I haven't posted anything on this particular blog for a long while due to being really busy, however, seeing the terrible news about Robin Williams tragically killing himself today, and seeing some people's reactions, has encouraged me to write something on the matter.
I found out about his suicide this morning when I woke up, after a long night of drinking. My friend wrote a status on Facebook claiming his "hate to a fictional being, God" for "leaving horrible people on the planet but taking people like Rik Mayall and Robin Williams".
I thought: "Wait, I thought Robin Williams was still alive?"
I asked everyone at the table, "Isn't Robin Williams still alive? I don't remember ever reading that he's dead." They all said he's alive.
I scrolled down Facebook and it was confirmed. I checked to see if it was a hoax, but it wasn't.
Robin Williams, a great comedian, a brilliant actor, and from what I can gather a wonderful man, ended his life today out of depression.
"There must be something wrong with the world if it can't accommodate Robin Williams", said Russell Brand on his "Trews" (True News) YouTube series, where he discusses current events and gives his (fantastic and well worded) opinions and analysis on the matters.
I feel I can relate to Robin Williams in quite a few ways. I'm not at all claiming I am him, or that I'm a comical genius, before anyone takes it the wrong way, but I share the same sense of humour as him. I make jokes in a similar way, act stupid and loud and eccentric. I love to make people laugh, I feel happy when I do so, and I love to cheer people up. But, I also get sad, too; that's being human.
I feel I have, in a much less genius way, a similar mind to what he seemed to have, except his spectrum was far wider - he was way funnier than I'll ever be, and he got way sadder than I've ever got (and I hope I never do reach that end of the spectrum.)
This is one reason his death upsets me, (other reasons include: he had kids, and that he got so desperately sad and depressed he felt suicide was the only way out,) because I feel like he's how I wanted to turn out when I get older: someone who will continue to be energetic and bring out happiness from others, be the person who people want at parties, be that person who can entertain and make others laugh, no matter what mood he's in. This man did these things, he cheered up those he came across, whether it was a paying audience, the camera crew, his family.
He was very similar to Jim Carrey in these ways, too, and Jim Carrey is my favourite person on the planet. The only difference between the two is that Jim Carrey has found happiness and contentment now, Robin unfortunately couldn't, he felt he was trapped, and now he will never find that happiness.
Fox News, my favourite news team, (complete and utter sarcasm, I passionately despise them), reported his death earlier today, and the presenter said he was a "coward" for killing himself. I'm sure many agree with this, because it is seen as "an easy way out".
But just think about that for one second. You get so depressed, for months on end, that you can't see a way out of it. You don't enjoy anything anymore, you're just sick of living every day and being miserable. You may feel guilty for feeling these things, especially if you have kids, but the guilt adds to the depression, makes you even more depressed, you become disgusted with yourself. It sounds awful, yes? Of course it does. But how does tying a rope around your neck and jumping off a chair, leaving everything behind as your neck cracks, seem like an easy, cowardly option?
If you think suicide is a cowardly way out, imagine someone you love disappearing tomorrow and being discovered with a rope around his/her neck, and then imagine someone coming up to you while you were mourning and saying "Well, wasn't he/she a coward?!"
Feeling there's no way out of depression is tough, I can imagine. Getting help anyway, forcing yourself to try and get out of that rut must be difficult, extremely difficult. But ending your life certainly can't be easy, so how can you call someone in this state a coward, just because you don't understand how they feel?
I don't understand how they feel either, but I'm trying to be open-minded, and I'm trying to understand how someone might feel like this, so that one day, if someone I love or know gets in this state, I can try my very best to help.
Also, Sam Towers, some guy on Facebook, posted about Robin Williams saying: 'We all know who he is and we all know he's killed himself, big wow'. Okay, that's your opinion, but if someone's mother died, you wouldn't comment saying "I don't care about your mother, get this off my feed."
He stated that soldiers die every day and don't get recognition so why should Robin Williams? I responded:
"The soldiers aren't forgotten, they're remembered by their family - people who knew them. I don't know any soldiers personally, so when I hear a soldier is dead, I think "Oh, that's sad, I feel sorry for him and his family", and then my day moves on.
With Robin Williams, we all feel we've a connection with him because we've seen him on TV, he's made us feel something, whether it be happiness through laughter, or sadness through what he's acting on screen.
Soldiers aren't personal to everyone, they don't make us feel happy or sad, we don't know them personally, we don't know them at all until we hear that they've been killed. It doesn't mean we aren't grateful for what they've done, but we just don't know them. We can't post on Facebook about everyone in the world that die every second, there wouldn't be time. We post about people we've had a connection with of some sort."
Of course, if someone you know is a soldier, you'd be sad if said person died, because you do have a personal connection with this person. But obviously, you're sad when anyone you've had a connection with dies, whether it be a soldier, a comedian or the man who owns the local shop.
The world can seem a sad place at the moment. All this Palestine and Israel conflict, the Russia and Ukraine conflict, the whole Iraq thing that's still going on, Fox News promoting terrorism, and now Robin Williams ending his life. But we need to try and learn from these things, try and take something positive from them all.
People dying is bad. People hurting is bad. Soldiers dying is bad, and pointless. Robin Williams dying is bad.
Don't promote violence, because it isn't the answer. I think war is stupid, it's absolutely f*cking ridiculous to me. I think someone taking their life is extremely upsetting. We need to learn, from this, that depression is a serious issue, and that it could happen to anyone. Someone as lovely and funny as Robin Williams, a family member, a best friend. We're all people, we're all human, so look after each other. We need to be there for the people we love, and we need to make them smile, make them happy. If they're upset, don't shrug it off because you're busy.
We need to take making people happy more seriously.
Take care,
ARK Walton.
You have brought up some very good points in this post that I would like to have my say in.
ReplyDelete1. The topic about suicide been cowardly. I agree with your view, suicide is never cowardly, also it is not something that just happens, the though of committing suicide is usually a long process, you normally just don't wake up one day and decide that you will kill yourself, it usually builds up, for example, you may have been feeling down for a while and had suicidal thoughts before, this idea then completely takes over, the more you think about it then the more it makes sense, maybe not to other people but to the person it makes perfect sense. What I am trying to say here that it isn't cowardly, not at all, it can take weeks or months for you to come to this decision then the person actually has to go through with it. One thing that I like to say to someone who thinks suicide is cowardly is, put a gun to your head, could you pull the trigger?.
2."I don't understand how they feel either, but I'm trying to be open-minded, and I'm trying to understand how someone might feel like this, so that one day, if someone I love or know gets in this state, I can try my very best to help.". (Sorry for copying and pasting this but I couldn't think of how to put it in a few simple words).
Trying to understand how someone feels when they are dealing with depression or suicidal thoughts Et cetera is a bit like trying to understand the entire plot of a movie or book just by looking at the cover, it is practically impossible, you have to know the contents to know the entire plot (not the best way to put it but the only way I could think of). The thing is that every person is different, some people have these feeling because they think they are alone and have no one, some feel this way as they think that life is just too much, there are many reasons why someone may feel this way, as to helping them the thing to remember that it is the part of the person that wants to stay alive that will tell you about it, this is the part that you should try to focus on, tell the person that they aren't alone help them to find reasons to stay alive, ask the person why they feel this way and why they think that its the only option. Helping someone with depression is a little differ but not that much. Things you can do to help a depressed person are
1. Be there for them - sometimes just sitting with a person, or talking to them, or sitting with them will they cry or just by doing nothing can help a person with depressor, it gives them the feeling that someone is always there for them and they aren't alone.
2. Small gestures - sometimes just by sending a text asking how a person feel can make them feel better, it has the same effect as been there for them, it could be as simple as like I said sending a text or inviting the person out with you
3. Don’t judge - you should avoid telling someone "its all in your head" "you have a good life how can you be depressed" this makes the person think they have the choose to feel this way when it is really a chemical imbalance of the brain when it stops or produces less serotonin
4. Try not to compare them to you or others - sometime you will often without realizing compare their feelings to yours but unless you have dealt with this illness yourself you cant really understand the way that they are feeling.
(all of this is from dealing with depression and suicidal thought personally)
I apologise for such a long view on your points but like I said I just wanted to have my say.
There is another part that I will have to post separately due to the face that It will only allow 4,096 characters
I do also have a view of my own on the death of Robin Williams, you may not agree and I accept that, I understand that persons view is their own and I am not about to change that, I also do not mind if you have your own opinions about my view. Anyway, I was extremely shocked and sad about the death of Robin Williams seen as I grew up with films such as Mrs Doubfire and have seen films such as good will hunting and dead poets society witch I enjoyed, however I have also been on facebook and have seen that now everyone seems to be concerned about depression and suicide, now I am not saying you are one of these people, anyway as I was saying everyone seems to now be concerned it has taken this man to die for people to understand that depression dose not discriminate, it doesn't care who you are what you do, your race, gender, age or anything, it can take any one of us at any time, and people have only just started to understand this after a celebrity has died, my question is, and please do tell me what you think about this, is if Robin Williams didn't commit suicide how many more people would have had to die for people to understand that this mental illness is a killer?
ReplyDeleteOnce again I apologise for how long this is, but I hope that I may have helped you in some way, and like I said feel free to say anything about the comments that I have made and tell me how you feel, also I apologise for spelling and grammar, I am dyslexic and find it hard to writ long pieces, I have used spell check best I can so hopefully you can understand the majority of this.
Thanks for your comments, "Anonymous". I feel I need to try and understand a person and what they're going through for me to be able to try and help them and be there for them. That's just how I work.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's not that everyone's suddenly just realised suicide and depression is serious, this has just brought it back to the surface again due to Robin Williams' death.
ARK