Bourdain

Another one. Ok so I'm a couple of years late on this. In fact the last post where I referenced the suicide of someone influential to me was a year later than this one (in terms of when the event occurred). That seems strange, but those are the facts. Anthony Bourdain. A lover of life, food, pushing the limits and making the most of things. He seemed to have a better understanding of the world than most, and even his own mother commented that she thought he'd be the last person on Earth to kill themselves.

Suicide seems to be almost an epidemic. I wonder why. Certainly there is the copy-cat syndrome, particularly among the young. And of course those that are truly afflicted by the terrible curse that is (are) mental health problems. But when you read about Bourdain, Robin Williams and even Keith Flint from The Prodigy, I wonder if perhaps there is another, insidious and largely unseen contributor to all of this. That is, prescription drugs. In each of their cases, while it was well known, at least within their inner circles, that they struggled with depression, it was a surprise when they ultimately took their own lives. In Hutchene's case (INXS), it was a toxic cocktail of prescription, recreational and alcoholic influences that likely led to the tragic outcome, but in the other cases, it's not as such. In fact, almost clearly only prescription drugs.

Hey I am with the believe-nothing-those-media-fuckers-say crowd in just about all aspects, that is for sure. So when the media tries to stoke the fires of drama and conspiracy, inhale a deep lung-full of skepticism before reading any further, that's for sure. But I am very wary about the culture we have in the West these days. Just look at kids with so-called autism. Hey, hey, hey, calm down fuckers, I am not saying it's all a myth. I AM saying however, that GP's are far too ready to diagnose any kind of behaviour problem as being "on the spectrum" and prescribe behavioural drugs to deal with it. What happened to good old fashioned parenting? What happened to spending the time to manage these kids behaviours? Equal opportunity, both parents working, no time, rights for kids, blah fucking blah. Anyway, I believe it is the same for mental health. Take time to work through an issue and try to encourage development of mental strength, self-reliance and God-fucking-forbid, taking responsibility for one's own life? Nah fuck that. Modern life doesn't have the time. Let's just prescription drug our way the fuck out of Dodge and be done with it.

I am no expert and probably should not be espousing my mis-informed musings on the world at large. However that, is how I see it. Big pharma has a whole lot to fucking answer for.