Depression

June 30 (UPI) — Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J., said Tuesday he was hospitalized with depression, a diagnosis that kept him off Capitol Hill for nearly four months without explanation.

He made the announcement on the House floor upon his return to Washington, D.C.

“I’m grateful that I accepted help,” Kean said. “Asking for help is not a weakness. It is a strength.”

Kean was last present in Congress during a March 5 vote. He missed more than 140 votes in his time away, during which the reason for his absence was never revealed.

The congressman said he went to the hospital for testing and doctors diagnosed him with depression and encouraged him to stay for treatment. He said during his treatment he learned he had been dealing with depression for longer than he realized.

“Now, when people hear the word ‘depression,’ many people think … it means feeling sad, but depression is so much more than that,” Kean said Tuesday.

“It is physical, it is emotional and until you experience it yourself, it is difficult to fully understand how powerful this illness can be.”

Kean, who first joined the U.S. House in 2023, is up for re-election this year.

MARTIN Short has revealed daughter Katherine’s death has been a ‘nightmare for the family’ & opens up about her mental health.

The Only Murders in the Building star was left heartbroken in February when his eldest daughter was found dead.

The 42-year-old was found dead inside her Hollywood Hills home after a call was made to police about a potential suicide.

Now on CBS News Sunday Morning, Martin, 76, gave an emotional interview about her passing, and the years she spent battling with her mental health.

He said: “You know, it’s been a nightmare for the family, but the understanding that mental health – and cancer, my wife had – are both diseases.

“And sometimes with diseases, they are terminal and my daughter fought for a long time with extreme mental health, borderline personality disorder and other things as well.

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TRAGIC LOSS

Martin Short’s daughter Katherine was found dead after shooting herself aged 42

“And did the best she could, until she couldn’t.”

He then referred to his late wife Nancy, who passed away in 2010 after battling ovarian cancer, saying: “So Nan’s last words to me were ‘Mart let me go’ and she was just saying ‘dad, let me go’.”

Katherine’s official death certificate from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

The document also confirmed she had been cremated.

Authorities discovered Katherine behind a locked door inside the property.

A note was recovered at the scene, though its contents have not been made public.