Robin Williams didnāt die from suicide. I only just heard the sad, sad news of Robin Williamsās death. My wife sent me a message to tell me he had died, and, when I asked her what he died from, she told me something that nobody in the news seems to be talking about. When people die from cancer, their cause of death can be various horrible things ā seizure, stroke, pneumonia ā and when someone dies after battling cancer, and people ask āHow did they die?ā, you never hear anyone say āpulmonary embolismā, the answer is always ācancerā. A Pulmonary Embolism can be the final cause of death with some cancers, but when a friend of mine died from cancer, he died from cancer. That was it. And when I asked my wife what Robin Williams died from, she, very wisely, replied āDepressionā. The word āsuicideā gives many people the impression that āit was his own decision,ā or āhe chose to die, whereas most people with cancer fight to live.ā And, because Depression is still such a misunderstood condition, you can hardly blame people for not really understanding. Just a quick search on Twitter will show how many people have little sympathy for those who commit suicideā¦ But, just as a Pulmonary Embolism is a fatal symptom of cancer, suicide is a fatal symptom of Depression. Depression is an illness, not a choice of lifestyle. You canāt just ācheer upā with depression, just as you canāt choose not to have cancer. When someone commits suicide as a result of Depression, they die from Depression ā an illness that kills millions each year. It is hard to know exactly how many people actually die from Depression each year because the figures and statistics only seem to show how many people die from āsuicideā each year (and you donāt necessarily have to suffer Depression to commit suicide, itās usually just implied). But considering that one person commits suicide every 14 minutes in the US alone, we clearly need to do more to battle this illness, and the stigmas that continue to surround it. Perhaps Depression might lose some its āit was his own faultā stigma, if we start focussing on the illness, rather than the symptom. Robin Williams didnāt die from suicide. He died from Depression*. It wasnāt his choice to suffer that.
Tom Clempsom (via mollyfamous)
FINALLY PEOPLE ARE STARTING TO TALK ABOUT WHAT DEPRESSION REALLY IS.
(via workin9to5)
THIS IS THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER READ
(via kerrigans)
"But considering that one person commits suicide every 14 minutes in the US alone, we clearly need to do more to battle this illness, and the stigmas that continue to surround it."
Staggering numbers. We need to do something about this stigma. And it's easy to say we'll do something, but really doing something is hard. You need to immediately extinguish the fire of people's words.... Stomp them out before they spread. Don't wait.
