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State Senator John J. Flanagan, who until this year led the Republican majority of the state’s upper legislative chamber, will miss the beginning of this year’s session in Albany in order to complete an alcohol rehabilitation program, he announced on Friday.

Mr. Flanagan, who assumed the leadership of the chamber in 2015, had first sought treatment for alcohol dependency in 2017. In a statement on Friday, he said that he had recently recognized he needed to seek additional help and would miss the start of session, which begins on Wednesday, as a result of a “thorough rehabilitation and recovery program.”

“No man or woman is perfect, but it does not mean we all shouldn’t strive for continuous and daily improvement. I will attempt to do that with every fiber in my body,” Mr. Flanagan, who represents central Long Island, said in the statement. “This brief period of time away is necessary for my overall well-being, but will in no way impact my ability to serve my conference or my constituents.”

The Republicans decisively lost their slim majority in the Senate in November’s election, and with it their last toehold of power in state government. They will now enter the session in their weakest position in a decade, and without their leader. Senator Joseph A. Griffo, who represents Lewis and Oneida Counties upstate, will oversee the Republican conference until Mr. Flanagan, 57, returns.

Mr. Flanagan’s announcement capped a tumultuous lead-up to the session, as the Republicans had grappled with the loss of more than half a dozen seats, including in a few surprise races. After the election, Senator Catherine Young, of Western New York, mounted a challenge to Mr. Flanagan for the position of minority leader, citing what she called the conference’s “devastating” losses.

Mr. Flanagan survived with 14 votes to Ms. Young’s nine. Some had also called for the chairman of the state Republican Party, Edward F. Cox, to resign.

Mr. Flanagan’s ascent to the top post in the Senate — a position that allowed him to negotiate with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie as one of Albany’s infamous “three men in a room” — was no less turbulent. He succeeded former Senator Dean G. Skelos, who was arrested on corruption charges in 2015 and later convicted.

Scott Reif, a spokesman for Mr. Flanagan, said Mr. Flanagan had been in treatment since before Christmas and that he expected to be back the week of Jan. 21.

Other legislators shared sympathy and messages of support after the news. Ms. Young commended Mr. Flanagan’s bravery, and Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the leader of the Senate Democrats, who replaced Mr. Flanagan as majority leader, said in a statement that she considered him a friend, and that she respected his candor and awareness of his health.

In his statement, Mr. Flanagan invoked his more than three decades in Albany. He was first elected to the Assembly in 1986, to fill a seat held by his father, who had died in office; he joined the Senate in 2002.

“It’s been the honor and privilege of a lifetime, and one that I will never take for granted,” he said.

Follow Vivian Wang on Twitter at @vwang3.

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