The opinion was that Ted Lasso deserved to be in the White House

The Making of Thomas Eagleton: The Story of his Depression and the Implications for the Future of American Political Science and Social Science (Extended Abstract)

The forthcoming book about women behaving badly will be published by Simon & Schuster in 2036 and is the work of Dr. Peggy Drexler. Her latest film, “King Coal,” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers. View more opinion on CNN.

In 1972, Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern chose as his running mate Thomas Eagleton. Eagleton was chosen as the Attorney General because of his popularity as a senator.

Eagleton had been in the hospital for depression for ten years and had undergone shock therapy. It didn’t matter that Eagleton had gone on to build a successful career—the suggestion of any sort of mental illness, ever, was enough.

If we’ve been lucky enough to not count ourselves among the afflicted, most certainly we’ve known someone who has. Depression is so widespread that very few of us are not impacted.

Fetterman may be a more appealing candidate because of his willingness to talk about his depression. We’re living in tough times, and almost everybody hurts; if our leaders are meant to represent us, how can we possibly fault them for being, in fact, just like us?

The good news is that he searched for help and that his supporters seem to be compassionate. Most of us have suffered from depression at one point or another, but many other people don’t get their depression treated. It shows strength to know when you need help and how to get it.

Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: The Lasso Event and the Mental Health Problem of the era before the Great British Baking Show

Immediately after Fetterman was appointed, a lot of conservative voices asked if he was fit to serve. (Of course, more liberal readers may also have political motives when unquestionably backing Fetterman.)

We want to know what is happening to our leaders and what they are doing to get help for their depression, but we should not forget that millions of Americans suffer from depression and lead productive lives. We have come a long way in our understanding of an illness that affects many people, which is a change from the 1970s.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 to connect with a trained counselor or visit 988lifeline.org. En Español: Linea de Prevencion del Suidio y Crisis: 888-628-9454.

Editor’s Note: Sara Stewart is a film and culture writer who lives in western Pennsylvania. The views expressed here are solely the author’s own. There are more opinion articles on CNN.

Newt Gingrich, who has written and spoken out about the importance of mental health treatment, slammed the Lasso event as “shallow” on a Fox News appearance, calling the Biden administration a “situation comedy.” Texas Representative Beth Van Duyne asked, “What the hell is Biden doing with his time?”

In the White House press room,Sudeikis said that they shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help. “That does take a lot, especially when it’s something that has such a negative stigma to it, such as mental health, and it doesn’t need to be that way.”

Yes, of course, agreed. Yet watching clips of the event, my main takeaway was: Truly, how is there still a stigma around mental illness? Could anything, at this point, be more ubiquitous than people struggling with anxiety and depression? I will show you an independently wealthy person who has been watching The Great British Baking Show for seven years, because they are not doing anything but watching it.

Statistics, and most of the experts, will tell you that large swaths of this country’s population are not okay. The US Surgeon General calls mental illness a public health crisis.

That is depressing, but we still have to frame it that way. A handful of politicians in this country and around the globe have disclosed similar struggles in the last few years, their stories are singular enough that every one goes through its own cycle of praise for the sheer courage of the openness.

Mental Health and the Lasso-Biden Summit: What Really? Social Media Contributions to the Conversation on Mental Health, Anxiety, and Depression

The Lasso-Biden summit at least was well-timed, arriving shortly after a baffling study in the British Medical Journal announced that during the pandemic, “changes in general mental health, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms have been minimal to small with no changes detected in most analyses.”

To which I (and lots of other people) can only say: Really? Social media responded in kind with a torrent of suggestions that are helpfully rounded up here.

The review admits that it was lacking in data for vulnerable groups, and the findings can’t be applied to everyone. One person commented, “Except for women and young people and the poor.” Great study.

You might think Republicans would come out in force with a show of support for the Biden-Lasso summit, purporting to be big fans of this topic. But no: Members of the party that reliably uses mental illness as a talking-point distraction from any discussion of gun control after yet another mass shooting still managed to find fault with the Biden White House for holding a PR event dedicated to that very thing.

It’s not the substantive action we need to make mental health care widely accessible. Yet. It is still a clever way to get a wide range of Americans to think and talk about it, which seems a decent step forward.