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Robin Williams found dead at 63


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That's awful. :(

I'm sad to hear that he was struggling with his depression again. I hope his family's privacy is respected so that they can grieve and support each other. Sadly though, the ABC News link is apparently showing live aerial views of his house. I don't understand why a media company would want pictures of the top of his house... Plus, it's pretty horrible that they would fly loud helicopters around his property while his family is inside.

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I was so surprised to hear this too ... they had breaking news to tell people.

 

I hope they get the privacy they need.  I heard this on NBC news tonight, and they said it would be on the Today Show tomorrow AM.  Not sure how in depth they'll get.  I hope he gets the recognition he deserves.

 

Also will be on 11 PM news here EST.

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So sad and so tragic.  Robin suffered from depression.  He was a brilliant comedian, amazing talent, wonderful actor and loving dad. My heart goes out to his family and friends. He will be missed.  Hard to know what to say. Guess there really is nothing to say. Robin went over that bridge all too soon.

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I grew up idolizing comedians, most of them male, but Robin Williams holds a special place in my heart for being engaging and hilarious-letting me escape into comedy and blocking out my terrible home life.

 

He was loved and will be missed.

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I sincerely have no words, other than these: this has got to stop happening.

Eta: Jim Carey is one that needs to be watched. He's another one who has depression issues.

Edited by exl2398
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I'm so surprisingly freaked out by this. 

 

That's pretty much my reaction too. It feels so surreal as another poster put it. I normally do not react to celebrity passings, but this one is hard for me for some reason. Maybe it's because of the MI. Maybe it's because he was one of my favorites. Maybe it's because he is relatively young and I expected to enjoy his work for many years to come.

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I'm way more thrown by this than I would have expected to be. I wasn't even a particularly huge fan (although I did like his work), but the world just seems... wrong without him in it. Incomplete. 

 

Rest in peace, Mr. Williams. The world is a richer place for having had you in it. 

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I echo others; I am also surprisingly moved by this.

 

Suicides occur so often, especially in artists (musicians, comedians, traditionals), and I am not exactly sure why I am so set back. Deaths of musicians I favor have occurred before, and I am not much of a movie fan.

 

I suppose because I grew up with this man, in a way? Since I was 4 I remember seeing his face, and hearing his voice, laughing and enjoying his comedic spirit. And the fact he has died from something that is so close to home is heart wrenching.

 

I am saddened by this. And I hope at last he has found peace, and may finally rest.

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This is so very sad. I met him once or twice when he came to entertain the guys in afghan and Iraq. I also met him an anonymous place . He was an awesome guys . He fought drug addiction and depression I think his entire life . Another bright star has been snuffed out

RIP Robin........ You were so good to all of us in the Service

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I've heard rumors he'd been using again recently.  

 

Being a rich and famous person who is well known for having huge coke problems in the past must be living hell.  Coke got it's claws into me pretty damn good for a while.  There are two things that have kept me from doing it again:  I don't know where to get it and I can't afford it.  If a stranger were to walk in my back door and and stick a rail under my nose, I'd do it before asking the guy's name or how he got into my house.  No thought would go into it.

 

If you have a shitload of money and everyone knows that coke has had its claws in you before, there must be tons of people with no souls pretty much constantly coming out of the woodwork and trying to get you to use again so you'll buy from them.   I imagine most people could only only hold out so long.

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One thing I forgot to remember in this thread is just how much charity work Robin Williams did. He gave generioulsy of his time to support many social causes. He was truly a man of conscience.

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I'm so sad and freaked out by this. I feel so hopeless. I grew up watching Robin Williams. "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Aladdin" were some of my favorite films. And my husband just recently watched the "Crazy Ones" tv series. It's so surreal.

I'm crying and feel like giving up. I know I sound stupid. There just seems to be too much death and sadness in the world.

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A sad day.  He spent much of his formative years here in the Mitten State.  His humor was just amazing.  But his generosity was perhaps greater.  He did a great deal of charitable works.  And, correct me if wrong, he paid most of the  costs of Christopher Reeves' care.  A great man who will be sorely missed.  I feel for his wife and kids.

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Thanks so much for posting that, what a great article. I loved this:

To those tempted today to ask what Robin Williams had to be depressed about, with his success, fame, wealth, lovely home, lovely family, tons of opportunities and great moments in his life, please just stop. If he had died of cancer, would you ask what he had had to be cancerous about?

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Just getting bits and pieces from the news.

 

Found by his personal assistant.  Wouldn't say if a suicide note was left.  The press conference today apparently gave more details.  I didn't see it, but they keep having clips from it with information.

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what a tremendous loss.  usually celebrity deaths do not affect everyone in my immediate family significantlybut this one has. he touched so many livesand more than one generation.  

 

on the news they stated he had bipolar disorder.  i've also seen it said on the internet. its speculated that his most recent "rehab" visit was actually psychiatric IP treatmentbut due to stigmait was kept quiet.

 

some good memories and thoughts:

 

he donated over 80 million dollars to people in need.

 

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he did not pay all of reeves' treatmentbut he did help him financially and reeves had said:

 

Williams' most valuable contributions, Reeve attested again and again, were the simple gifts of friendship and laughter. At a tribute dinner in 1995, he described his first reunion with the comic in a hospital room five days after the accident that left him paralyzed:

"I was hanging upside down, and I looked and saw a blue scrub hat and yellow gown and heard this Russian accent. There was Robin Williams being some insane Russian doctor. I laughed, and I knew I was going to be all right."

 

 

an article about some lives he touched: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2722674/He-comedic-Mother-Theresa-Patients-families-pay-tribute-Robin-Williams-channelled-Patch-Adams-character-make-sick-children-s-lives-better.html

Edited by cosima
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I just wished he would have reached out to someone. The whole world loved him. People would have lined up to try to help him.

but see, that's just it. He is just like us. Even though he had the world at his feet, it doesn't matter. When you are depressed, you are depressed. Not matter how much money you have or love or anything.  He was suffering and tragically saw no way out.  In some ways, I suspect his celebrity made it HARDER for him. He had to suffer in public. Everyone knew when he was in rehab. The world found out when he took a drink. 

 

I keep wondering about his wife. How could she have left the house without checking on him first?  But, at the same time, it is NOT her fault at all.  I read a study once about suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge. They questioned those few that did survive. It turned out that the people who died were not the most unhappy, but had the best plan.  On that tragic day Robin did something irreversible that will scar his kids forever.  We have no idea how he felt at that moment, if he regretted, if he wished for someone to come in and save him. People are very very complicated. Someone as talented and successful as Robin Williams who was battling demons forever, is extremely complicated. I never met him. I know very few people who did. But everyone loved him. He was a giving soul. He is now at rest, but his family will never be.  Yet he took his life despite the people who loved him, who reached out.

 

At the same time, and I know I am contradicting myself here, I read that when Robin went into rehab recently it was evident he had been struggling for a long long time and it was almost too late. Why didn't anyone help him before?  Didn't his friends notice? Didn't his wife notice?  We will never have answers to these questions.  All we can do is honor his memory by keeping up with our own struggles our own lives.  Keep fighting our demons.  I do know that alcohol, cocaine, any drug abuse just makes everything so much harder. 

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I have also been wondering about his wife. I wonder if they didn't have an argument which turned out to be the last straw and pushed him over the edge. Of course, I'm not at all saying it's her fault that he killed himself, but I'm just struggling to understand why that day was different from all the others. This is all just speculation, and we won't know the truth, and we're not entitled to know the truth. We should just leave them be to grieve.

 

ETA: I know he is just like us, but we all are reaching out. Isn't that why we are on CB? To reach out? We'll never know what kind of help he was getting beyond AA, but I'm very sorry that it failed him. I'm just so sorry.

Edited by jt07
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i know that what i am about to express may not be popular and i say it not to hurt anyone here, but to bring to everyone's attention how shocking this thread is to see for at least one person on the forum: me. and i hope you permit me to explain why because it is so profoundly jarring to me and i don't see anything like this sentiment expressed and i wonder if maybe nobody's considered it. but that if you did... you might honor his memory in a different way than some of what's said in this thread thus far. i wouldn't post it if i didn't care both about what i see happening and the members who've posted and may read. and i hope you read or don't read in that light as that is my intention. x

 

re: robin Williams' passing: i am so sorry to hear of another's suffering, be it leaving or grieving. my heart goes out to him and his loved ones. full stop.

 

why full stop? out of respect him and those in his life. not to mention, the ONE thing i saw his widow say in a press thingy...included a desire for privacy in this time of grief. much of this thread affords him and his family NO respect for privacy and because i am so upset at seeing this on a mental health forum...where people, including me, have attempted and had loved ones complete...i implore you to consider:

 

what if this was about you?

what if "loved ones" read this speculation about you?

 

how many would be ok with having this thread be about them and being the subject (or your loved one being the subject) the questions you ask?

 

how many on this site have made attempts using potentially/statistically lethal means with expectation of completion and knowing those moments, would be ok with that being public discussion?

how many have lost a loved one and in the aftermath, mired in grief, would be ok with these questions being posed and speculations being made about said loved one?

 

I have felt many things on this forum. I have felt friendship and trust and respect, and I've felt rejection and dismissal and ire. more of the former than the latter overall, fortunately. most recently on my blog people I believe and trust offered such acceptance and support, (and i think i'm going to go read it again after posting this to find some peace). 

 

BUT: reading this thread, and I aim this at nobody in particular but the idea that... I've made attempts fully intending to succeed. i'm actually kinda bitter about being thwarted, but I endure. I've shared things about myself on here. people know some things. the reality is, I may one day succeed. another reality is there are two people on this site whom I've known far beyond and before it and who would actually be in position to know if or when that happens.

 

this thread makes me feel more vulnerable on this site than any other event, person, post, thread, etc. because what if I go? will this be me? I may not be beloved and i'm certainly no robin Williams. but, would that make it more or less likely that should somehow the forum membership find out... will I be poured over? my posts, my blog, people who've conversed with me or heard things or seen me in chat? and will the people who will grieve me be subjected to that? to questions about why didn't anyone xyz? to seeing speculation about this or that or whether i was pdq at the time?

 

at the end of the day, the man was a celebrity and maybe that's why it seems ok, but he is no more or less a PERSON than any one of us on here. his family is no more or less aggrieved than any of our loved ones would be. i know that the media and people... well intended in some cases, but, ex: someone copy/pasted his means from a news brief into an email and, with the intention of expressing sympathy for having lost my bestie to similar means...and compassion that i have my history... said that, along with the copy paste of his DETAILED means that to me.  i cannot tell you what reading that detail makes me feel like. reading other people's methods and knowing they're successful...it's like this force rising up from inside me that ...it's like elation in a way. it's hard to explain. the fact that the media publicized that...that someone sent it to me... did his loved ones authorize that? would you want yours to? would you want them to be robbed of the choice to?

 

and, yeah, i'm responsible for my own triggers. i know the rules. but i'm also not walking on eggshells saying the media isn't beyond reprehensible for releasing that. how many will read and try the same? there is documented connection there. and that's in addition to making him a zoo animal...a case study... something we don't let people without mental illness come here and do to us. but i feel like this thread, is doing that to him. that is my opinion and it's strongly held and i must share it with you, submit it for consideration.

 

this thread terrifies me because if you'd do it to him, why not me? why not any of us? does doing it indicate that you're ok with it being done to you or a loved one who leaves?

 

i don't know as i can only speak for myself, but it's not ok with me to have done to me or someone i love or ANYONE because in that moment, to be violated and not just let rest. it's hard for me to see how it's possible to honor someone's death by dehumanizing them...to have compassion for those left behind and dissect the one they lost. it makes no sense to me. but i believe those of you who say you do and i think maybe people get swept up? i know most people in the general public likely aren't heartless, and i want to believe none on here have considered these questions, but maybe if i post this, someone will. or someone who fears saying this and feels similarly to me, will know that they're not the only one.

 

i do my best not to fail to reply to direct posts toward me. i see notification up at the top and whether i love, hate, respect or not a person, i do my damnedest not to ignore them, because i know what it is to be unheard and unseen. this thread...is so... i won't be able to return to reply and i want to state that now so that people don't have expectations or feel like i want to ignore them. i simply cannot revisit this thread, but if nobody agrees with me, if everyone eviscerates me, if it disappears into the ether...i can accept all of those judgments. i can't accept seeing this and feeling the way i do and not giving voice to this and walking away. i may be the only one... but i'm one and i hope you consider.

 

lastly, what i see in anyone leaving and those grieving, is that there has been, will be, is, suffering. and i see suffering in many of the posts here. i want to acknowledge that and say that without exception, i have nothing but compassion for any and all who suffer, including anyone who reads this post...though i may not know you, you might not be a member, or we have a history of whatever sort... i wish you all the best and take care xx

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melli, 

 

Thank you for stating that speculation does not respect privacy. All the sensationalism that goes along with a celebrity makes it difficult to be a real human, with real issues. 

 

There is a reason I don't watch or read much direct "news" media. Sensationalistic journalism does little to help us understand and relate to one another in more human and compassionate manners.

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melli, this is not the Huffington Post or an Op-Ed on the NY Times.

This is a rather private place, I know the thread is public but I seriously doubt

the widow is reading it on Crazyboards.

 

I think people are working through their feelings.

In addition to grief and sadness I find it profoundly frightening................

 

because if he can succumb to the demons with the success, and family, and friends, and wealth and accolades -

if that is not enough to fight off severe depression then what chance do I have???

I would hope that if I had a house in Tiburon, a family, an Academy Award, money, new movies coming out

well I would hope that would be enough to keep me alive.

But evidently not...................................

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because if he can succumb to the demons with the success, and family, and friends, and wealth and accolades -

if that is not enough to fight off severe depression then what chance do I have???

I would hope that if I had a house in Tiburon, a family, an Academy Award, money, new movies coming out

well I would hope that would be enough to keep me alive.

But evidently not...................................

I disagree - those things don't help cure cancer either and depression is just not always situational. We don't know whether he was having therapy, whether he was on meds. We have no idea. We cannot judge this and we shouldn't.

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Today has been very hard accidently seeing posts about Robin at work today. Now they are saying he was not taking drugs, he was just depressed. And, he was diagnosed with Parkinsons.   I feel angry with him. How could he do this to his kids?  I feel sympathetic. How does one live with depression? I feel confused. I am dealing with my major depression, why couldn't Robin?  

 

This man is a celebrity. I don't know him. He is not in my life. He is a public figure. Yet, I've watched him so many many times in the movies and on TV.  so he does feel like someone I know. someone who ran out on me. someone who gave up battling his demons. 

 

Yet, I feel for him. He was a lovely soul. An overly (if possible) generous man. A very compassionate man. Someone who did not want to keep living because he thought his family would be better off.

 

If there is one lesson here, it is that HIS FAMILY IS NOT BETTER OFF.  They are traumatized and heartbroken. 

 

This week has been hard for me. My depression has been just around the corner every day, springing out from behind the bushes with no notice. Yet, everyday is also filled with moments that I love, moments I can treasure, funny conversations and minutes where I just gaze at the sky. Today a HUGE eagle swooped down in my backyard. That was incredible. That was worth the whole day.

 

 

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I wish Robin Williams hadn't hung himself. But that's about me.

 

Bone-crusher+plan+the uptick that gives a body the guts to implement. That's about him. He's not in pain (I know loaded statement).

 

We here know more about that stuff than "normals" out there.

 

What's been amazing (really great writing about this, as well as shocking and really pissing me off) is the discourse in "public" among the normals. I was this close to coming out in public on social media as BP and what insights I could offer, hoping to correct the insane numbskullery out there. But then I got spooked and figure, nope, I'm staying in the closet—stigma is still way to destructive. I could lose my job(s). Again, that's about me.

 

I love every piece of the guy's work. Even the awkward, holee-crap-did-I-just-hear-that-right moments. I grew up with him as the comedian my parents hated and couldn't understand so he was MINE. I'm bummed I won't get to see him in any more work. I could imagine him in his 90's raising Cain. So I'm disappointed that it happened. That's about me.

 

This event's made me grateful for the people here on CB who got me back from the vortex at the end of that alley. I'm not done giving this shitstorm-that-is-my-life all I got yet. :loved:

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