WASHINGTON - When Patrick Kennedy was in Congress, he would sneak in his treatments for substance abuse over the holidays, in between congressional work periods. And he refused glum health treatment recommended by his doctors, worried he would be accepted in that wing of the hospital.

Kennedy, a Rhode Island Democrat and the son of the late Edward Kennedy, was eventually forced to reveal his struggles when he unsuccessful his car outside the Capitol while intoxicated in May 2006. He talked openly nearby his mental health and substance abuse for the generous time, and something surprising happened — he became more approved with his constituency, winning reelection by a bigger majority than he had two years earlier.

RELATED: Sen. John Fetterman checks into hospital, cites clinical depression

On Thursday, the office of Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat who was elected to the Senate when a bruising campaign during which he suffered a hit, announced he had checked himself into the hospital for clinical depression. The statement said Fetterman had experienced depression on and off in his life, but it had only contract severe in recent weeks.

Fetterman's public struggle is unbelievable in a building where few talk about their own glum health, even while members of both parties have legislation to expand aid for it. Kennedy and a handful of others who have been open nearby their own problems, or those in their family, say they hope Fetterman's honesty — and his decisive portion to get help — will foster more openness with lawmakers and their constituents in the wake of a global pandemic that has had far-reaching effects.

"This is a moment for us to tear down the stigma of depression and anxiety," said Kennedy, who retired in 2010 and has become a leading insist on mental illness. "Sen. Fetterman may do more for country just by admitting that he's getting help for depression than any bill he ends up sponsoring."

The U.S. Surgeon General, Vivek Murphy, tweeted praise for Fetterman, saying he hopes his "courage will support as an example for others."

Fetterman's Senate colleagues were now supportive.

"In every single city and town and rural public there is someone struggling with mental health," said Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat who shared her own stories about footings of depression on the Senate floor four years ago. "If they see somebody else, like John, proverb, 'OK, I need to get medical care,' that can be indispensable to people."

South Dakota's John Thune, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, said he thinks politicians have become more comfortable discussing the insist since the pandemic.

"The more open, transparent people can be, the better our concept is," Thune said.

Fetterman's hospitalization comes after a ended year in which the 53 year-old suffered a hit just ahead of the May primary election and finished much of the summer off the campaign trail, recovering. He has said the stroke nearly killed him. He also underwent surgery to implant a pacemaker with a defibrillator to management two heart conditions, atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathy. He entered the Senate in January, where he has had to adjust to life in Washington and the daily grind of a federal lawmaker.

"It's unreal what @JohnFetterman has been ended in the last year," tweeted Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. "A stroke, a recovery, a bruising campaign, a transition to the Senate. I'm so proud of him for taking his health seriously. He's going to be a great Senator for a long time, and I'm unsheathing for him today."

Texas Sen. John Cornyn said the Senate "can be arduous. So I'm sure if somebody is not up to 100% then it's especially tough, so I wish him well."

Post-stroke depression is favorite, doctors say. And that could be even more grief when dealing with it publicly, like Fetterman is.

"Having a rub in and of itself is devastating and having to unites from a stroke in the public eye only adds to the collected of stress as one recovers," said Dr. Bruce Ovbiagele, associate dean and professor of neurology at the University of California-San Francisco.

Dr. Eric Lenze, head of the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis, said he thinks it's "interesting and heroic" for a very political figure to acknowledge depression, "instead of saying they're hospitalized for exhaustion or trying to hide it."

While many members are collected loath to talk about themselves or their own hardships, some have been more forthcoming about mental illness in novel years. Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild declared from the House fuzz in 2019 that suicide is a "national emergency" and told the chronicle of her partner, who had recently taken his own life. Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., who was elected in 2020, has said he dropped out of college and at times opinion of suicide after struggling with depression, substance abuse and misfortune after the loss of a friend. Smith said she unfounded that ever since she told her own story of conditions of depression as a college student and young mother, people still come up to her to talk approximately it.

Many lawmakers have also been open about their fear and scare after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, when many of them ran for their lives, and the months afterward when tensions between the two parties earnt even worse. Democratic Reps. Dan Kildee of Michigan and Annie Kuster of New Hampshire both talked approximately dealing with post-traumatic stress during that time.

The Jan. 6 box was another inflection point amid the global pandemic.

"We're living in a time of fantastic stress and crisis," said Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, who lost his son to suicide just a few days afore the insurrection and has since written a book approximately his experience. "We've come through a plague, we've had substantial mental and emotional health problems."

Raskin, who was recently diagnosed with cancer, says there may have been a time when political front-runners had to pretend that hardships didn't touch their own families, "but I don't think we are living in that time."

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who has been in the Senate for almost three decades, credits returning veterans from the Iraq war and anunexperienced conflicts "who have convinced us that this is simple medical, mental health care that many people need from time to time. There isn't a single people that isn't touched by it."

Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, credited Fetterman for being honest. "This is a challenge, unimaginable challenge, that he's faced in life," Durbin said.

Kennedy says that when he returned from his recovery in the mid-2000s, many of his colleagues sought his help and advice privately. And he has continued to talk to some members in the decade actual he retired.

He predicted Fetterman could find a "whole new earth of connection with his constituency" when he returns to the Senate, and could help people understand the brain science late depression.

"This is a very teachable moment here," Kennedy said.