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Robin Williams' suicide this week shook up people across the political spectrum -- and for good reason. When a highly successful, incredibly popular figure from our culture decides to take his own life, it feels as though suicide could happen to anyone. It can't. Robin Williams reportedly suffered from mentally illness. He stated during an interview in 2006 that he hadn't been formally diagnosed with depression or bipolar disorder, but stated, "Do I perform sometimes in a manic style? Yes. Am I manic all the time? No. Do I get sad? Oh yeah. Does it hit me hard? Oh...

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Though guns are not the most common method by which people attempt suicide, they are the most lethal. About 85 percent of suicide attempts with a firearm end in death. (Drug overdose, the most widely used method in suicide attempts, is fatal in less than 3 percent of cases.) Moreover, guns are an irreversible solution to what is often a passing crisis. Suicidal individuals who take pills or inhale car exhaust or use razors have time to reconsider their actions or summon help. With a firearm, once the trigger is pulled, there’s no turning back.

I’m not normally one to write a blog post about a dead celebrity, but then I suppose there is no such thing. There are only living celebrities, not dead ones. In death, wealth and prestige decay and we are brought into a new reality, the only reality there is or ever was — one which, for much better or much worse, doesn’t care at all about our popularity or our money. The death of Robin Williams is significant not because he was famous, but because he was human, and not just because he left this world, but particularly because he...

As he stepped out on stage last year to hawk his big TV comeback in front of advertisers, comedy great Robin Williams joked it was 'nice to have a job where the checks will clear.' After making his name as the eccentric and beloved alien on 1970s TV hit Mork and Mindy, Robin transferred his attentions to Hollywood with a stream of box office hits. But after acclaim and an Oscar, the movie career started to dry up and the actor signed up for CBS show The Crazy Ones, a small-screen comedy about a 'renowned and slightly unhinged' advertising genius/madman....

Lt. Boyd said Williams was found in his bedroom “clothed, in a seated position, unresponsive with a belt secured around his neck.” There were also several cuts on his left wrist and a pocket knife with a dried red substance was found in the vicinity, he stated. The Academy-Award winner was 63. “The work of the coroner’s office is not complete at this time,” Lt. Boyd stressed. He said a final cause of death would be released in several weeks after toxicology tests are completed. “The forensic examination conducted by Dr. Joseph Cohen did not [indicate]…that Mr. Williams had been...

LOS ANGELES – They earn their living by making the masses laugh, but experts say comedians are all too often masking intense sadness behind those smiles.

NEW YORK — The question from a fan in a Sirius XM interview last year was innocent — what do you think you’d be doing if you didn’t become a comedian? — and within seconds Robin Williams was impersonating physicist Stephen Hawking getting a lap dance at a strip club.

Robin Williams, a comic and sitcom star in the 1970s who became an Oscar-winning dramatic actor, died Monday at 63 in Marin County. The Marin County Sheriff's Office said he appears to have committed suicide. The news of the beloved actor’s death rocked the nation. Channels broke into their usual programming to make the announcement, and within minutes, he dominated online trending topics.

Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams has died at age 63, according to police in Marin County, Calif. The full statement is below. On August 11, 2014, at approximately 11:55 a.m, Marin County Communications received a 9-1-1 telephone call reporting a male adult had been located unconscious and not breathing inside his residence in unincorporated Tiburon, CA. The Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Tiburon Fire Department and Southern Marin Fire Protection District were dispatched to the incident with emergency personnel arriving on scene at 12:00 pm. The male subject, pronounced deceased at 12:02 pm has been identified as Robin...

Actor Robin Williams has died, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Monday. He was 63. The Sheriff’s Office was called to a home in unincorporated Tiburon just after noon Monday, the office stated in a news release.

8 years ago today, August 8, 2006, my friend Matt Hooten took his own life. He was just 23 years old. I’ve wanted to write about his death for years but the pain and the emotion involved in doing so was something I had not yet had the courage for.

A new gene linked to suicide risk has been discovered, and researchers say the finding could lead to a blood test that predicts a person's risk of attempting suicide. The model correctly identified 80 percent to 96 percent of people who experienced suicidal thoughts or attempted suicide. It was more accurate among people at severe risk for suicide. If the findings are confirmed and lead to a blood test for suicide risk, such a test might be used to screen people in psychiatric emergency rooms or to determine how closely a person needs to be monitored for suicide risk, the...

Last month, Kiss singer Gene Simmons falsely claimed that the wealthiest one percent paid 80 percent of "all taxes" and created "all the jobs." Eager to spread more love, Simmons recently teed off on his former Kiss band mates Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, and anyone suffering from depression or drug addiction. When asked by SongFacts.com if he still gets along with Criss or Frehley these days, Simmons responded, "No, I don't get along with anybody who's a drug addict and has a dark cloud over their head and sees themselves as a victim." "Drug addicts and alcoholics are always:...

The George Washington Bridge spanning New York and New Jersey is getting a fence to help curb suicides as the number of deaths there approaches record levels. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says there have been 13 suicides and 40 rescues on the span so far this year. There were 16 deaths for all of 2013. Plans call for erecting a 9-foot fence to replace the current railing to make jumping from the bridge difficult. Chief structural engineer Bernie Yostpile tells The Record newspaper that the project will cost $37 million to $47 million and will...

GERMANTOWN, TN - (WMC) - A young war veteran was shot and killed by Germantown police officers Tuesday night just before 10 p.m. Justin Neil Davis' best friend, who asked to be called Val, told WMC Action News 5 that Davis went to Cameron Brown Park in Germantown off Farmington Boulevard, because it is where he had happy memories of his childhood. Davis was reportedly sitting in his car with a rifle and thoughts of suicide when Germantown police shot and killed him. Wednesday night, family and friends say they still have questions.

A man killed himself at Burning Man-style arts festival by leaping into a towering burning art structure in front of hundreds of horrified onlookers, authorities and witnesses said. On Monday, scores of "burners" - who commune in the Nevada desert every August for Burning Man -were mourning the doomed festivalgoer after he dove into the flames during a moonlit bonfire ritual at the Element 11 fest near Salt Lake City late Saturday.

EUTHANASIA guru Dr Philip Nitschke is furious the ABC has finally pinged him for actually helping the healthy to kill themselves. “Attacked by rabid Christians & journalist jackals!” he tweeted last week. But you don’t need to be rabid or even Christian to consider Nitschke dangerous. For 20 years Nitschke, founder of Exit International, has had largely positive coverage from a media which too often assumed he’s just helping the dying and the suffering. Only now does he seem in trouble, with the Black Dog Institute, the Australian Medical Association and beyondblue publicly denouncing him. This follows the ABC’s revelations...

San Francisco's iconic Golden Gate Bridge moved a big step closer to getting an oft-debated suicide barrier after bridge officials on Friday approved a $76 million funding package for a net system that would prevent people from jumping to their deaths. The bridge district's board of directors voted unanimously in favor of the funding for a steel suicide net. The funding sources are $20 million in bridge toll revenue, $49 million in federal money and $7 million from the state. ... funding for the project remained a major obstacle. A significant hurdle was overcome two years ago when President Barack...

Mark Mayfield, a Mississippi tea party leader and lawyer facing charges in connection with taking photos of Sen. Thad Cochran’s wife at her nursing home apparently committed suicide Friday morning. Police said that Mayfield’s wife, Robin, called 911 just after 9 a.m. to say her husband had shot himself. Officers arrived to find the 57-year-old lying on the floor of a storage room in his garage with a single gunshot wound to the head and a “large caliber revolver” with the body. Lt. John Neal of the Ridgeland Police Department told POLITICO that there was a note recovered, but he...