Fall Out Boy (& Ashlee Simpson’s boyfriend), Pete Wentz, revealed recently that he has attempted suicide before. He said there was a time in his life, in the start of his career, where he was full of anxiety and depressed all the time. He felt isolated and tried to kill himself.
Wentz disclosed this very personal information during a video interview for MTV’s college channel MTVU. Joining Wentz in revealing their darkest hours in order to help the Jed Foundation’s Half Of Us campaign, which is aimed at cutting student suicide rates, was Mary J. Blige and Billy Corgan (of the Smashing Pumpkins) . Their goal is to encourage students suffering from mental illness to seek professional help.
During his revealing interview, Wentz said:
“The darkest moment was when we had just finished recording out major label record and two days later we were going to go to Europe and I felt completely lost and out of control. At that point, I’d seen some doctors and they were Hollywood doctors so they gave me a cocktail (of prescription drugs); but, I was kind of the drugstore cowboy, so I took the cocktail the way I wanted to take it. I got in my car. I remember I was listening to Jeff Buckley doing Leonard Cohen’s (song) Hallelujah and sat there and took a bunch of (prescription drug) Adavan in a Best Buy (store) parking lot. And I called up my manager because I was, at that point, completely out of my head with Adavan. And I was talking to him and I was slurring my words, so he called my mom and my mom called me and she came and got me and we went to the hospital. I came home and we realized that we needed to do more than just keep (my) head above water. It’s not really about keeping your head above water, it’s about feeling all right and feeling safe in your own skin. It’s not about keeping your head above water and barely keep going.”
Revealing something so personal takes a lot of courage and strength; plus it’s great that he’s willing to tell his story so that it might prevent it from becoming someone else’s. I hope Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson are doing well and that Papa Joe isn’t too hard on him.
