That’s what it says: ‘A horrible person.’ We weren’t even testing for that.
~ GLaDOS
This is the message sufferers of clinical depression get every minute of every hour of every day. For these people—of which I am one—the drip, drip, drip of it eventually eats through their reason and they begin to suspect it’s true.
Today we learned that Robin Williams is dead at 63, apparently by his own hand. An admitted depressive, addictive personality, Mr. Williams seems to have succumbed to the lie.
And it is a lie.
He may only now be finding out how much he was loved, and how much he will be missed. While the impact of his death may appear to be great because of his celebrity, it really isn’t. Not any more than the other 30,000 people who commit suicide each year, and the quarter of a million who attempt it.
Clinical depression goes way beyond a merely melancholic personality and those who suffer from it deal with it differently. Some drink, some take drugs, some indulge in risky behaviors, while others see a shrink, adopt a religious practice, or just hide in their rooms rehearsing all their life’s failures over and over. Depressive people often do all these things.
I have.
A friend of mine is fond of saying that once we understand the things that have affected and shaped us, good or bad, we own them. It’s then up to us to deal with it, rather than whine about what got us here. For those with depression, there is often no certain thing to pinpoint for our problem. It is a complicated disease of body and soul that one cannot just pull themselves out of. It is also potentially fatal. When depression becomes too heavy a cross to bear, many are crushed under its weight.
St. Peter tells us:
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
The Church has always had ambivalent feelings about those who die by their own hand. Call me a heretic, but I believe that the One who cares for us—so much that He chose to put aside His heavenly glory in order to take up our weak mortality and shed His blood for us—will have abundant mercy on us as we climb our personal Calvary. I believe He will have even more mercy for those who fall on the way.
Rest in peace Robin.
Well said, Rob! It IS a complicated disease, and various kinds of treatment help at various times. Yet, one thing that is crucial to remember is that HOPE is key…and faith in the Lord brings HOPE. Hope for strength to get through the day, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a beautiful eternity. I this is key, because it seems to me that a suicidal person has lost HOPE…yet, ‘living by faith’ can be a large part of the antidote to this. Faith is, as Hebrews says, “The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.” Thus, Faith in a very real way, helps with depression.
I agree with you, also, about our Loving, Compassionate Father’s response. I see no evidence in the Scriptures of condemnation for this sin any more than others…and I see GENEROUS evidence of the Grace of God!