For me, Anthony Bourdain wasn’t a celebrity, but more of an elder statesman of a cosmopolitan tribe made up by my fellow travel and culture journalists. He was much loved because we saw ourselves in him and in his heroism we recognized our own.
The recent losses of celebrated icons serve as a reminder and a wake up call for us to stop demonizing and downplaying mental illness, and let it be a reminder to keep the conversation going and challenging the stigma by any means necessary.
