Anthony Bourdain is gone.

He was such a light in his TV programs, and he was a wonderful companion to anyone who travels and loves food and life. It is unfair that someone who was this alive is snatched from us by depression.

In the wake of his passing there has been a lot of talk about the need to reach out, both for those who find themselves trapped inside their minds and for their loved ones. I feel like all the right things have been said on the subject, so I won't add anything.

I would like to talk about the normalization of mental illness symptoms instead. I feel like many people would still be alive today if we treated mental symptoms the same way we treat physical ones. Few people would conceal chronic back pain or arthritis, but people with depression often feel so stigmatized by their condition that no one has any idea they are an inch away from death. I remember hearing Stephen Fry talk on the subject: he went to a party where he made everyone laugh, and no one had any idea that he was already planning the suicide he attempted the next day.

It should be okay for a person with depression to get through a work day with dead eyes and no emotions. It should be okay for a person with anxiety to check the webcam set up in their flat twenty times in one hour. When things are bad, people shouldn't be afraid to show it.

Let's do what we can so that people like Anthony Bourdain are reminded that the world doesn't want them only when they are healthy and happy.