Musician Pete Wentz Joins Suicide Prevention Campaign

Los Angeles, CA (CNS) - Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz knows what it feels like to be depressed. That is why the musician is joining stars such as Mary J. Blige and Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan as a spokesperson for the Jed Foundation's Half of Us campaign. The aim of the program is to cut student suicide rates and Wentz, 28, discusses on camera how he once found himself so alone and despondent that he contemplated taking his own life.

With student suicide rates high, stars such as Wentz are sharing their stories in hopes of helping. In an interview for MTV's college channel mtvU, Wentz talked about how anxiety and depression paralyzed him, until he go the help he needed.

He told mtvU that he always had underlying depression that started in high school. After his band finished their first major-label record Wentz said he felt completely out of control.

He was prescribed anti-anxiety pills but did not take them correctly and his mom ended up taking him to the hospital because he was slurring his words. He said when he came home from the hospital he realized that he needed to not only keep his head above water, but to feel right and safe in his own skin.