WASHINGTON — Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who is battling an addiction to prescription painkillers, called Bridgeport Mayor John M. Fabrizi this week to lend him support as he faces his own demons.

"He offered me words of support and encouragement," Fabrizi said Thursday.

Fabrizi has received many telephone calls from people offering support and others expressing disappointment following his public admission earlier this week that he'd used cocaine in the past, including while he was mayor, and struggled with alcohol abuse.

The calls of encouragement have helped sustain him during a difficult week, he said.

"Of course, they help," he said. "A lot of people tend to look at the work and strides one has made. Others, however, have expressed their disappointment and I can understand them. It is a difficult and challenging time."

Fabrizi said that he has never met Kennedy, but said he assumed the fellow Democrat was calling because of his experience dealing publicly with an addiction.

"He told me he also received many phone calls from both sides," Fabrizi said.

Kennedy, the nephew of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., only recently returned to Capitol Hill after nearly a month of treatment for addiction to prescription pain drugs.

He entered the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota May 5, a day after crashing his car on Capitol Hill, a late-night accident he said he could not remember.

Kennedy pleaded guilty last week to driving under the influence

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of prescription drugs and was sentenced to undergo court-ordered drug treatment and a year's probation.

He could not be reached Thursday for comment.