Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone on Tuesday (12) reposted on her social media page a message by The Live Love Laugh Foundation on depression in the wake of recent suicides of designer Kate Space and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain.
The Live Love Laugh Foundation aims to reduce the stigma, spread awareness and change the way we look at mental health and it was founded by Deepika, who was diagnosed with depression during the peak of her career.
“Every 40 seconds a person dies by suicide,” the note begins, quoting WHO statistics. “Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain were pioneers in their fields... and to the outside world they ‘had it all’ and were seemingly ‘happy’”. And just like other illnesses, depression does not discriminate.
“The element of depression that is grossly misunderstood is that you have control over your illness,” the post continues. “Asking someone to ‘snap out of it’ is like telling a person with a broken foot to continue walking.”
Kate Spade was found dead in her Manhattan apartment on June 5. She died by hanging and her husband revealed that the designer had battled depression for years. “She was actively seeking help for depression and anxiety over the last 5 years, seeing a doctor on a regular basis and taking medication for both depression and anxiety. There was no substance or alcohol abuse. There were no business problems,” her husband Andy Spade said in his statement.
Just three days later, television presenter and chef Anthony Bourdain hanged himself in his hotel room in France.
Shortly after his death, actress Rose McGowan released a powerful letter revealing that Bourdain has sought help before he took his own life. "I know before Anthony died he reached out for help, and yet he did not take the doctor's advice. And that has led us here, to this tragedy, to this loss, to this world of hurt," she wrote.
