mit der Bone Spurs von Queens is scheduled to surrender at 2:15 PME on Tuesday 4/4.
Here’s wishing Toadglans all the best outcomes.
Try Tuesday 4/4.
What are they going to do with the body double???
Ah yes, also known as John Wilkes Booth Appreciation Day throughout the “former” so-called confederacy.
So for MTG it will be a day of mixed emotions. Sailors on shore leave in NYC better watch out.
Happy to read this.
I want everyone to know that depression is treatable, and treatment works.
This is what taking mental healthcare serious looks like. Anyone who mocked Fetterman for getting treated showed themselves for the small minded people that they are.
He’s a fighter and we should all be grateful that he is refusing to be stigmatized by a very normal consequence of stroke. Steady as you go, Senator. Thank you.
Thank you for your compelling personal story. You really know the scope of the disorder, from your milder, functional depression to your wife’s very serious disorder. I wish the best outcomes possible for both of you.
With compassion and hope. 
It’s important to talk about the hearing aids, and eyesight, and all of our senses. When our brain is slowly (or suddenly) deprived of the normal sensations of life, hearing birds singing, songs, speech, talking on the phone. Seeing the colors all around us and being able to read a newspaper or a novel, or a great text, Seeing a beautiful photo or painting. A movie or a play. The pleasure of a touch. The smell of baking bread, or a trout stream in the spring. OMG, even the smell of a cigarette outside on a bright spring day. When those senses fade, or are lost, it really changes the receptors and neurotransmitters in our brain. Strokes, or other injuries to the brain can do the same.
Treatments can be varied – different strokes for different folks, if I can use that pun. Sometimes just emotional support is needed, sometimes biochemical. Something relatively new in psychotherapy – Acceptance and Committment Therapy (ACT) is promising. So are monitored and controlled psychedelics. Severe depression can be successfully treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which causes changes in brain chemistry that can quickly reverse symptoms.
I have gone through two severe depressions in my life. One requiring a trial of antidepressents, and a lot of “talk therapy,” and emotional support, taking over a year. One, after a very sudden onset of severe depression caused by having to take tamoxifen after breast cancer. After taking two doses of anti-depressant medication, I could, literally, see and feel the black clouds lifting away.
I am glad for Sen. Fetterman’s success. I’m sure it will take time for him to recover from his stroke, and the stress of D.C. will not make it easy. But he has incredible resources (particularly Giselle and family), both medically and personally, that many people with mental illnesses cannot access. And mental health is every bit as important as good medical treatment. We need to offer it freely, as a society, and as humans, in our hearts and in our minds. We are all here to help walk each other home, as Ram Dass said.
Boy was I way off. I must have gone through one of them wormholes or something.