AP Interview: Rep. Kennedy saw relapse signs

Rep. Patrick Kennedy said Wednesday that he decided to enter an addiction treatment center last month because he was showing signs of a relapse and had been dealing with stress.

Kennedy told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that addiction is a chronic and lifelong battle and that his doctors urged him into treatment after becoming concerned about his condition and recognizing the warning signs of a potential relapse.

"If I didn't have that early warning system from the people who were closest to me, it wouldn't be long before people in the press and wider world would have known that I was on a road to self-destruction," Kennedy said.

"Unfortunately, I would have probably had to learn about my problem in the news," he added.

Kennedy checked himself into Father Martin's Ashley in Havre de Grace, Md., last month. He declined to say whether there was a particular incident involving substance abuse that led him to seek treatment at the drug and alcohol addiction facility.

He returned to Congress on Tuesday. He said he was glad to be back in Washington and had received a warm welcome from his colleagues.

"It's just been very uplifting. I am thrilled to be back to work and to have the support of my constituents," Kennedy said.

Kennedy has struggled with alcoholism, depression and drug addiction for much of his life. He said he thought it was important to get help before being part of any embarrassing, headline-making accident or brush with the law that injured himself or someone else.

Three years ago, Kennedy entered into a rehabilitation program at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota after an early morning car crash outside the U.S. Capitol. He agreed to a plea deal on a charge of driving under the influence of prescription drugs and received a year's probation.

Kennedy, 41, who was elected to his eighth term in Congress last November, has also said he went to rehab as a teenager for an addiction to cocaine, and has since said he was in recovery for depression and alcoholism. In 2000, he was accused of shoving an airport security guard in Los Angeles and trashing a yacht.

He is the son of Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, who is battling brain cancer. The younger Kennedy would not say what role stress over his father's health had in his decision to seek addiction treatment.

But he called his father a "miracle of sorts" in defying medical expectations and said he was intimately involved from home in the current health care fight in Washington.