Reply to Robin Williams. Can't help but think....

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It was the mix of meds he was on (primarily the new one for his Parkinson's) that exacerbated his depression. [/quote]

Hmm.  I thought he was pretty torn up about the fact of the Parkinson's diagnosis itself.  I guess it's hard to say what exactly tipped the balance with such a hurting individual.[/quote]

I have read that in the early stages of Parkinson's, your dopamine receptors are severely affected. It may have been a "false low" exacerbated by the Parkinson's messing with his brain. For someone prone to depression I imagine that could have been incredibly difficult to discern from a typical depressed period. He may not have realized it was the Parkinson's or that it could be treated.[/quote]

Would there be a problem if he died of mental illness?  Is it easier to tell yourself he died of side effects of Parkinson's?  He was mentally ill long before his Parkinson's diagnosis.  He was a wonderful talented man who suffered from mental illness for a long time.  I stand by my belief that we need to educate ourselves about mental illness.  The world could have supported Robin Williams instead of suffering in silence.  At one point cancer held a stigma.  I hope we get over the stigma of mental illness.  [/quote]

[b]But Robin Williams did not die from stigma.  He was lauded and praised by everyone (except maybe his first wife). [/b]

Unrelated to Robin Williams…If anything, we are too quick to excuse behavior and diagnose everything instead of realizing that it is normal to feel down sometimes (and we actually have some agency in preventing depression or anxiety from becoming chronic).  Bipolar mania is hard to live with, even when you understand it intellectually and don’t blame the sufferers; same with schizophrenia, etc.[/quote]

NP. The bolded reflects a misunderstanding of how stigma harms people.

Mental health stigma works in a bunch of different ways. Many people are fearful of being diagnosed with a mental health issue (because of the associated stigma) so they don't seek treatment and pretend to be okay. Other people get diagnosed and treated but experience stigma because friends, family, and employers do not view their mental health issues as "real" or think the person is being over-dramatic. Other people deal with internalized stigma, even if friends and family are supportive. The stigma becomes part of the mental illness, where their depression or anxiety worsens because they are blaming themselves, getting angry with themselves, asking themselves why they can't just get over it. Sometimes people experience a form of C-PTSD where the attitudes of their caregivers towards mental health when they were children create a stigmatizing environment for them even when they are adults or even when they are away from those caregivers, because the stigma assigned to mental health issues when they were kids continues to impact them. And so on.

A person can be professionally successful and wildly praised and liked, and still experience mental health stigma. In some cases, being very successful could make the stigma more damaging, because the fear of losing status if people find out, or the sense that many people rely on them to "be strong" and not need help.

Anyway, much of what Williams said about depression when he was alive reflected the experience of someone who had dealt with both external and internal stigma as he struggled with these issues. The one that always sticks with me is when he said that people don't fake being depressed, they fake being okay. I think about his public persona and how often he must have used comedy and goofiness to mask depression, and the many reasons he would have had for doing that. I'm not a professional comedic actor but I've done the same many times, using jokes or bits to distract from how I'm actually feeling or to convince people I'm doing great when I'm not.[/quote]

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