Thoughts on the Loss of Robin Williams

                 

Robin Williams once said,  "You are only given a little spark of madness. You Mustn't lose it".

        I have never met Robin Williams.  I was a child when he became so wildly successful in the television series, Mork and Mindy.   So many fine films followed.   He wasn't just a stand-up comedian with energy to burn. He was a brilliant comedic actor with fine timing, and a fine dramatic actor who understood poignancy and vulnerability in his acting.

                    I have no doubt that in life Robin Williams was a strange bird.  His mental quickness alone would have challenged most anyone, and he was highly intelligent.  He also had a lovely way of making fun of himself which made the rest of us feel that our own flaws might make us funny and perhaps special also.  Do you recall his making fun of himself for excessive chest hairiness ?   His routine was hysterical.

                    Even listening to interviews and Tonight Show appearances, one could get the idea that Robin Williams might well be classically bipolar.    When he was "on", he was "on".   I remember Katie Couric, in one interview, simply unable to process all he said in such rapid succession.  I can remember thinking after one such performance that highs that high would probably lead to lows pretty low, and hoping that he would be getting some treatment.     Sometimes, he would be interviewed and he could come across as a sad clown in need of a hug.

                    Robin Williams knew multiple marriages, fatherhood, great friendships, wealth, fine homes including a Napa Valley vineyard, and great success and fame in something he loved to do.  He received recognition for his work from far and wide.   And yet, yesterday, he is said to have taken his own life at only 63.

                   He was a very charitable soul.  Although comments to the contrary do exist, he did pay portions of medical bills to the University of Virginia when close friend Chris Reeve was paralyzed in the mid-nineteen nineties. 

                   He left a legacy of love and entertainment to many, and will be remembered fondly.

He did leave something though, he did not intend.   If someone classically bipolar with success, money, children, a loving spouse, and great recognition in his chosen profession cannot endure the depressions which come with bipolar disorder, and chooses to take his own life, then other people ravaged by disorders within the bipolar disorder continuum may think the same.

               Please, suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.   Life can be pretty difficult, at intervals, for most everyone.  When we end our lives, or even play at ending our lives, we ensure that our lives on Earth will never get better again.  We will never see the great highs and happiness again, if we end our earthly existences while we still dwell on the bottom.

             If you, or someone you love is scraping the bottom of life right now, please get help.     There are better treatments for bipolar disorder than there have been before.   Most people can find a middle ground with the illness which allows their independent thought and creativity to continue to emerge, without allowing the unbridled  crashes which episodically occur with this disorder.

               Robin Williams was said to have been downsizing before his passing.    Keep a close eye on your bipolar loved ones when they start shedding things they love, or begin giving them away.  

               Suicide adversely impacts families now, but also for a couple of generations afterward.   The negative lessons of someone who chose to leave you, while sane or otherwise, hangs over families and interferes with their ability to raise their own families, often for as long as another lifetime.

                There are many ways to survive, and to ensure that your family does, as well.    Suicide is not one of these.    I once knew someone who thought that his family was better off without him.    They weren't. but of course, he is not here to see that now.