Mr. Flanagan, a Long Island Republican, said he realized drinking “was becoming a crutch to deal with pressure I was under related to my responsibilities as majority leader.”
ALBANY — The Republican leader of the State Senate, John J. Flanagan, announced on Sunday that he had sought help for an alcohol problem after realizing that drinking “was becoming a crutch to deal with pressure I was under related to my responsibilities as majority leader.”
Mr. Flanagan, 56, made the announcement in a four-paragraph statement after queries from Newsday, the Long Island newspaper that reports in the majority leader’s district.
“This is a step I needed to take for myself and for my family, and it will allow me to continue to serve and to give back to my community and state, ” Mr. Flanagan said.
A spokesman for the Senate Republicans, Scott Reif, said that Mr. Flanagan had completed a rehabilitation program, though it was not immediately clear where or when he was treated. Mr. Flanagan’s statement said simply that he had “sought immediate help” to “take control of the situation.”
Mr. Flanagan became majority leader in 2015, following the arrest of Dean G. Skelos, another Long Island Republican, on federal corruption charges. Elected to the Senate in 2002, Mr. Flanagan previously had served 16 years in the Assembly filling a seat held by his father, John Flanagan Sr., who died in 1986.
In his statement, Mr. Flanagan referenced his father. He also spoke of his pride at being a public servant, a job whose pressures he said had led him to drink. He added that he hoped to lessen the stigma around alcohol abuse by acknowledging his problem.
“I would hope my actions serve as a reminder to all those who find that alcohol has become a means to confront personal or professional stress, ” he said. “It never has been and never will be.”
“No one, ” he added, “is immune.”
