This Suicide Prevention Week, I hope I can spare others the pain I went through

As a teenager, Joe Kemp struggled with drug addiction and the urge to commit suicide. But Kemp, 43, now an assistant vice president of public relations for Northwell Health and a former managing editor at The New York Post, found salvation — which, on this National Suicide Prevention Week, he hopes to pass along to others.

I also didn’t want anyone to stop me if I did decide to end my life. I kept secret that little dark spot that for as long as I can remember was always nestled deep inside my chest. It became instead an awful scene in what has been a much longer story. A friend unexpectedly walked into my room just after I collapsed.I maintained it was unintentional, but the truth is that I failed an act of suicide.

When his casket was put in the ground, I realized that I had one more chance to make my life mean something, even if it was just for the sake of those who never got the chance.The overdose deaths of two of his close friends motivated Kemp to get sober.I was barely 21 when I committed to staying clean and sober one day at a time .

If only my colleagues knew my personal knowledge on those subjects; if they only knew I was writing about the lives that I once lived.Joe Kemp Family Photos I’m also currently pursuing an MBA at Columbia Business School, the first in my family to attend — or to even imagine attending — an Ivy League institution.

Sure, they know I’m sober, and they know there’s a reason why, but when I go into any amount of detail about my past, people are usually stunned. In those vulnerable moments, we saw each other not as the businesses we represent or the titles we hold in our careers — but as human beings, often flawed but all worthy of being loved.

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