Robin Williams, Depression, and Suicide

Having lost my own career in healthcare, my ability to provide for my family's financial needs, virtually all of my self esteem, many friends, and much more to my daily battle with the continuing effects of major depressive disorder I understand all too well what happened with Robin Williams. What my own battles with the disease could not take from me has been my deep faith in God and the knowledge that there is a reason or lesson He needs for me to discover. Without that foundation, there is not the slightest doubt whatsoever I would long ago taken the same route as he has. The daily trauma is unrelenting and often unbearable. It is my prayer that he knew the Lord, and in his passing some good can be gleaned from such a horrible incident by bringing much needed public awareness and education to the masses. I have wanted to write a book about the depths of depression for a very long time, and I would title it "No, You Don't Understand". I suspect that was surely the case with Robin. May God bless his soul and please take depression in family and friends very seriously.

I think a massive issue with depressed people is they assume everyone else has no idea what it feels like.

originally posted by: BasementWarriorKryptonite
I think a massive issue with depressed people is they assume everyone else has no idea what it feels like.

Are you a sufferer? If not then how can you say how they feel?

I do suffer and I know there are those who don't understand but I also know there are those who do. I would never think everyone doesn't understand.

a reply to: samstone11

In my experience with depression most people I know personally do not understand. I have a select few who do understand but they have their own depression to deal with. I have more people in my life who don't understand and think that I should think happy thoughts and all is well. It's not that simple of course. Sure I have a nice family, a nice home and so on but they aren't what makes me truly happy. I was happy....once. I was so long ago I almost forget how it felt. I have my moments of happiness but it's more like a high from an experience like getting a new book or seeing a movie.

You should write your book, you never know who you could help.

a reply to: BasementWarriorKryptonite
I should clarify. Not everyone understands, but absolutely some do. However, as loving and kind and gentle as my own wife is, there are still times she struggles with understanding what I am experiencing and she has a strong gift of empathy. With severe clinical depression, your mind can become a prison with no immediate means of escape no matter how skilled you are or even if there are many positive things going on around you. What is often misunderstood is that those of us suffering in the darkest hours of this disease are not able to "pull ourselves up by the bootstraps" as those around us assume we should.

This is the insidious nature of depression.

a reply to: BasementWarriorKryptonite

I can't speak for Robin Williams, but I am diagnosed Bipolar and have suffered through 2 major depressive episodes. To be perfectly honest, I knew there were others who could empathize with my situation. I even talked to some who had been through something really similar. Their feedback was as genuine as they could make it, and I tried to be open to it, but that knowledge didn't make me feel any better. YMMV.

a reply to: samstone11

Personal responsability, stone cold look at your life and its harsh realities and fix your diet.

Sounds like it sucks but guess what the depression is trying to tell you something and your not listening.

Live life the way you want not the way you have too.

originally posted by: mblahnikluver

originally posted by: BasementWarriorKryptonite
I think a massive issue with depressed people is they assume everyone else has no idea what it feels like.

Are you a sufferer? If not then how can you say how they feel?

I do suffer and I know there are those who don't understand but I also know there are those who do. I would never think everyone doesn't understand.

Everyone is a sufferer of depression. Stop trying to make it into some huge thing that ONLY YOU have.

Get over your massive 'poor me' complexes and do what every other damn person in the world has to damn well do.

originally posted by: BasementWarriorKryptonite
I think a massive issue with depressed people is they assume everyone else has no idea what it feels like.

I think most people know what it feels like. They've felt it before in small doses, like when they lose a loved one. However, most people don't feel it all day, every day for weeks or months at a time. There's a difference.

I've always thought of depression as a kind of "mental nausea". We've all had the flu on occassion and been nauseous for a few days, but we usually get better in relatively short order. Imagine experiencing that sensation - you know, feeling like you're going to barf - first thing when you wake up in the morning, as you try to fall asleep at night, and every moment in between, every day. That's a pretty accurate analogy in my experience.

I was not surprised to hear that Robin Williams had decided that his time had come and left us. I am bipolar as well and have had 2 episodes where there were years... yes, years that I thought everyday about dying. The first occurred in high school and lasted from beginning to end. The next was the first few years of my marriage. I have been lucky to have been on a pretty even keel for 8 to 9 years now. There are days, but those pass. I too, find it hard to find people who understand that sometimes you can't pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. Sometimes you are trying pretty damned hard to pull yourself up and it just doesn't work.

I know that many suffer in silence by choice much like myself. There is still a stigma that goes along with any kind of mental diagnosis that most try to avoid and for some that means death. In my first 2 years of marriage I avoided trying to get any kind of help because I was not sure I could stay married and KNEW that a diagnosis that big would go on the record if a custody case were to ever come about. I suffered on my own until I couldn't anymore. Once I sought help again my therapist did inform me that it would likely make no difference since I had never been hospitalized. Thankfully, with the help of medication and talking my marriage got better when I did.

I can see others who suffer like I do. I can see it in their eyes. I could see it in Robin William's eyes, just as you can in many others in his line of work. Some of them openly commit suicide, others do so by drugging themselves to death. Both are the same IMO. I am the Robin William's of my family only a lot less funny. I was the class clown and I still go for humor 99.999% of the time as many of you here know all to well. Sometimes it's inappropriate I think, but it is how I cope mostly... Like a few more of you here. You know who you are.

I feel like I have shared too much. I suppose I will leave it though. Maybe someone will run across it one day and know that they are got alone either.

I am saddened that Robin Williams brought so much joy and happiness to others, yet it somehow was always just out of grasp for him. I hope he did have many bright spots throughout his life because he definitely deserved that and so much more.

a reply to: 0rkoJoker

I was depressed for the first half of my life and it wasnt until i realized that i was the one causing it not anything or anyone else.

You need to take ownership of your feelings and emotions and realize they are the result of the way that you think and what your doing in your life.

I dont play this victim bull# anymore thats for the birds.

originally posted by: 0rkoJoker

originally posted by: BasementWarriorKryptonite
I think a massive issue with depressed people is they assume everyone else has no idea what it feels like.

I think most people know what it feels like. They've felt it before in small doses, like when they lose a loved one. However, most people don't feel it all day, every day for weeks or months at a time. There's a difference.

I've always thought of depression as a kind of "mental nausea". We've all had the flu on occassion and been nauseous for a few days, but we usually get better in relatively short order. Imagine experiencing that sensation - you know, feeling like you're going to barf - first thing when you wake up in the morning, as you try to fall asleep at night, and every moment in between, every day. That's a pretty accurate analogy in my experience.

I am quite sure that clinically depressed people do feel exactly as you described. I'm not so sure that isn't how the bereaved feel, also. Like I said - we all get depressed. There are different levels of depressed, but all you have to do is look at the posts on this thread to see that you can't reason with people who think they are the only people in the universe who have ever been depressed or ever will be.

Here's a good visual aid for those wondering about the experience of depression.

It is apparent to me that what this is all about is some people think there is depression and depression. The two depressions.

Their depression is obviously so much worse than everyone else's.

a reply to: BasementWarriorKryptonite

Americans with depression is a freaking joke.

They just want to make themselves a victim so people can feel bad for them and make excuses for their failures or insecurities.

Stop victimizing yourself and take control of your personal power and stop handing it over to the establishment.

Hell this is probably one of the biggest conspiracies.

a reply to: onequestion

Exactly. If a depressed person in America or Australia or the UK or similar, watches the news today and sees Iraqis starving and dying of thirst in dusty Kurdish mountains and doesn't pick themselves up - they don't deserve the precious gift they have been given.

originally posted by: mblahnikluver

originally posted by: BasementWarriorKryptonite
I think a massive issue with depressed people is they assume everyone else has no idea what it feels like.

Are you a sufferer? If not then how can you say how they feel?

I do suffer and I know there are those who don't understand but I also know there are those who do. I would never think everyone doesn't understand.

I understand.

Peace

Whenever I would see Robin Williams I would always feel a certain
kind of sadness for him. I mean we all wear different faces from
time to time but Robin's persona was ALWAYS ON. At least it
seemed that way to me.

That must be tough, to always play a caricature of yourself, maybe
too unsure about the real you to show it to very many people. I always
wondered if he was "on" at home...considering this is where he
put on his happy face for the first time.

Anyway, what a loss for comedy and acting. As funny as he was, he
was probably a better actor than comedian...at least for me. I never
really cared for his manic style--his brain was just too quick to keep
up with, but in some dramatic roles he was absolutely brilliant.

a reply to: BasementWarriorKryptonite

Clearly you are trying to be offensive and you have succeeded. You are in so far over your head all you can do is belittle those who know much, much more than you do. Personally, I had a highly successful career and all the things some people think they need to be happy. I also have an IQ over 150, am very well educated, and study things so I won't be as likely to put my foot in my mouth. There are many, many forms of depression, but the two things doctors look for first always seem to be to determine if depression is situational (loss of a loved one, for example) of perhaps a chemical imbalance. This is also a means to understand if the sufferer is likely to have a more short term or longer lasting bout. In my case, I have always lived my life for my family and I absolutely assure you that nothing, NOTHING within my control will prevent me form caring for them. This disease is so insidious that over the last several years it has robbed me of the ability to pull myself up and above it again. At least not on my own. DO NOT mistake that by assuming I have lost the will. My will is there, but losing to the heavy weight of the disease. I don't fault you for not understanding, but I would encourage you to not hurl insults and show such immense disrespect towards others who are truly hurting in ways beyond their control. There are those who will suffer for the rest of their lives, and I will tell you the misery is such that there is nothing those people wouldn't do to get better. They are ill, and to their credit, at least they fight as much as they can. Otherwise, they would all wind up like Robin Williams. Instead of putting someone down for their depression, you truly should admire them for the fight they are in. If you still don't agree with me, I again ask you to not be confrontationally offensive to those who need encouragement and positives in their lives, not more people shaking their head. We don't need or ask for pity. Just that non-sufferers try to understand.

I think of depression a bit differently than many other people. I suffered massive depression at a point in the past, an overwhelming feeling that lasted for quite a long time, and here is why I think some people are depressed: Depression is a symptom, not the disease or problem. The true problem is some underlying psychological issue. Something that your conscious mind may even be suppressing. As an example, I have heard of men who know they're gay, but who haven't "come out" and who may even have families and a wife, who become massively depressed for no apparent reason. Maybe they weren't even sure that they were gay. This may not be a good example, but it is the first that comes to mind. Anyway, the conflict that is occurring internally, whether they are aware of it or not, is the disease/cause. The depression that results is just a symptom.

Often times it seems a person's depression is brought on by an event, or a series of events, but I don't think it is the event or occurrence itself that causes the depression. That doesn't make sense to me. Rather it is that a person is not dealing with the issue in a correct or healthy way. I find it difficult to get my true meaning across here, but I'm doing my best. The issue runs much deeper than what I've described, and this is just a generalization. People aren't depressed for no reason, or just for the sake of being depressed. Well maybe some are, but that is another story. Rather there is an underlying cause for the depression. When generated by an obvious external event that can be connected to that depression, I still feel that it is a person's inability to process the reality of the situation in a healthy way. So the issue is that one's world-view or world-map is in conflict with reality in a certain sense. I can elaborate on these ideas if anyone is interested, just send me a PM.

I think another major cause of depression truly is a chemical imbalance in the brain. But from what I have experienced I think that depression that seems to come on suddenly, especially after a traumatic experience or event, is not due to a natural chemical imbalance, but rather is a symptom of some more important psychological condition. There may be a chemical imbalance, which would be a symptom of the psychological condition I referred to, and thus the depression is just a side-effect of the symptom, or the imbalance. So perhaps even taking anti-depressants, only in certain situation, could be just masking the true underlying psychological issue. I think that psychotherapy would be much more beneficial than drugs in many cases, but not all, for those who have certain issues, especially depression.

It seems too many psychiatrists today focus on the medical aspect, or the prescribing of drugs to mask the symptoms, rather than actually attempting to connect with their patients and figure out just why these symptoms have arisen in the first place. I don't think many of them are ready to make the commitment to their patient that is required for such intensive work.