Writer and TV star Anthony Bourdain left us much too soon. If you are struggling, please seek help.

He was a chef, a storyteller and a father. She was a designer, a businesswoman and a mother. Both were beloved New Yorkers at the pinnacles of their fields. Both traveled in elite circles and had access to the finest mental health care. And both ended their lives by their own hand, evidence they struggled with and ultimately succumbed to what we often call demons, but that take many painfully real forms in millions of daily lives.

Depression. Domestic strife. Drug and alcohol abuse. Financial strain. It is tempting to believe single causes at work. Reality is muddier.

It has been said many times in recent days but bears repeating: If you — yes, you, reading this — are contemplating suicide, seek help. Call the national suicide hotline at 1-800-273-8255, at any time on any day.

Whether you know it or not, there are people in this world who love you and need you. Your presence is a blessing, not a burden. Your loss will produce shockwaves of pain.

Suicide rates in the United States are rising (New York City’s rates are relatively low, but they’ve been increasing, too). Forty-five thousand Americans killed themselves in 2016, a number more than double the homicide rate.

About half used guns; they’re too easy to get, and make the gruesome task too easy to perform.

Society has many responsibilities at which it often fails: to wrest guns from those who may be considering self-harm. To shred the stigma that still hangs over those battling depression and prevents them from seeking help.

To offer psychological aid that’s now far too hard to access to those in hidden pain. To rush aid to those wrestling with substance abuse addiction, including, of late, the opioids have a hammer-lock on so many lives.

But the problem, and the solution, is by definition in millions of individual hands. Seek help. Seek help. Seek help.