My clients have been talking all week about Robin Williams’ suicide.
Then I talked to my girlfriend, the successful ghost writer, over the weekend. She said, “Surely you’re going to write a post about Robin Williams?” I said, “Surely there is nothing I could say that hasn’t already been said.”
She convinced me that perhaps I had a few words to add to the dialogue.
I’d read a nice piece in my local paper, the Lexington Herald-Leader, from two professors (Dr. Julie Cerel and Dr. Melinda Moore) who are wrapping up an extensive new study on suicide, funded by the military. They addressed the damaging impact of suicides on others, the very real phenomenon of copycat suicides, and offered some sound advice about prevention.
We also had heart-opening quotes from the family. Journalists from everywhere commented. Time magazine had a cover story. Other celebrities weighed in. The 24-hour news cycle was non-stop.
But I guess my favorite pieces were the ones that addressed the dark and not so funny side of the comedic personality.
I shared with my friend that one of my clients (herself on the other side of suicidal thoughts) sent me a link to a Cracked.com article that has nearly three million hits. Cracked.com is the reincarnation of Cracked Magazine, a satirical magazine and a contemporary and knockoff of Mad Magazine. (Who born in the 40s or 50s can forget the face or the name: Alfred E. Neuman?)
The piece is titled, “Robin Williams and Why Funny People Kill Themselves.” According to its author and Cracked.com editor, David Wong, their readership as well as their bevy of comedic freelancers are so well known for their depression and suicidal tendencies, that they have installed a hidden section in their message board so moderators can coordinate responses to suicide threats. (David added, in case you were wondering, “That’s not a joke.”)
David admits that he’s never seen a study quantifying the percentage of funny people who suffer from depression but, “from a rough survey of the ones I know and work with, I’d say it’s approximately ‘all of them.’”
He went on to give examples and name some names of the hundreds of comedy writers he’s surrounded by, along with their diagnoses, ranging from: depression, to anxiety, to social anxiety, to just general psychological dark sides, like: regret, emotional trauma, and addictions. A few are on medications, but it sounds to me like more should be.
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Of course, we now know that it wasn’t just the dark side of depression that Robin was facing, but also the very real threat of Parkinson’s, a progressive and debilitating disease for which there is no cure. It makes sense that someone with a life-long battle with depression could not face any crisis of spirit easily, let alone one as potentially life-changing as one’s upcoming physical and mental incapacity.
I was texting today with a client who was facing her own demons and seeing suicide as an option. I explained to her that some religions teach that if you kill yourself you have to come back immediately (reincarnate) and learn to face the same problems without resorting to killing yourself.
Her very honest reply? “I’m not even sure what my problems are.”
Fair enough. But that’s where I come in. After getting a firm, no self-harm agreement from her, we agreed to put, “What are my problems?” at the top of the agenda for tomorrow’s appointment.
When we are depressed we lose touch with our sensible side, our problem-solving side, our face all situations/no matter the outcome side.
We’re all in this together, folks. Funny, straight, religious, atheist, doubting, doubtfiring, dead poets, aliens and anti-aliens. PhDs, unemployed, ghosts and ghost writers, Mork from Ork, Mindy, and Alfred E. Neuman.
Sanity now!
