Sail on Robin Williams
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Re: Sail on Robin Williams
Well, you knew I'd jump in eventually.....
Robin Williams hit the trifecta.....addiction, alcoholism and clinical depression.
Think of it like battling two different kinds of cancer while paralyzed.
By all reports, he was trying....he'd been in treatment, he'd gone back to rehab to work on continued sobriety.
Addiction and alcoholism are fatal diseases, they don't go away.....you can't 'cure' them.
You have to learn to live your life differently. Throw clinical depression on top of it and it makes everything 1,000 times harder. It's like living your life dragging around a sled of lead weights.
The message is vigilance. We have to stand vigilant in our own care. Those of us that are alcoholics and/or addicts have to forever be vigilant against the progression of the disease. It requires a lot of work. It's hard sometimes and it's easy to fall into depression. No one likes to think that they are bodily and mentally different from their friends.
We have to be willing to reach out to people who are struggling. We have to set judgement aside and just be the voice of hope.
And then, as much as it sucks, we have to recognize that we're dealing with a fatal disease and we ARE going to lose people to it.
Robin Williams hit the trifecta.....addiction, alcoholism and clinical depression.
Think of it like battling two different kinds of cancer while paralyzed.
By all reports, he was trying....he'd been in treatment, he'd gone back to rehab to work on continued sobriety.
Addiction and alcoholism are fatal diseases, they don't go away.....you can't 'cure' them.
You have to learn to live your life differently. Throw clinical depression on top of it and it makes everything 1,000 times harder. It's like living your life dragging around a sled of lead weights.
The message is vigilance. We have to stand vigilant in our own care. Those of us that are alcoholics and/or addicts have to forever be vigilant against the progression of the disease. It requires a lot of work. It's hard sometimes and it's easy to fall into depression. No one likes to think that they are bodily and mentally different from their friends.
We have to be willing to reach out to people who are struggling. We have to set judgement aside and just be the voice of hope.
And then, as much as it sucks, we have to recognize that we're dealing with a fatal disease and we ARE going to lose people to it.
Paige in Utah
"Don't try to shake it, just nod your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on"
"Don't try to shake it, just nod your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on"
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Re: Sail on Robin Williams
I agree with MammaBear. Maybe Williams should have had a bit of Dylan Thomas as a mantra —MammaBear wrote:We can glorify this or we can vilify this.....take your pick. Glorifying this will give someone the excuse to end it. Vilifying this will give some the excuse to fight it.....take your choice. I will take vilifying this if it saves our kids...
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Re: Sail on Robin Williams
From all that I have read, he did plenty of raging against the dying of the light. Obviously, he felt that he was left no other recourse than to take his own life. Much of the reaction I've seen to his death shows that depression is still largely misunderstood by a huge portion of the population.
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Re: Sail on Robin Williams
"In his book “Myths About Suicide,” Psychologist Thomas Joiner deconstructs the myth that suicide is cowardly or selfish.
“It certainly seems selfish from the outside,” Joiner told NPR in 2010. “I understand the sentiment. But the trouble is, in trying to reason about the suicidal mind from a non-suicidal place – that’s basically where most of these myths come from.”
“What the suicidal person is thinking at the time is actually quite different from selfishness. Their idea is along the lines of, my death will be worth more than my life to others,” he explained. “Now, if you ponder that sentiment, that’s not selfish at all. In fact, if anything it’s the opposite. It’s very selfless.” "
“It certainly seems selfish from the outside,” Joiner told NPR in 2010. “I understand the sentiment. But the trouble is, in trying to reason about the suicidal mind from a non-suicidal place – that’s basically where most of these myths come from.”
“What the suicidal person is thinking at the time is actually quite different from selfishness. Their idea is along the lines of, my death will be worth more than my life to others,” he explained. “Now, if you ponder that sentiment, that’s not selfish at all. In fact, if anything it’s the opposite. It’s very selfless.” "
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Re: Sail on Robin Williams
More food for thought on this topic from the Guardian:I'm an Altered Boy wrote:"In his book “Myths About Suicide,” Psychologist Thomas Joiner deconstructs the myth that suicide is cowardly or selfish.
“It certainly seems selfish from the outside,” Joiner told NPR in 2010. “I understand the sentiment. But the trouble is, in trying to reason about the suicidal mind from a non-suicidal place – that’s basically where most of these myths come from.”
“What the suicidal person is thinking at the time is actually quite different from selfishness. Their idea is along the lines of, my death will be worth more than my life to others,” he explained. “Now, if you ponder that sentiment, that’s not selfish at all. In fact, if anything it’s the opposite. It’s very selfless.” "
Robin Williams's death: a reminder that suicide and depression are not selfish
News of Robin Williams’s death due to apparent suicide, said to be a result of suffering severe depression, is terribly sad. But to say taking your own life because of such an illness is a ‘selfish’ act does nothing but insult the deceased, potentially cause more harm and reveal a staggering ignorance of mental health problems
Many words can be used to describe Robin Williams. ‘Selfish’ should
not be one of them.
Photograph: Allstar/Universal PicturesSportsphoto Ltd.
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Re: Sail on Robin Williams
Still so sad that this happened. Sail on Robin, Sail on.
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Re: Sail on Robin Williams
As it turns out now he was suffering from the beginning stages of Parkinsons.
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Re: Sail on Robin Williams
Well, I think the thing is that depression and knows no bounds of resources. Those who are that depressed simply do not see that they have resources or recourse, regardless of their financial or social status.
I also don't necessarily think suicide begets suicide in the sense that an outrageous number of youth who may be depressed or contemplating suicide will do so simply because Robin Williams did. That's not really how depression and suicidal tendency works.
The last thing anyone should do is to shame those who are truly suffering. I am very sad that Robin Williams is gone and he felt that suicide was his only choice. I am very happy that four generations of my family were able to enjoy him while he was with us. He was one of a kind (I mean, the most prestigious acting scholarship at the Juilliard School is named after him, and includes a full-ride for one drama student each year--and he was a Juilliard DROPOUT).
That tells you truly what kind of a rare find he was.
I hope his fans and family are able to find some peace in coping with this loss and raise awareness toward furthering the care and study of mental health issues.
I also don't necessarily think suicide begets suicide in the sense that an outrageous number of youth who may be depressed or contemplating suicide will do so simply because Robin Williams did. That's not really how depression and suicidal tendency works.
The last thing anyone should do is to shame those who are truly suffering. I am very sad that Robin Williams is gone and he felt that suicide was his only choice. I am very happy that four generations of my family were able to enjoy him while he was with us. He was one of a kind (I mean, the most prestigious acting scholarship at the Juilliard School is named after him, and includes a full-ride for one drama student each year--and he was a Juilliard DROPOUT).
That tells you truly what kind of a rare find he was.
I hope his fans and family are able to find some peace in coping with this loss and raise awareness toward furthering the care and study of mental health issues.
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Re: Sail on Robin Williams
One fact none of us were aware when this news first broke is that Robin Williams was in the early stages of Parkinson's Disease. I know of a dear family friend that was diagnosed with cancer several years ago. Not long after the diagnosis, she took her own life. Who's to say how any of us would react when faced with such news.
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