It’s a way to blunt the pain.

Food for thought though.

I just saw in the news that the French Authorities said he had no drugs in his system accept for a prescribed medication in the therapeutic range.
m

later. Maybe he was being given advice to quit alcohol. Or go on meds for depression and did not want to. I'm sure his mental health professionals have a better picture. None of our business but we public did think we were a part of his adventures and thus his life. Not many public figures so personally lived their lives on camera. I do remember the scene in Sicily when bourdain was diving for seafood as the locals seeded the sea with dead seafood. Anthony's reaction was something to the effect of 'just let me die now' it was so cynical and depressing to him.

The only thing I would say is that take is purely through the lens of his TV shows and not from the perspective of a person who knew Bourdain.

Article coulda been a lot shorter.

Alcoholism....or addiction....

Just watch his first year and his last year....it is obvious....he was an admitted addict...and depression had taken over his life .

I am still personally reeling from his decision but am professionally confident
in my diagnosis ....and wish i could have had a personal relationship
With Anthony

RIP dear Anthony..

Every alkie I have known is bloated and pasty. Not a dearth of calories but a surplus of useless ones.

Sadly, i know an alcoholic. She is overweight, not morbidly so, but a far cry from the way she used to look.

Yep.

He gave up so many of these vices, including smoking after his daughter was born, maybe his drinking didn't register as just another addiction?

Was he a high-functioning alcoholic who slept nights between silk sheets - possessed by the same alcoholic demons haunting skid-row winos?

Ending up more a Hemingway than a Bukowski?

Quite possibly.

stream of drinking...the many charms of the city and area were mainly overlooked as Tony set off to some farm to drink all day and night...my first realization there was something very wrong,

Of course, there's just so much you can do with borscht.

Lot of drinking in Ireland, too (haggis).

No drinking in Nambia (raw warthog anus)? Muslim nation?

I saw the same episode and didn't have the same reaction. When I was there we spent most of our time eating and drinking too (as did a lot of other folks).

So many amazing restaurants in this city and he primarily focused on bars.

I adored Bourdain; have all his books, even managed to get one autographed when he gave a talk in my city. But his drinking always made me raise an eyebrow. Knowing his issues with addiction, I always wondered if his drinking was a substitute for it. The link to depression certainly makes sense. Hope he’s at peace now.

Grew up with family alcoholics. He looked like an active alcoholic to me. It was hard for me to watch without wishing someone would rescue him.

Thank you for this.

I wasn't familiar with him when he was alive, though one of my sons loved his show. But this article is interesting, in a very sad way.

Recommended.

but the base problem is still mental illness.

Now working at a rehab facility doing some counseling (among other things) and hoping to go to grad school for counseling or to be a social worker. He's been taught that if your brain is prone to addiction, it doesn't matter what your "vice" is - opiates, cocaine, alcohol - you will become an addict. Alcohol is just harder to OD on (it takes longer).

and depression, and suicide. Outside influences matter. How much is a person supposed to take?

"Anthony Bourdain's Addiction Report Card
Anthony Bourdain has been through a series of addictions—how's he doing?

Posted Feb 08, 2014 "

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/addiction-in-society/201402/anthony-bourdains-addiction-report-card

Bourdain admitted to drug addiction, but I’ve seen nothing about him admitting to alcoholism.

It's nearly irrelevant whether or not Bourdain was an alcoholic.

But there is nevertheless merit to the notion that many former heroin addicts continue to self-medicate with alcohol. It's an issue that chemical dependency clinics deal with all the time. And yes, both alcohol (dependency or) addiction and heroin addiction are part of a DSM dual diagnosis with various kinds of depression, including "alcoholism depression".

Virtually the entire article was about Bourdain. So while the topic of alcoholism may certainly be worthy of discussion, it's pure speculation as to whether Bourdain even was an alcoholic, much less whether it played any role in his suicide. I just don't see the benefit of injecting him into the discussion when the author clearly doesn't know what role alcohol played in his death if any at all.

Only 9 or 10 are filmed each year.

He probably gave up the drugs and substituted with alcohol. It's pretty common. It sounds like he was a functional alcoholic, but he was still self-medicating an underlying depression. Anyway, it's a very sad story.

I found it fascinating

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/06/a-landmark-study-in-the-origins-of-alcoholism/563372/

Thanks for posting.

Heroin addicts who take up drinking are playing with fire. Substituting one drug for another is just continuing the addiction. I’ve seen way too many addicts take up drinking because they thought alcohol was different than other drugs. Most ended up right back where they were before, usually worse. Addiction is a progressive disease. I speak from personal experience. It’s not the substance, it’s the disease of addiction that causes the problems. Think how absurd it would be if you heard someone say, “Yeah, I’m an alcoholic, but I can use heroin with no problems!” It’s all the same, street drugs, Rx drugs, alcohol, etc. He was an addict in active addiction.

And Welcome to DU

My father was an alcoholic. He joined AA in the mid 50s, at close to 30 years old, before he was married, and before he had kids. I always said we “grew up in AA.” He and my mom were very involved, it was a whole social network—meetings at our house, churches, retreats. He always identified as an alcoholic, even though he never drank. He was “sober” 50 years.

I saw it though. I had glimpses of my father, the alcoholic. In later years, he had many back and neck surgeries. He was in chronic pain, and I saw the behavior with prescription meds. He could not control it. He would go through a bottle of Vicodin or other pain meds like they were candy. It was pretty bad. He would never admit it to himself, or others. He had a reputation to uphold—he was a respected “old-timer” and a sponsor to so many.
I loved my father, he was a great, wise, kind man, my liberal lion. But he was more than an alcoholic, he was an addict.

and we are getting closer to successful treatments....

And Welcome to DU...

For some reason I can't get past being mad at the guy for killing himself. It makes no sense to me since I didn't personally know the man. Wonder if I've subconsciously associated the booze problems from closer to home with Bourdain. Something to think about.