Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk says she opened up about her struggle with depression, including recent threats to kill herself, because she wants to help others.
Hawk spoke to D Magazine about battling depression for a story published Sunday. The same day that the article came out, local Democrats renewed their call for the first-term Republican to resign. But Hawk told The Dallas Morning News on Sunday night that she was "good" and "healthy" and that she wasn't "going to let this sort of attack get to me or change that."
"The reason I told my story is because I wanted to help people. It's that simple," Hawk told the newspaper.
Hawk returned to work Thursday after a nine-week leave. She is about nine months into her first term in office.
According to the magazine, Hawk wanted to resign in July because she was having suicidal thoughts. Instead, she spent two months at the Menninger Clinic, a psychiatric hospital in Houston.
Hawk thought about overdosing on sleeping pills, telling her political consultant, Mari Woodlief, that she wanted to die, the magazine reported. After that, Hawk checked herself into the mental health facility. She told the magazine that at one point while she was there, she began thinking of ways to kill herself and wondered whether the blow dryer cord would be long enough to use to strangle herself. She said she told a nurse: "I'm going to kill myself anyway. Just let me go home." She said that while at the Menninger Clinic, she was diagnosed with major depressive disorder.
Dallas County Democrats responded Sunday by releasing a statement that moved beyond nuanced calls for her resignation and explicitly pushed for her ouster.
Party chairwoman Carol Donovan said, "Susan owes it to herself, not to mention her nearly 500 employees and the taxpayers, to resign and to concentrate on getting well."
Republican Party Chairman Wade Emmert says calling for her resignation is hypocritical. He says they have not called on Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price to step down.
"They are not calling for the resignation of one of their own has been indicted. But also because they talk about being inclusive. They talk about being accepting," said Emmert.
Emmert said he met with Hawk last week, and she has a new strength and confidence. NBC 5 spoke to Dr. Joel Holiner, the executive medical director of Green Oaks Psychiatric Hospital. He is not working with Hawk, but he is concerned labeling someone with mental illness carries such a stigma.
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"We know that psychiatric problems are extremely common in our society. I mean depression, one out of four women have a serious depressive episode at some point in their lives. About one out of six men. So it is something extremely common. If we said anyone that had a serious depression wasn't fit to hold public office, to be working, to be having responsibilities, and responsible jobs, our society would collapse because we have so many people have these problems," said Holiner.
Hawk has been embroiled in controversy nearly since her term started, including her firings of top staffers, allegations of paranoia and an acknowledgment earlier this year that she "got help" during the campaign in 2013 to quit taking prescription medication for back pain.
Hawk told the magazine that to cope with the pain of a slipped vertebra, she began taking prescription pills. Over time, she says, she began taking more and more pain pills and slipping into a depression. She eventually went to a drug rehabilitation facility near Phoenix, spending four weeks there in 2013.
In late July, Hawk stopped coming to work, without explanation. The next month, Woodlief told The Dallas Morning News that Hawk was on a "summer break" and wasn't seeking treatment for any problem.
A few days after The News reported her absence, Hawk announced that she would take an unpaid leave to battle depression.
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