Anthony Bourdain died. Let's talk about it.
https://www.foodandwine.com/chefs/anthony-bourdain-restaurant-industry-mental-healthI run a website called Chefs With Issues, and it's a platform to talk about the painfully taboo topic of mental health and the restaurant industry. That's how I know that chefs die all the time, in sudden ways, and in long, slow slides. Sometimes it's an accident, but far too often, it's by their own hand, and I cannot stand that happening one more time. I don't work in restaurants, but I have been on the edge of that precipice a time or two, and the single scariest act of self-preservation that I have ever committed was being public about that fact. It's utterly terrifying, ripping open your chest to show the ugliest, darkest parts of yourself to someone who may not understand. But that is how the light gets in. In the Chefs With Issues community, it's restaurant workers around the world sharing hundreds of rays of light, and I'm just praying that we can guide more people to safety. I wish with all my heart that Tony had made it all the way over to our side.
A chef died today. Let's talk about it.
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it was long-standing issues with depression and alcoholism. What pushed him over the edge we do not know. This was reported at Bloomberg news on June 9:
Rocquigny said toxicology tests were being carried out on Bourdain's body, including urine tests, to see if the 61-year-old American took any medications or other drugs, in an effort to help his family understand if anything led him to kill himself.
So we will find out soon. I believe I read he had depression.
I've not suffered from depression, but I know someone who did. It is horrible--everyday is a battle just to get up and do something, anything. I have to wonder if at some point that people who are depressed just get sick of the battle. With all he had going for him, that really says something, doesn't it?
