Fetterman opens up about depression battle

And that's the lie. Yeah, that's the lie. That's the lie. Yeah. Depression tells you. Yeah, exactly. I mean, look at the people that took their lives. There was the young man that played for the Dallas Cowboys. Yeah, they have every reason to stick around. See how loved these people were. And they decide that hey, it's better if I'm gone. That's the lie. And how toxic it is-- you could convince yourself to do the most awful thing you can do to yourself.

In the book, you describe being in remission from depression. That sounds like a cancer. Well, it is. It's a cancer that if you don't address it, it will consume you. And it will turn you into a person that you just really don't recognize anymore. And then there's a responsibility to the people in your life that you love to stay in that game. So ever since then, ever since that moment, I have nothing but just grateful, grateful, profound gratitude to be free of that. And I can't ever see myself ever returning to that dark place and ever allow myself to have that conversation or entertain it. Do you find joy that you didn't used to find in simple things? Oh, I used to really make that. Whether it's the very most basic ones, like your morning coffee or more very important things like time with the families or music or taking long walks, that has always been my therapy and my exercise. I stopped doing all of those things. Anyone in your life is-- you might think they're depressed. Witness what they used to love. If they stop engaging in, then that's a huge, huge red flag. And that absolutely means that this person is starting to countdown to the wrong, wrong path. What's better-- being a Senator or a mayor of Braddock? Oh, they're very different. They're very different. But some of my most gratifying ones came from being mayor. That gave me the opportunity to confront gun and violence, gun violence. And I did. And in a community that was wracked by that kinds of violence, we were able to go 5 and 1/2 years without that. They live in my arm here. That started-- I can't believe-- now it's been 20 years.

Those are tattoos of dates? Homicides? Yeah, the dates when people were killed. And that started 20 years ago. So now here in the Senate, it's a much different kinds of job, and it's a bigger stage. And that's why I want to use that stage to be a value and having that conversation about self-harm, because last year, our country reached-- they reached the 50,000, I believe, Americans took their lives. That's an epidemic. And if that conversation has saved at least a life, and it has, so then it's been worthwhile. I had a father reach out to me, and they had a young son. And I drove to-- and I met with-- he was 15 years old at the time. And the young man already attempted to take his life twice. And how heartbreaking. I have a son the same age. I can't imagine if my own boy was going to do those things. And the same message to him was the same message to anyone listening is stay in that game, and promise yourself to do that guarantees that they'll put you on the path of recovery. Yours will be different than mine or different than anyone else. It's unique, but it's almost guarantee. You write in the book about the care you received. It was substantial. Do you ever think about that and wonder if those who are not well-positioned, who don't have access to that care, how they have to struggle through? Well, what also, Walter Reed, what it actually did provide was an opportunity to isolate myself away of the people that I was constantly, constantly disappointing them. And it just got me to get a loan on that. Ironically, in that moment, that changed everything. It was a young psychiatrist in training. And my kids wanted to visit. And then I pushed back against her, and I said, no, they don't want to see me like this. They don't want to see me that. And then I believe it seems like she must have stepped out of her-- out of her role and said, every kid needs their daddy. And it just hit me. And suddenly, it was just really? And then I agreed. And then it was then that visit. And they arrived. And oh my gosh. I assumed that the kids didn't want me back. I think that the kids just kind of wanted me away. But that was just the opposite, that they wanted their dad back. And that's the thing that kind of spontaneously fixed that and broke me out of the skid, out of that despair.