My Fab Fifties Life - Suicide Prevention Lifeline Archives

What Can We Do? Be Kind.

May 3, 2020

Location: At Home

Day Four of our latest lockdown. Combining all our lock down days we are now at Day 55. What can we do? Be kind.

Shit is getting real here. Thankful I have my husband and kids.

I just watched a video that I can’t share because it’s just too heartbreaking about a young teen who committed suicide because he couldn’t take it anymore. What can we do?

People are frustrated. Sad. Hopeless. People are angry towards Federal, State and local government. Why? This is their job to protect you. It’s not Governor Inslee’s fault anymore than it’s mine. Or the fault of that lovely young man who is gone. Dead.

What can we do?

Anger is a powerful emotion. But so is compassion. For me, I’m trying hard to channel my anger and despair to something positive. I don’t show that angry part of me on social media – but I have it just like you. And I work hard to show another side of me, my compassionate side. Because no matter how this turns out, no matter how much you want to point a finger and place blame, there is no one to blame. The only blame will be how you respond. How you treat others who are just as vulnerable as you; mentally, economically, physically, emotionally.

Some people will respond to this post with anger. Because that’s what anger does – it drives you to action. But to what point? Other than to hurt someone in an effort to soothe your own emotions and sensibilities. Can it be channeled differently? Can it be put to good use? Can you lighten someone’s load who might be silently on the brink by moving your energy to compassion?

What can we do? Each person can do this one thing – find your compassionate energy. It might be buried but it’s there – well in most people it’s there.

Set aside the politics real or imagined and turn your anger to compassion. Message me if I can help you or call you and chat. Love you all.
Laureen

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline1-800-273-8255

https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org

Why I Feel Such a Loss over Anthony Bourdain’s Suicide

National Suicide Prevention Line Call 1-800-273-8255

June 10, 2018

Laureen

Leave a Comment

3 Comments

Why I feel such a loss over Anthony Bourdain’s Suicide.

National Suicide Prevention Line Call 1-800-273-8255.

I worshiped him.

Hung on his words.

Watched him mature.

I was proud of his open admission to substance abuse and recovery.

I loved his travel ethic. His clear understanding of how intricately linked food is to culture.

He seemed sincere. Kind. Understood the power he wielded without ego or arrogance.

You’d think we were best friends. Of course we never met. The closest I ever got to Anthony
Bourdain was Row 50 of the Paramount Theatre in Seattle when he and Mario Batali entertained an audience of admirers.

Why I feel such a loss of Anthony Bourdain’s suicide – I felt like I knew him personally. I often half jokingly said Bourdain for President in 2020. Maybe I was more serious than joking. In my eyes he was everything I wanted to be; a talented writer and storyteller, an incredible chef, a conscientious and thoughtful traveler, smart, witty, empathetic and unconcerned about what others thought of him.

But was he all these things? Or was it part of the act? What demons possessed him to take his own life, at the height of his career? With a beautiful little daughter? Loved and respected by millions the world over? Is keeping up appearances for celebrities just too hard in this age of non-stop media?

I think he may have been conflicted about his celebrity – because essentially it goes against many of his beliefs. Should chefs be like rock stars? Does promoting travel to remote places around the world cause too much stress on these places and change them? Did he feel guilty? Did he think he wasn’t worthy of his unbridled success?

Was it just all too much? Clearly it was. And it’s why I feel such a loss over Anthony Bourdain’s suicide.

I am not a clinical psychiatrist, a mental health professional or a doctor of any kind. I’m just a fan who feels stricken that for Anthony Bourdain there was a burden, whatever it was, he could no longer bear.

Why?

The United States has a crisis on its hands. And although celebrity suicides bring this issue of suicide to light in the media, the real crazy thing is the number of suicides we never hear about.

In 2016 (the last year that statistics are available) 45,000 people committed suicide in the United States. That’s 124 PER DAY! And thousands more, thankfully, attempted but failed to commit suicide.

Washington State, where I am sitting writing this blog today, ranks 26th in the United States for suicides. Montana is number one.

I don’t have the answers. I just have the questions. And a heavy heart. My hero is gone – and I feel the loss.

New York Times Article about suicide in the USA

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Suicide Statistics

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Call 1-800-273-8255