Published: July 06, 2009 12:41 pm      

Sullivan returns to D.C. after rehab stint

TULSA — U.S. Rep. John Sullivan is returning to Washington after a one-month stay in a California treatment center for alcohol addiction and said he plans to seek another term in office.

Sullivan, R-Okla., told the Tulsa World's Washington bureau his surprise announcement in late May to seek treatment for his drinking was not triggered by a single incident.

The 44-year-old Republican says he experienced "one of those moments of just clarity" that people with addictions have.

"I know people were thinking some shoe was going to drop — I got a DWI, did something awful," said Sullivan, who now admits he is an alcoholic and a "periodic binge drinker."

"I had just a lot of negative feelings, guilt, shame, remorse about it, and I just want to be a better person, better man, better husband, better father."

He told the newspaper how drinking, which he said he sometimes did not do for years at a time, was impacting his family.

"I was snappy with my kids, yelling at them, arguing with my wife in front of them," Sullivan said.

"It just got worse. My kids saw it. I was setting a horrible example."

Sullivan said he made his decision to enter the Betty Ford Center in California in the middle of the Memorial Day congressional recess in late May.

He checked himself in on May 28, and the congressman's office released a statement the next afternoon.

"It was one of the best experiences I think I have had in my life," he said of his stay at Betty Ford.

Conceding he is still a bit embarrassed over having to seek treatment and then discussing it publicly, Sullivan said his treatment changed his perspective on the disease of alcoholism.

He said he learned his body processes alcohol differently than others and how that helped lead to his binge drinking, even after not drinking at all for sometimes as long as six years.

"I also thought an alcoholic was a guy under a bridge cooking a squirrel on a stick," Sullivan said.

He said serving in Congress was not a factor in his drinking, and he wants to run for re-election next year.

"No, I mean I drank before I got in Congress. I don't think it matters, the external things," Sullivan said.

"Monkeys eat bananas. Alcoholics drink."