These Politicians Have Battled Through Chronic Health Issues - Page 18 of 32

Patrick Kennedy

Representative of the House Patrick Kennedy publicly has had lifelong struggles with addiction to alcohol and prescription pills, a mechanism to deal with depression, bipolar disorder and intense anxiety. In 2006, he even crashed his car into a Capitol Hill police barricade in the middle of the night. Kennedy turned things around however, and became a chief sponsor of the 2008 Mental Health Parity Act.