After accomplishments in politics, media, former CNN chief Tom Johnson makes mental health his cause

NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Johnson 's career took him from the White House to newspaper publisher jobs in Dallas and Los Angeles to president of CNN. While that left him able to swap stories about two influential figures — Lyndon B. Johnson and Ted Turner — that's not the real reason he wrote his memoir.

Instead, it's to tell how his accomplishments came despite suffering through a depression so severe he contemplated suicide, in the hope that others will seek help when in need.

"I want to convey that depression is a treatable illness," Johnson, 84, said in an interview. "You do not need to kill yourself as two of my best friends did."

He calls his memoir "Driven." That seems partly in tribute to his mother, who told a young boy growing up in Georgia that he could accomplish what he wanted