Robin Williams

I just read he was found dead this morning - an apparent suicide. So sad.

I was just coming in here to say the exact thing. Robin Williams dead? I'm sitting here trying to figure out how I can feel so bad about the death of someone I didn't even know. But I do. I feel terrible. Did you ever have the wind knocked out of your system? It feels something like that. I almost feel numb. Can't imagine how people who actually knew him must feel. Wow! What a bummer.

I agree, jabber.

Such a wonderful comedian that will be missed. It is so sad how depression can get a hold of a person and not let go. I am so sad for his children. They will miss their daddy. R.I.P., Robin Williams.

True. IMHO people drink or do drugs to make themselves feel better. The problem is alcohol and narcotics deepen depression. And that vicious round 'n round cycle totally destroys all God-given creativity.

He "acted" like he was a normal, funny, healthy man. That's a good actor I suppose.

He made no secret of the fact that he had depression and addictions. So many people are in the throes of depression and are also suicidal. It just reinforces for me the fact that we should always treat people well because we don't know, and may never know, what private hell they may be going through. It's time we brought mental illness out from under the rock where we have stuffed it for so many years. There is no shame in being mentally ill, and shaming those who are just makes the problem worse.

Just like we all have "MRSA, we all have our own stage of mental illness........or "mental unwellness"!

I totally agree. Robin Williams first came to my attention with the TV show Mork and Mindy. He of course starred in many great movies. And I was enjoying "The Crazy Ones", the current (but recently cancelled) show he's been in, too. The role of a zany and somewhat manic advertising agency owner allowed him to play many roles.

Leigh Anne Jasheway, NABBW's Boomer Humor Associate, blogged about Williams today, and I got her permission to share the post. Here it is! Enjoy!

I thought it was very important that she shared some personal experience with depression, and I do hope that his unfortunate death will help shine a light on depression as an illness.

As someone who has suffered with chronic depression (dysthemia) (which has numerous times spiralled into full-blown clinical depression, requiring hospitalization at one point), I can attest to the brutality of the disease. I liken it to quicksand which reaches up and grabs you by the ankles with no warning and sucks you down into the darkest darkness that you can possibly imagine. When you're in there, stuck in that quicksand of darkness with no ability to talk yourself out, or no tools within you to find any way out at all, it quickly spirals into despair and an feeling of utter futility. You think it will never end, that you will never feel better again. Day after day, year after year, it keeps going on and on and on. I tried everything - EVERYTHING - meds, therapy, prayer, everything everyone ever suggested I do. Nothing made a dent in that darkness. And one day, I finally just couldn't see any way out and couldn't muster even one more ounce of hope to continue trying. I gave up.

Fortunately, I survived, but while I was unconscious I had a dream, which forever changed my life. I was very very lucky and blessed to find the medications, therapy, people and resources to then find my way to stable ground. Through all of that long hard climb out of that hellhole, I never made it all the way out of depression, but I learned coping skills and ways to manage my depression. Which made a huge difference.

For the past four years, I have been completely depression-free. I had a major hysterectomy operation where they removed everything. From the morning after the operation to present day, I have not had a moment of "depression". I have experienced down days, grief, blues, but not the same, not even remotely the same as the clinical depression. Then (i.e.,my entire life before the operation), I was never able to see light...I was forever living just under the clouds, and could never find my way to rise above and see the light. It was impossible, no matter what I did, I could not reach light.

Now I live in light...the difference is remarkable and joy-enkindling! I don't think I can accurately articulate this difference for anyone who has never not been able to see light from within themselves. It's indescribable in terms that anyone who hasn't been there can understand.

It turns out that my entire life's struggle with this darkness may in fact have been caused by hormones. But nobody ever caught that, or even investigated that possibility. They slapped that label "mentally ill" on my file and that was it. No doctor ever made the effort to go past that label. How sad is that.

Anyway, all suicide devastates me. I like what Janeway says: If Robin Williams and the nearly 30,000 other lights that are snuffed out by suicide each year are to be truly honored, let’s create a mental health care system free of stigma and easy to access. Let’s openly talk about our own struggles so that those struggling with bigger demons feel encouraged to open up. And let’s take care of our own mental health every day."

And I agree with Yonuh...the absolute worst thing we can ever do is judge, criticize, shame or ostracize anyone anywhere for any reason, because we never know what they're struggling with and how our unkind words and actions towards them can impact them.

I wish we could just treat everyone with the compassion and kindness that we wish others would show us.

You said it so well, Eagle Heart! We need more compassion in this world instead of the judging and blaming. Every major religion has a version of the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated. People will take their cues from how you treat yourself, too, so love yourself and treat yourself with kindness, too.

Eagle Heart, so good to hear from you again! And your explanation of clinical depression is just so articulate. Thanks for taking the time to share your wise words from someone who has been there -- and made it back!!

Thank you, Yonuh and Anne. My primary psychiatrist in the 80's/90's often had me speak to his university class, because he told me that it was very rare in his experience to see someone not only survive such a serious suicide attempt but come back to life and be able to move forward with such determination to mend and thrive.

I have since met others (Princess Leonora/Lynn C. Tolson is a bright and shining one!) and believe that we're meant to share our stories so that others can see and find hope to see that it IS possible to get out and to find life "beyond the tears" (the title of Lynn's book).

Just read that Robin Williams was diagnosed with Parkinson's but his sobriety was intact. Like they say, everybody is dealing with something.

Well said, Eagle Heart! Well said!

You have a beautiful gift with words.