I was channel surfing as I tend to do at midnight. Surf. Surf. Surf. Then I landed on a show I haven’t seen in years because it’s painful to do so. I ended up watching Anthony Bourdain on CNN. It was such an eerie experience especially at that time of the night. It got me thinking about mortality, depression, stigma and brokeness.
Watching him laugh on screen knowing the pain he must have been in was sad. And that sounds a bit trite to say.
I couldn’t watch the whole episode. But it got me thinking again of the pandemic and the vast depression that has also become a pandemic. There needs to be more attention being paid to mental health, anxiety and stress. Meanwhile, I’ll toast to Bourdain and dream of future travel and cuisine.
Categories: Culture, death, mental health, Pop Culture, Psychology, society
psychologistmimi 
The question of why is never going to be answered. The only one with the knowledge is gone. Yet he’s not the only person to have everything most of us could want and much more. Look at Kate Spade. Michael Phelps had the world at his feet and yet thought seriously about calling it quits.
The happiest and most successful people are often falling apart inside.
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That is indeed very true.
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Hi Mimi, I apologise for writing to you here but I knew no other way. You cited alien many years ago called ‘it’s not my secret to tell’. I love the poem. I am hoping you can tell me who the author is please? Thank you kindly. Tony
tony.nugent@sky.com
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Hello. Thanks for reaching out. The poem it’s not my secret to tell was written by me. Is this the one you are referring to: https://psychologistmimi.com/2014/04/25/its-not-my-secret-to-tell/
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Mental health conversations are still necessary
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Yes, very much so
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SMiLes Loss of Humanity
Feeling Humanity
Sensing Humanity
Smelling Flowers
Without
Sneezing Hehe
Humor Medicine
i Never Fail to
Take And Create
Every Tool Available
To Color The Tool of
Culture That is the Pandemic
All Of Nature Faces From Humanity
This Machine This Machine Losing Nature And Humanity..:)
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I was watching some of his older shows on Netflix last week and had so many of the same thoughts. He was someone I idolized yet also identified with in so many personal ways. Depression is such an insidious thing, and many of us who suffer from it hide it in numerous ways. I remember thinking, after news of his devastating suicide broke, that if he – who had money and fame and talent and looks and adoration – could not deal with his own depression, what could mere mortals like us do in the face of that same darkness? I appreciate you posting this, and I hope you and your son are well.
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Amazing how his suicide impacted so many of us, despite not knowing him personally. I think seeing his smile and laughter from one episode to the next had us in that space of thinking he was ok. So sad
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