I think that's kind of the problem... people judge it with "well, I've been down before and I haven't killed myself." Like Iowanian said, depression isn't teenage angst or 'feeling down' or relatively fleeting thoughts about suicide (not to compare your thoughts, specifically).

People judge it because the final decision is yours.

It's not cancer. It's not a defect in your heart. It's not a car accident.

That person decides to end it, or take a drink, or take a hit, or puke up every meal. Every moment of the "illness" is a choice...

Everyone's a COMEDIAN these days...

My thing is...what young actors/comedians are going to be the future? It honestly doesn't look that good.

Yeah. It's only a defect in his brain, not something important like his heart. He should have just powered through it like you undoubtedly would.

And there's this, too... the wide spread ignorance surrounding the topic of mental illness. Think about how little actual scientists know about how the brain works, then scale that down to you or me. And people throw around the word depressed like it's applicable when your favorite TV show is cancelled, etc... and people take their life because of that feeling?! :facepalm:

Depression is not a choice - killing yourself is.

Quit trying to pretend there's no personal responsibility here...

It's unfortunate that Mr. Williams had no one in his life that could have shared this kind of wisdom with him. You'd think that a man of his means could have found at the very least a mental health professional that could have explained this simple yet weighty truth you've stumbled upon. Perhaps you should consider writing a book. I think you owe it to the families of these selfish, irresponsible--hell, let's just say it--cruel bastards.

It's always comforting to know CP is a place to go for expert advice regarding the human condition and profound, caring wisdom like this.

what is wrong with killing yourself?

If only someone would have told him that his depression wasn't about him, he might still be alive. He could have easily lived another 10 or 15 years in misery, an we would have felt better about it had he died of old age or cancer.

There's a difference between not caring and admitting a person made the wrong choice. A choice that has huge negative impacts on all those that care about you or might depend on you.

I'm not ignorant about depression or suicide. I've had two suicides by people in my family.

That person's suffering doesn't erase the much greater suffering caused by their suicide...

Spot on. He was not a teenager he was a 63 year old multi-millionaire. I am pretty sure he thought this through. He had all the support a person could need. He chose to end it. Sad but that is just how it ends sometimes~

Killing yourself is a choice but what happens the diseased brain starts to limit your choices down to only 1 choice that makes sense.

Some of you have stated that suicide is cowardly or that it is selfish, but those adjectives are not going through your brain when you are contemplating choices on what to do with your life.

Your brain is focusing on trying to limit either the pain that you are experiencing or the pain that you believe you are inflicting on others. Are you a burden to your family and friends? if you are then what options does your brain tell you to do? It becomes a service that you are doing to help others by removing yourself from their equation. Your brain reinforces that fact that in the long term you are no longer being a burden to others, you are no longer being a failure if everything stopped right now. So in other words your brain now equates suicide as a kindness that you are doing for others that you care about. You are basically helping others by checking out and killing yourself.

The brain then starts to wrestle with the fact of how to go about doing it. You start setting up a time frame because you don't wish to hurt anyone any more. This time frame passes because you can't do it and then you start getting angry at yourself because you think you are a pussy.

This is the funny part, where people here believe that you are a pussy for not living your life and not screwing your family over or whatever, you are thinking you are a pussy for not being able to complete what your diseased brain has told you is the "right thing" to do. So now not only are you letting other people down but you are letting yourself down.

This spiral of the brain will continue until it starts affecting your job, which you can't seem to care about or complete jobs on time. Then personal life too where you are now really hurting the people that try to love you because you have locked yourself away from them and not talking to them. So now you are only getting advice from your diseased brain about what you should do and there are no other voices trying to make it clear to you.

This is how things devolve in a depressed brain thus leaving you with only one choice and then finding a way to complete that choice.