Sadly Anthony Bourdain came to the conclusion he had lived in this world long enough.
I guess that zest for life was not for free.

 

A real shocker, but in thinking back, he did say in an interview that his job and traveling constantly was very isolating. He spent lots of time alone, although you would not know it from seeing him on the air. For someone with depression, that probably was not good. And I think something happened with his girlfriend that was the trigger because he carried it out in the middle of filming. To me, if he were planning it, he would have waited until the season was finished. But maybe that is naïve/uninformed. I really loved his shows. Very, very sad.

 

Mental health care is still deplorable in the country. There is still such a stigma to treatment for these issues, and treatment is often loaded with obstacales. I know of someone who attempted suicide. I had communicated with her earlier in the day, and had no idea she was in such a state. She kids around a lot is bubbly and funny, I knew she had some issues, but not this severe. I'd bet many of us have said: "I think I'll shoot myself." (in jest) ...Well she didn't try a gun, but CO2. However, she was still reaching out in her own way and a family member caught on to what was happening and called the police. She told me she regretted the attempt immediately.

It's truly sad.

 

I've no idea who he was but untreated depression is sometimes near impossible to spot. And even when its known and being treated, people will stop taking their meds. No easy solutions.

 

The stigma is also worsened by the fact we result to pumping people full of drugs known to have side effects of suicidal thoughts and more depression. We depend on drugging people up more than trying to figure out the issues that appear to be getting worse.

I just did some digging on this this morning, after reading about a 12 year old girl locally who went into the school a bathroom and committed suicide .. the 2nd one in two months in the same school district. In trying to find out statistics on this (very hard since with minors most of this is not released on many cases) I found info stating that at least 36 school shooters, responsible for 80 deaths and 170 wounded, were using psychotropic drugs (ADD, ADHD and Depression meds)... drugs known for 20 years to have serious side effects leading to suicide and further depression. They can't confirm in many other cases because the information on some of the kids has not been released. These research groups have pushed for federal investigations into the use of these drugs to no avail. People are more concerned with using these cases as political fodder than looking at the deeper issue here. We take our depressed and troubled youth and adults and just say "well these issues are tough, so become dependent on this pill to fix you", knowing the possible effects of these drugs. With this in mind, the very obvious increase in suicide rate (40% over the past 18 years in MN alone, a state usually ranking high for quality of life) and the very obvious increase in the use of psychotropic meds make it appalling to me that more attention is not put on this.

I have no idea of Anthony was using these types of medications and I know a lot of other factors play into this, but there is no doubt we are seeing a lot more of this with what appears to be little done in terms of trying to solve it in a real way. There is no way to prevent it 100% but most data makes me question if our "Treatments", both drug and therapy wise, are not just making the issues worse, not better. I am certainly not a hater of medicine, but I think there is an arrogance in the industry that prevents further questioning of these chemical treatments we seem to use more and more. And then, after teaching kids that taking drugs is the only way to solve their issues, we wonder why the abuse of pain meds, psychotropic meds, etc is escalating so quickly in our society.

RIP in Anthony.

 

I agree.

 

Very sad. RIP Mr. Bourdain.

 

Depression is a major killer. Just like cancer. And should be treated as such.

 

I really wonder if depression is the big culprit here. I may have zero training in mental health (except I have dogs) but I cannot stop thinking about a colleague of mine, seemingly doing well, married with 3 daughters, Academy graduate, great job, great pilot. On a Friday afternoon he declines an invitation to go shopping with the family and blows his brains out, in the house, while they are gone. Not only does he deprive his family of a father and husband, but he leaves his remains to be found by them on return.

There was nothing, apparently to the family, that would have indicated this. I just can't get over it and this was several years ago. I almost look at anybody now as a potential risk especially if things are not going well. The problem for my "prediction" efforts is that life is always messy. I can see if someone reaches out to anyone and reveals they have a problem, issue, or mental state and that they desire some kind of help, then by all means do everything that is possible. I wonder about the ones that end up being the "surprises".

 

It is just so hard to spot as an outsider. Often times even family members are on the outside and never see any problems. I am FAR from an expert in this subject but it sure seems like there are so many more cases these days and the influence of prescription drugs, social media and other impactful life events can't be discounted.
Your experience is very sad as is every suicide. I couldn't even imagine the horror and lasting wounds this left on his family. I can't imagine the pain your colleague endured leading up to him making that decision and the pain his family endured after the fact.