Michael Landsberg on Off the Record has devoted shows to address depression,which he has suffered.awareness is so NB,and telling people they are NOT ALONE.
Robin Williams Dead (Suicide).
- Thread starter Real Sonny Burnett
- Start date
..........and the suggestion it is comes from ?????? Think it through, you might just get what's being said.
No I get it. But 'taking people with you' implies that it's your fault you caused copycats. Which is the wrong way to look at it.
rintin6
Well said Sir.
I too have had some difficulty posting on this one too. Too often it is acceptable to post about one's alcohol or drug abuse and society is more accepting of that type of social ill whereas with depression it is still perceived as weakness and the person should learn to suck em up. Depression really is the elephant in the room with the medical model throwing many pharmaceuticals at the problem.
I always enjoyed Robin Williams body of work from Mork and Mindy to present day. I am one of the Vancouverite's who had the good fortune to meet him in person at a bistro prior to one of his engagements. Let's just say we were the warm up audience prior to him going on stage at Rogers Arena for a benefit concert headlined by Sarah McLaughlin and company.
Having battled the same demons over the years, all I can say is RIP Robin and thanks for making the world laugh, we're gonna miss you. As more people open up about depression, one thing that I have noticed is the self-medication which seems to alleviate the problems in the short term but exacerbate them in the long term.
............different strokes for different folks..........
Mental health experts warn of ‘copycat suicides’
A man with his dog walk past a mural depicting actor Robin Williams in Belgrade on August 13, 2014. Unknown artists paid tribute the Academy Award-winning actor and comedian.
Photograph by: ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP/Getty Images , Postmedia News
When is more information too much information?
Mental health experts fear people contemplating suicide could use the release of details about the death of Robin Williams to formulate their own plans to end their lives.
It was enough for the public to know the actor died by suicide, they say.
Instead, disturbing details about the gifted comedian’s tragic death were disclosed Tuesday by California investigators during a press conference that was broadcast live, live-streamed on the web and live-tweeted by media.
The press conference set off a firestorm of debate in social media and in newsrooms over the public disclosure of such intimate details when Williams’s own family had pleaded for privacy.
“There’s no doubt that it leads to copycat suicides and there will be an increase in suicides because this information — which is essentially how to commit suicide — is now in the public domain associated with Mr. Williams’s death,” said Dr. Simon Hatcher, a psychiatrist at The Royal in Ottawa and vice-chair of research in the department of psychiatry at the University of Ottawa.
“It goes against all the guidelines for reporting on suicides,” he said, which includes not putting emphasis on the methods used.
Disclosing such level of details provides easy access to knowledge about how to kill oneself, he said. “People don’t have to make the effort to go and look it up.”
And when the suicide involves a celebrity, “it can seem quite an attractive way to solve problems, and especially with somebody like Robin Williams,” he added.
The suggestion in some media coverage that Williams’s brilliance was somehow related to him having a mental disorder, “makes it again somehow more acceptable to kill yourself,” Hatcher said.
“I think it’s perfectly sensible to talk about suicide,” he said. “You’ve just got to talk about it in a way which doesn’t kill the readers.”
Psychologist Frank Farley said the details around the discovery of Williams’s body would only fuel speculation about the actor’s mindset: Why did he do it this way, and not that way?
“It draws away from the things we should be focusing on, which is his fantastic legacy as an entertainer and comedian,” said Farley, an Edmonton native and past president of the American Psychological Association.
“He hanged himself, and that should be all that we need to know.”
Queen’s University mental health expert Dr. Heather Stuart also warned about the risk of copycat or cluster suicides.
There are stages of suicidal thinking, said Stuart, a professor in the department of public health sciences and holder of the Bell Canada mental health and anti-stigma research chair.
“You first think about, ‘Maybe I would be better off dead.’ At some point you start to formulate a plan: How would I do it? Would I take drugs? Would I shoot myself? And sometimes that’s where people are ambivalent,” she said.
“They want a plan that will work. They don’t want to wake up a vegetable and they don’t really have a lot of knowledge about what works and what doesn’t.”
The graphic details released in Williams’s death “might be giving them momentum, and getting them to think about viable plans when, if they didn’t have that information they might just remain ambivalent until somebody can help them and get the whole situation turned around.”
Profoundly public tragedies like the death of one of the most celebrated comedians in history should be used as an opportunity for increasing awareness around suicide, increasing early detection and breaking down stigma, she said.
Stuart is troubled by media commentary that Williams somehow “chose” suicide. People don’t “choose” to have depression, mania or any mental illness, she said.
“Suicide is a catastrophic outcome of a very significant illness. We wouldn’t dream of blaming someone for dying of cancer or heart disease. We just don’t even bring that mindset to the table.”
According to Statistic Canada, 3,728 Canadians committed suicide in 2011.
“With effective identification and treatment, and appropriate support, many of these deaths could be prevented,” Stuart said.
skirkey(at)postmedia.com
Twitter.com/sharon_kirkey
Warning signs:
Suicidal thoughts
Substance abuse
Feelings of purposelessness, hopelessness and helplessness
Withdrawal, anger, recklessness and mood changes
Where to go for help:
If you are in crisis, go immediately to your nearest emergency department or call 911.
If you are feeling suicidal or need someone to talk to, contact a crisis centre. For a list of crisis centres in your area, go to:
http://suicideprevention.ca/thinking-about-suicide
(Sources: Statistics Canada; Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention)
Yes, his wife disclosed that Williams did indeed have early stage Parkinson's
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/14/robin-williams-parkinsons-disease
Though Robin Williams quit cocaine and alcohol unassisted in 1982, he looked to rehab for help years later. However, here's another interesting twist....
http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/inde...nnel=55f0c26f94fbe210VgnVCM1000001e0215acRCRD
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/14/robin-williams-parkinsons-disease
Though Robin Williams quit cocaine and alcohol unassisted in 1982, he looked to rehab for help years later. However, here's another interesting twist....
http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/inde...nnel=55f0c26f94fbe210VgnVCM1000001e0215acRCRD
Parkinson's would be the death of me, too...it steals you away, bit by bit, until there is nothing left of you. There seems to me that there is a link between severe clinical depression and both Parkinsonian illnesses and temporal lobe epilepsy. Richard Jeni also killed himself due to the early stages of dementia, it seems to me. Cocaine does so much permanent damage to the brain too...poor Robin.
My most favouritest movie with Robin Williams and a great cast of actors is
What Dreams May Come
Deals with a slue of life/death scenarios, suicide being one of them. Beautiful film, beautiful story.
What Dreams May Come
Deals with a slue of life/death scenarios, suicide being one of them. Beautiful film, beautiful story.
