Posted on 08/14/2014 8:55:47 AM PDT by Kaslin
Robin Williams made me cry. Like his mentor, the late Jonathan Winters, Williams, who committed suicide Monday, made me laugh so intensely tears would come to my eyes.
Williams' death made headlines and led TV newscasts. His comedic genius diverted us from stories about terrorism and other sadness in the world. That's what comedy does. It makes us forget our troubles -- national, international and personal -- and for a moment, embrace happiness.
Williams, who seemed full of joy on the outside, was apparently tormented on the inside. He suffered from clinical depression. An estimated 19 million Americans suffer from depression, according to the Mayo Clinicwebsite. He may have tried to conquer it in the '70s and '80s by self-medicating with cocaine, but the drug, while creating an intense high, is often followed quickly by "intense depression," according to the Foundation for a Drug-Free World.
Many people misunderstand clinical depression. They think because someone has wealth and fame, or circumstances better than others, they should be happy, or at least content.
Robin Williams wasn't normal. While he made others laugh -- and in his serious roles, such as that of Sean Maguire in "Good Will Hunting," for which he won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, conveyed profound and timeless virtues -- he was deeply troubled. Ironically, his part in this film was that of a psychologist.
President Obama referred to Williams' numerous and diverse film roles: "Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny ... and everything in between. But he was one of a kind." Indeed.
Rolling Stone magazine reported; "Last month, Williams checked himself into a rehab facility to 'fine-tune and focus on his continued commitment, of which he remains extremely proud,' his rep said at the time."
I asked Dave Berg, the former co-producer of "The Tonight Show," for his greatest memory of Williams, who appeared on the show many times with Jay Leno. He sent this email:
"I once brought my two young children to "The Tonight Show" to meet Robin. They had watched the video of 'Hook' many times, and were mesmerized by his performance as Peter Pan in the 1991 film. When Robin came out of his dressing room, and saw my 3-year-old son David and my 7-year-old daughter Melissa, he immediately crouched down, so he could be eye level with them. David asked Robin how he was able to fly in the film. Without missing a beat, Robin answered: 'A little magic and very tight pants.' Both the kids and the adults laughed, but for different reasons because Robin was playing to both audiences. That's true comedic genius."
Psychiatrist Keith Ablow, appearing on Fox News, said "95 percent" of people with clinical depression are treatable. Whether Robin Williams was among the 5 percent who aren't, or there were other factors, we may never know.
In one of his most profound roles, that of poetry teacher John Keating in the 1989 film "Dead Poets Society," Williams told his students: "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for."
It's sad to see someone who could make so many people laugh suffer from depression. Worse, his death and the loss of his talent add to the general gloominess that hangs over much of the world.
Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel.
Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain.
Doctor says, "Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight.
Go and see him. That should pick you up.
" Man bursts into tears. Says, "But doctor...I am Pagliacci.”
Sorry but as much as I loved the guy, he did not die of depression. He died of years of using powerful psychoactive street drugs coupled with massive amounts of alcohol and the gross brain changes that accompany those addictions.Blaming depression as the cause for his suicide is like blaming the smoke for burning down your house.
Like the rest of the country, I was happily entertained by Robin Williams.
Now I am angry with him.
A man of influence set a very poor example for those who revered him. How many will follow him, especially when he is being showered with praise and sympathy?
Suicide is the most self-centered act imaginable. The perpetrator thinks only of himself and weighs his own pain far above that he leaves behind for those who care for him.
They, family and friends and fans, will never forget, and not in a good way.
Anyone who suffers from any major illness must seek help, and sometimes treatment is brutal. Depression and other mental illnesses are no different, but it’s just wrong to opt out and inflict the suffering on others.
This is a case of a man who chose to no longer deal with the struggles of life that we all face.
I do believe that Robin died from depression. But you have a serious point here namely, that in sufficient amounts cocaine and alcohol can deeply change your brains delicate chemistry.That abuse may have rendered the problem of readjusting his brain chemistry virtually impossible.
CC
How do you know the depression that lead to taking drugs to try to feel normal? Many with mental illnesses do just that. Of course, we all know taking some drugs worsens mental illness but they get temporary relief.
“Sorry but as much as I loved the guy, he did not die of depression. He died of years of using powerful psychoactive street drugs coupled with massive amounts of alcohol and the gross brain changes that accompany those addictions.Blaming depression as the cause for his suicide is like blaming the smoke for burning down your house.”
At least we can give RW credit for being honest about this.
I could not agree with you more! I spent 25 years working for a fire department and have responded to many suicides. Substance abuse is a major factor in the vast majority of suicides. I don't know if there are studies to confirm it, but in my experience marijuana and alcohol are by far the most common substances which are found on scene.
If you tell an alcoholic that alcohol is ruining their life... they will generally agree with you. Marijuana users on the other hand will defend its use until their dying breath. The media makes marijuana out to be harmless and something that makes people happy. From my experience I strongly believe that there is a strong connection between marijuana use, mental illness and suicide.
I am not buying into this “self-medicating” BS. People simply have too much spare time on their hands and instead of pursuing productive endeavors or healthy activities they waste their time smoking pot and getting drunk. Then they rely on the rest of us to take care of them.
This is not a recipe for high self esteem... They deserve to feel bad about wasting their God given time on earth. Then there judgment impaired delusional drug abused brains don't give them the resistance to keep them from acting on their crazy impulses.
I would speculate that Robin Williams like so many of the suicides that I have been to... probably had no intention of killing himself when he woke up to another beautiful sunny California day. I would speculate that toxicology reports would most likely confirm that he spent the entire day smoking pot behind closed doors in his bedroom. At some point he started feeling worthless for wasting his time instead of taking care of his many responsibilities and obligations. It probably didn't help that he had so many others helping to take care of his every need. At some point he had the impulse to suffocate himself as the character playing his son did in the movie World's Greatest Dad.
Life is a fragile thing and very easy to end if one gets a crazy impulse that their drug dazed mind can't resist. So yes he was one of my favorite comedians also, however all of this hand wringing and making him out to be a victim of depression kind of makes me sick. He did it to himself from start to finish and now has left it to others to clean up the mess. God gave him his precious life... Robin Williams threw it away.
He chose the easy way out. I have friends manic depression/ Bipolar who have to fight it every day with a tenth of the resources Mr Williams had.
I feel sorry for his family, for the person that found him, and for the others who suffer from depression who now are thinking “Maybe killing myself is the best way out!”
But he chose to do it. Celebrating suicide is madness, and a sign of the sickness in our culture.
Williams had been to alcohol rehab and drug addiction rehab. He was going to check back into alcohol rehab because he fell off the wagon. He never sought treatment for any type of depression and was not clinically diagnozed as someone suffering from major depression. That’s a story the liberal media jumped on and ran with it.
It is neither.... it is a joke
How about a word comncerning the greedy ex-wives and their pricey counsel, who bled this man financially to the point that he was facing a reprise role for the public as an aging transvestite in his mid-60’s to help cover his living expenses?
Put yourself in that position, it’s depressing from every perspective.
No one really knows what happened except the people in that house. For all we know, it could have been an auto-erotic asphyxiation accident.
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