I guess I will never understand....

[chillfactor]

how a man like Anthony Bourdain could commit suicide. The world was his oysters, he traveled all over, he had a hit program, and a woman who dearly loved him. What in his world was so shattering that he had to take his own life?

[Rhiannon12866]

1. I don't understand, either.

What gets to me the most is that he has a child - who he dearly loved. This will devastate her life.

[Laffy Kat]

2. Depression is a terrible disease.

Unless you've been through a clinical depression you have no idea. It happened to me only once and I got help right away and was lucky to respond so well and so fast. I am terrified to stop taking my maintenance meds. because I don't EVER want to go through that again. It can hit suddenly and hard.

[SoCalDem]

11. me too.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210710023

[Laffy Kat]

12. Thanks for sharing.

Beautifully articulated and I could so relate. I found the entire experience absolutely bewildering, like my mind was no longer mine and I couldn't control what was happening. Now, even though it's controlled, I know it's always there, lurking.

[dchill]

3. Clinical depression. It's the real deal.

[uppityperson]

4. Depression is a serious and too often fatal disease. It's not dependent on whether or not

you have a productive life, or people you love and love you, or any of that. It's unfortunate that people still consider depression as simply situational because out is so much more than that.

[Laffy Kat]

13. Look, until it happened to me, I felt the same way.

I thought it was just "mind over matter" and depressed people just need to pull it together. My own experience, although horrible, made me a much more empathetic and nicer person in the long run.

[RandySF]

5. Depression, drugs and child abuse.

[lapfog_1]

6. I don't think we know everything yet.

This may end up like Robin Williams...

Or it may be that like many creative geniuses, he suffered from bi-polar disorders that can cause huge depressive mood swings (I know this well). Not saying either of these is true... I just don't think we know the full story yet.

[JI7]

7. Kate Spade was very successful also. i know with her there was the issue of divorce

but she may have had depression which made things worse.

same with Bourdain and what people said was his partner being seen with another guy.

the depression makes things worse and needs to be treated .

[fleabiscuit]

8. I don't know either. Just anything to stop hurting I suppose.

Anthony said this was a favorite musician of his...

[LuckyCharms]

9. Depression puts you in a world that is different than...

the one that mentally healthy people live in. Depression does not care what you "have" or how "well off" you are.

It is an insidious illness, and it kills. It causes physical pain. Major depression is one of the worst things that can happen to a person. And the only way to truly understand it...is to have it. If you have never had it, I think this analogy is apt.

Let's say that you have metastatic bone cancer that has spread to your brain. Your body has been riddled with pain for months, and now your thoughts are jumbled as well because the cancer is in your brain. Someone presents that scenario to a healthy person, and asks them to explain what it feels like exactly. The healthy person will not be able to, because they have no frame of reference. They can't begin to describe the horror of it.

That is why it is impossible for healthy people to understand what depression does to you. If you never had it, you can't fully understand it, and you can't feel it.

And just like cancer or a heart attack, you can die just as hard whether you were previously healthy and had a Ferrari in your garage or not.

[TheFrenchRazor]

17. a lot of people don't realize that the brain is subject to becoming physically ill, just like any

other part of the body. maybe in extreme cases most people understand that another person's brain is not quite right, but there are a lot of more subtle cases where a person's brain takes on a "mind of its own," due to physical or chemical abnormalities.

[chillfactor]

10. I have been suicidal in my lifetime.....

I have no family, but I have friends who have pulled me through it, sheriff deputies who understood my pain, and help they helped me find. I have been very lucky because people I did not even know stood by me when I needed it. CNN has had program after program about Bourdain......is there no one in his life that he could have turned to for help? I find that inconceivable!

[Laffy Kat]

14. Sometimes there is no energy to ask for help.

Plus, it can come on so severely and so suddenly, it is simply not survivable.

[nolabear]

15. No, you don't understand. It's okay.

It’s that simple and that complex. Just love one another while you’re trying to figure it out.

[Solly Mack]

16. The trappings other people see on the outside are not always a true reflection of what's inside

- sometimes the insides feel trapped.

And it has nothing to do with how much you love your family or your job.

You never know what demons people are chasing. What pain they are in.

[DFW]

18. I've never had depression, but I know what it is and what it can do to people

As other posters have said, if you've never had it, you can't know what it means to have it. What I do know is that I have lost friends to it, and that it is real, and it is does not give the "haves" a break over the "have-nots."