Robin Williams dead at 63

Saw someone post the best reason that we can't say suicide is cowardly in this event.

Think of severe depression as being a person in a building that is on fire.  You have two choices, suffer severe pain and burn alive, or jump out the window and end the pain quickly.  A lot of us may have felt sad or upset or even a little depressed over something, but when it is severe depression there is no way to tell how much you suffer.  Then you have people that think it is all in your head and that just getting some help will fix it.  But mental illness is a horrible horrible disease that is very hard to maintain and control and depression is just one problem.  It was obvious that he was deeply suffering no matter "how good" his life might have seemed and I am deeply saddened that it was so severe it lead him to do this to get away from the pain.

I loved all his movies and this celebrity death has hit far more than any other because of the joy and laughter his movies brought me.  Mrs. Doubtfire also helped me understand more about divorce and what can come from it during a time that my parents divorced.  His other movies like Dead Poets Society and Goodwill Hunting brought me several life lessons that have stayed with me my entire life.  This is a hard death to take overall and he will be deeply missed.  I look forward to enjoying the last of Robin Williams in his 4 upcoming movies.

 
Donut2922 said:
This is an important discussion because it also shines some light on depression itself. It's a serious illness that many have no clue about. I have a close family member that's dealing with it and I can tell you that I never understood it well until a loved one became diagnosed. It's not just the mental symptoms, it has a physical effect on the body as well. Most people are naturally ignorant of depression and just correlate it with somebody being sad all the time, but it's a lot more complicated than that. As I've grown older and wised up, I've learned to empathize with people dealing with depression. I feel bad for what he went through. Some people just have natural thoughts about suicide but never take action. So for him to go through with it highlights how his disease was as serious as it gets.

RIP Robin Williams.

Rod - I always found that hot dog scene to be funny.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I have been battling depression my whole life. People are ignorant and think depression is the same as feeling sad, or that it can be cured.

I was diagnosed 6 years ago. I have gone though several different medication combinations. The pills that attempt to treat this illness can have some pretty crippling side effects as well. Life can be very difficult from day to day, from minute to minute, and nothing bad has to actually happen outside of one's own head to cause it.
 
Matt Young said:
Thank you. I have been battling depression my whole life. People are ignorant and think depression is the same as feeling sad, or that it can be cured.

I was diagnosed 6 years ago. I have gone though several different medication combinations. The pills that attempt to treat this illness can have some pretty crippling side effects as well. Life can be very difficult from day to day, from minute to minute, and nothing bad has to actually happen outside of one's own head to cause it.
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing Matt, my wife works in the mental illness field and works with a lot of severely depressed people. I hate when regular people who know nothing about it makes comments as if it is such a simple thing. People don't understand that it isn't that simple as of just get happy or stop being sad. It is a very bad disease that many suffer through without any proper help. I will in no way ever call Robin Williams a coward or wuss for taking his own life like other media members are.

 
No problem. I have talked about it on CAG before, although I don't advertise it. I am glad that the general understanding and treatment of such illnesses has progressed greatly during my lifetime. As bad as things can get, people with mental health issues had it a lot worse in the past in regards to the stigma, lack of effective treatment options, and terrible attempts at "curing" the problems.

It just gets frustrating when even some people who are very close to the individual with the illness cannot or will not attempt to comprehend the reality of the situation. As with any such cultural shift, the path to eradicating the abundance of misinformation that has been propagated for decades (and then some) will be a long road.

Regarding Robin Williams, I have to praise the man for being able to accomplish all that he did- especially given the nature of his work- despite suffering from this affliction.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for sharing, Matt.

I have another personal story to share:
During college, I used to actively post on a body building message board. A lot of the regs would meet up whenever we would be traveling in the area and even work out together. I met a couple of my online lifting buddies before and one time met up with another two (Ray and T.) when I was in town in Vegas one time. Ray invited me to his home and was one of the most welcoming guys I had ever met. He was one of those really cool, genuine, down to earth guys that had a wife and kids. Having talked to him online for a couple of years and getting a read on him, his real life personality matched his online persona. He was funny, but honest and a no BS type of guy. I knew if we were in closer proximity of each other, he'd be a close friend of mine in real life. Ray and T were real life friends already and we had a fun time hanging out at Ray's house for half the day before I left to go back to my vacation trip.

A month after my trip was over, T called me up with one of those most disturbing calls I had ever received: Ray shot himself in the head and T wanted to inform me personally before he posted a RIP thread in honor of Ray. Naturally, I was in shock but also in disbelief. I couldn't comprehend why he'd do something so drastic. I felt awful for Ray's family and T. Soon after, I actually became upset and angry at Ray. I thought he was being selfish and taking the easy way out. It put everybody around him in a tough position and it made me think differently of somebody that I had once thought highly of. He had a history of depression and I was even aware of him taking medication for it but I just couldn't accept his suicide when it happened. Now having talked to professional therapists and doctors about it when my family member was diagnosed, I have a better understanding of this real life disease instead of seeing it as "just something in your head." I feel awful and embarrassed about myself looking back at how I reacted. I was a young, impressionable guy that didn't know half of what I thought I knew. I didn't take the time to understand what happened to a friend and just jumped the gun to label him as some "selfish guy."
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Most people who are ignorant of it think it's just a matter of "snap out of it" or "your life is great! What are you bitching about."

It's hard to explain it's a chemical imbalance. Nobody would tell a diabetic "snap out of it."
 
Confucius said:
Most people who are ignorant of it think it's just a matter of "snap out of it" or "your life is great! What are you bitching about."

It's hard to explain it's a chemical imbalance. Nobody would tell a diabetic "snap out of it."
Click to expand...
Most diabetics are diabetic because of their own choices, though. I understand the analogy you were going for, but I'm just not feeling that particular one.

 
Wow. I already get anxious about the future, but to know you might lose control of your body and mind. That is indeed a very serious level of depression.  I don't think I could ever get out of that pit, much less that and a lot of other things Mr. Williams and so many other people have to deal with.

 
Amazing. Past decade people make jokes about his cocaine habits, joke about how all his standup is pretty much the same things, laugh that all of his comedies lately are awful and so on but as soon as he dies everyone comes crawling out of the woodwork allover the place so they can say what a genius he was and what an amazing actor he was, what a special and unique person he was and it just goes on and on and on with everyone tripping over themselves trying to publicly say robin Williams is the most amazing, beloved and talented person ever to walk this earth. Jesus christ people are begging nintendo to put him in a zelda game, something which he has absolutely no place in. People begged blizzard to put him in world of warcraft for some unknown reason and everyone piles up online to say the exact same things about him as if to somehow say "he is dead so im going online with the other 10 million drones and say what they say even if its untrue because it makes a good person to do so and I need them all to see I am a good person".

He used to be funny awhile back and he did well in serious roles but damn people act like he is jesus himself after he died. Its like michael Jackson allover again where as soon as he dies its taboo to say something negative despite the previous decade of everyone doing so. America has some real issues with the deification of celebrities. Ok so he is dead, a thousand people die everyday but Americans dont give a shit unless they were either famous, or a black person killed by a white person.

So this isnt a dig at williams himself because he was just a random guy I didnt know or cared about personally. Its a dig about our society and how we respond to a comedians death. It wasnt a tragedy, it isnt a loss to our world, it wasnt a earth shattering event, it was just a guy who died and nothing more despite how desperately we all want to pretend it personally effected us the reality is it didnt but we pretend it did so we get people to up vote us on Reddit and like us Facebook because we want to be paid attention by online strangers to feel like we matter.
 
Mr_hat said:
Amazing. Past decade people make jokes about his cocaine habits, joke about how all his standup is pretty much the same things, laugh that all of his comedies lately are awful and so on but as soon as he dies everyone comes crawling out of the woodwork allover the place so they can say what a genius he was and what an amazing actor he was, what a special and unique person he was and it just goes on and on and on with everyone tripping over themselves trying to publicly say robin Williams is the most amazing, beloved and talented person ever to walk this earth. Jesus christ people are begging nintendo to put him in a zelda game, something which he has absolutely no place in. People begged blizzard to put him in world of warcraft for some unknown reason and everyone piles up online to say the exact same things about him as if to somehow say "he is dead so im going online with the other 10 million drones and say what they say even if its untrue because it makes a good person to do so and I need them all to see I am a good person".

He used to be funny awhile back and he did well in serious roles but damn people act like he is jesus himself after he died. Its like michael Jackson allover again where as soon as he dies its taboo to say something negative despite the previous decade of everyone doing so. America has some real issues with the deification of celebrities. Ok so he is dead, a thousand people die everyday but Americans dont give a shit unless they were either famous, or a black person killed by a white person.

So this isnt a dig at williams himself because he was just a random guy I didnt know or cared about personally. Its a dig about our society and how we respond to a comedians death. It wasnt a tragedy, it isnt a loss to our world, it wasnt a earth shattering event, it was just a guy who died and nothing more despite how desperately we all want to pretend it personally effected us the reality is it didnt but we pretend it did so we get people to up vote us on Reddit and like us Facebook because we want to be paid attention by online strangers to feel like we matter.
Click to expand...
you win the internet :D/ :fridge:

way to post something that does exactly what you are talking about

 
Mr_hat said:
Amazing. Past decade people make jokes about his cocaine habits, joke about how all his standup is pretty much the same things, laugh that all of his comedies lately are awful and so on but as soon as he dies everyone comes crawling out of the woodwork allover the place so they can say what a genius he was and what an amazing actor he was, what a special and unique person he was and it just goes on and on and on with everyone tripping over themselves trying to publicly say robin Williams is the most amazing, beloved and talented person ever to walk this earth. Jesus christ people are begging nintendo to put him in a zelda game, something which he has absolutely no place in. People begged blizzard to put him in world of warcraft for some unknown reason and everyone piles up online to say the exact same things about him as if to somehow say "he is dead so im going online with the other 10 million drones and say what they say even if its untrue because it makes a good person to do so and I need them all to see I am a good person".

He used to be funny awhile back and he did well in serious roles but damn people act like he is jesus himself after he died. Its like michael Jackson allover again where as soon as he dies its taboo to say something negative despite the previous decade of everyone doing so. America has some real issues with the deification of celebrities. Ok so he is dead, a thousand people die everyday but Americans dont give a shit unless they were either famous, or a black person killed by a white person.

So this isnt a dig at williams himself because he was just a random guy I didnt know or cared about personally. Its a dig about our society and how we respond to a comedians death. It wasnt a tragedy, it isnt a loss to our world, it wasnt a earth shattering event, it was just a guy who died and nothing more despite how desperately we all want to pretend it personally effected us the reality is it didnt but we pretend it did so we get people to up vote us on Reddit and like us Facebook because we want to be paid attention by online strangers to feel like we matter.
Click to expand...
Gargus, where've you been???

 
I knew that was you Gargus. Gargusing up every thread and you can't even help yourself in a celebrity death thread.

Even though the rule on cag is once banned always banned, you can't even help it. Reminds me of the story of the scorpion and the frog.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top