The worlds we fail to see
There’s a tragic irony in the fact that Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, two celebrities who devoted their lives to bringing joy and creativity to the rest of us, were struggling with unseen demons the whole time.
The news of their deaths by suicide this week offered the country a grim reminder of how little we know about even the most public people around us.
Spade and Bourdain both made enormous cultural contributions.
With her elegant, cheerful accessories, her devotion to a colorful, whimsical world, and her savvy business sense, Spade made the world of fashion approachable to millions of women all over the world.
Bourdain was a chef turned author who became a television star, following his insatiable curiosity to the world’s farthest-flung
places. Everyone — especially the humble home cooks who feed the hungers of entire nations — had a place at his table.
Yet none of it — not the inevitable careers, the world travel or the public adoration — was enough to save them. Their deaths are a sad reminder that mental health struggles can affect even the most gifted and fortunate among us.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offered even more evidence of the latter fact this week.
On Thursday, the CDC released figures showing that suicide rates have increased in nearly every state over the past 17 years. In California, the suicide rate shot up by 14.8 percent. The overall national increase was 25 percent.
Suicide is the 10th-leading cause of death in the United States, and it’s one of only three causes that’s increasing.
It’s incredibly difficult to ascribe a single cause, or even several causes, to suicide. As the CDC noted in its report, 54 percent of people who died by suicide didn’t have a known mental health condition.
That said, there are plenty of things states and communities could be doing far better.
The majority of Americans who are struggling with mental health lack access to care they can afford, which creates a major challenge for their safety and well-being. (Financial stress is a major risk factor for suicide, too.)
Most states allow tooeasy access to firearms. Almost half of people who died by suicide used a firearm to do so, and gun-owning households are associated with much higher suicide rates than households without guns.
Finally, communities must do better to identify and support people who are at risk. In a high-stress, high-octane world, it’s easy for all of us to overlook people who are silently struggling. But offering safe, supportive environments for people who are in trouble isn’t just a kind thing to do — it can save lives.