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Thousands if not millions have been
deeply troubled by the suicide of Robin Williams--a comic most of us have been
entertained by for years. Especially
since just a few years ago Williams had done a public service announcement
urging those complicating taking their own lives to seek help and that there
was always hope.
Williams, so we are told, was beset with
financial problems, the loss of his TV series, and the news he had Parkinson's
disease. Enough to trouble any man. Professional failure, the possible loss of
all he built during his carrier, and a disease that would eventual render him a
shadow of himself may have been what sent him into fatal depression and loss of
hope.
Most of us treasure both his comic
movies (Mrs. Doubtfire) and his dramatic roles (Dead
Poets Society). (Personally, I thought his
dramatic acting was woefully underappreciated.)
In public appearances, he seemed so joyous and on top of the world.
But those who work with comedians
tell us that in fact very few are happy.
Being funny ironically is an outgrowth of their pain. Perhaps Robin Williams had that in common
with his fellow humorists.
Williams himself revealed he was bipolar a few years ago.
Still, most do not
understand. Deep, clinical depression
cannot be understood by most people--for which they be grateful. But one who suffers from the disease simply
are in another world. They cannot
"snap out of it". Fun
activities with others only make them feel worse because their inability to
enjoy and share them brings them to feel isolated from the rest of us.
I have had more than enough experience
with deep depression. The thing to remember is that it takes over your whole
life. Depression has a nasty habit of distorting one’s perceptions—everything
is not as it appears. Friends and family will express their concern for you and
tell you that they love you—but YOU CAN’T HEAR IT. It all seems so beside the
point.
Lastly, deep depression saps (for a lack
of a better phrase) your psychic energy. Everything is such a struggle. At one
point, I could not make simple decisions and could not even summon the strength
to lie. When friends and family ask what
they can do for you, it sends one into a panic because it is a burden one
cannot answer as you have no idea what they can do. It is not that others do not want to
understand. They CAN'T understand. They have no real reference to comprehend the
dark world the depressive lives in.
The pain is so great that finally you
will do anything to make it stop. Sadly, for many, taking one's own life seems
the only way out.
When those unfortunate people take their lives, we (especially
Christians) fear they are doomed to Hell.
Indeed, some Churches teach so. But
is that true? All we can do is pray. Maybe
this is one thing we are not to know and should not be so quick to judge. All that is left to us is to pray. We Lutherans are instructed we cannot pray
for the dead--they are beyond anything we can do for them. But maybe we should pray--at
least if for nothing else to release the dead from our hearts into the care of the Lord. And trust in our Father's mercy.
