ZRX - I used to think that and that was the "real man" response to suicide until our daughter was diagnosed with depression and started to learn about real depression and its symptoms. Please know I an not being critical. We all need to be better informed about true depression.
It is real and very difficult for the non-depressed to understand without a lot of learning, understanding and research. Even then it can be difficult to be empathetic as I will never fully understand what goes on in her mind. It is just not wired the same as yours and mine. We have been fortunate that our daughter sought out help. She is getting help and seems to have turned a corner for the better for her. It runs in both our families. My life would be forever changed without her.
We all can learn and perhaps begin to appreciate the demons that a person like Robin Williams had to deal with every day. Often genius, especially a comedic genius, is just this side of crazy. The real brilliant superstars battle their demons every day. They can think and act like us but they can also think and see things from different perspectives - often multiple perspectives - and that can give them insights that we find hysterical. It can make them funny. It is often their thinking that is "funny" as well. They need the laughter from us. It can be the fuel that feeds their genius and keeps the demons away.
There are medications that may or may not work - or effect people differently, but a comedian like Williams may find the meds dull their wits or make them too mellow - not funny anymore. Combine the meds with alcohol, prescription painkillers or worse, illegal drugs and the cocktail can and often is deadly. Recently for Williams the laughter had stopped, and the demons called their marker for all the laughter. The demons won.
I am sad to see Robin Williams go. You could always count on him for a laugh. His passing leaves a real void and his body of work needs to be celebrated for the genius that it is.
