why famous rich people do this?

     So today I turn on my Tablet and there's another one -- I couldn't believe it!? -- rich famous person with a Fun Job committed suicide.  The food guy -- Anthony Bourdain -- did the same thing Kate Spade did, only in France.

     She was 55.
     He was 61.


     Commentators are speculating same thing -- depression, bi-polar....

     Becoming really really really really really rich by doing something you really really really really really really love to do is just such a Wonderful Dream Of All Time -- the Ideal Life -- it keeps bringing us back to the Internet Comment typed in by someone after Kate Spade's death on Tuesday:  "why famous rich people do this?"


     (And, yes, I do realize I answered the above paragraph's question in the paragraph above that.)

     Evidently the Depressed Brain doesn't care about the fun, the adventure, the learning, the having people appreciate them, the freedom from money-worries ... the "Great Life":  the Depressed Brain must not be tuned-in to happy, satisfying things in Life, the Depression-Afflicted Brain is busy creating bad stuff and -- haunting the person, apparently.

     Perhaps in the same way that a shark is a "killing machine," the Depressed Brain is a "grinding-down machine" -- coming back, and coming back again, and working away on the person.  If they get prescription drugs that are supposed to help, and then the drugs either don't help, or have unendurable side effects, then the person probably gets frustrated and then that can add to feelings of despair.

     Some people commenting on the Internet say, "Depression lies to you.  It tells you your family and friends would be better off without you."

     And the way we as a society view this phenomenon in human existence, Depression, is probably mixed-up, because -- we see people who have depression but we can attribute it to exterior factors in their life -- things we can see... then we think those are the "reasons why" they're depressed, and if those particular, visible problems got solved, the person would then be happy.  

And so we don't research and learn about, and hence don't understand, actual brain-chemical-based depression.

     Then when a wealthy person with a fun job has depression, we demand, astounded, "Why famous rich people do this?!"

     What can we do about it?

     They can invent a pill that balances the brain and doesn't have horrible side effects, and then not over-charge for it, everybody has to be able to afford it.  (I mean, "everybody" won't need it, but depression-sufferers exist in all income brackets.)

     Two steps we can take:

       1.  Single-payer health insurance
       2.  Be kind to each other


     I wonder if Music Therapy might work for some people.  (I don't know if there's any such thing as Music Therapy, I just thought it up...)

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The New York Times ran three items on Bourdain, which can be read Online:

    ^   Anthony Bourdain, Renegade Chef Who Reported From the World's Tables, Is Dead

    ^   'Tony Was a Symphony': Friends and Fans Remember Anthony Bourdain

    ^   Opinion | The Insatiable and Unknowable Anthony Bourdain

one Reader Comment:

Malaouna
Washington
------------------- We love Bourdain because he wasn't the "ugly American."  

He traveled to our countries and didn't treat them like objects of conquest and its peoples like the dregs of humanity.  

He gave street vendors the same air time as Michelin-starred chefs.  

He educated the public about our history, our traditions, our food with words of admiration.  

He modeled for Americans how to be political with grace, charm, and humor.  

We need an army of Bourdains to change this world.  

I am so sad to lose him.

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