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Actor Robin Williams has been found dead at his home in Tiburon, CA. He was 63 years old.
https://twitter.com/nbcbayarea/status/498964631957028864

He was my all-time favorite comedian, loved his style and not being afraid to skewer anyone with humor.

Oh damn...

Someone behind me at work read this out loud from his phone just as this thread was posted (still "a moment ago").
I feel conflicted now about my "first half" 1-5 entries in the top 10 Brazelton thread.

--Patrick

Wow.... didn't see this one coming

Ugh. This one got me.

He had been in rehab, and had been seeking treatment for severe depression. So sad...He was one of the all-time great funny men.

Holy shit.

Well shit...

Early reports (which may be nothing more than speculation) are saying the cause of death may be suicide by asphyxiation.

Another article on this -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/11/robin-williams-dead-dies_n_5670050.html

Oh no....

Thread Necromancer said:

Wow.... didn't see this one coming

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I'm very saddened by it but not overly surprised. I think the last divorce really did him in.

BY SUICIDE? FUCK

Aw fuck...

Oh fuck, this is just....damn.

Noooo.... he was so talented. I can't believe it's real.

I would like to claim that the method of his death comes as a complete shock to me.
I would REALLY LIKE to be able to claim this.
But I cannot. It fits the pattern too well. HE fit the pattern too well. I would have preferred the story to have had a different ending in his case. I felt he deserved a different ending.

I own a copy of What Dreams May Come but have not yet seen it. I think I will have to remedy this before month's end.

--Patrick

Holy fucking shit!

This one hit me a lot harder than I would have thought it would

That being said I will keep holding onto my spark of madness and do my best not to lose it.




X

I know he had a history of substance abuse, which isn't unheard of to self-medicate other problems. I'm just heart-sick he felt this was his solution.

Hylian said:

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This picture makes me want someone to make a really good ceramic tragedy/comedy pair, but with his face as both representations. It fits so well.


--Patrick

As I said on FB, "I wish Robin loved Robin as much as the public loved Robin".

PatrThom said:

I own a copy of What Dreams May Come but have not yet seen it. I think I will have to remedy this before month's end.

--Patrick

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I'm going to feel really bad for Nick when he sees this thread. He always talks about that movie being one of his encouragers during his darkest time. Then to see Williams end his own life like that.

Jay said:

BY SUICIDE? FUCK

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Yeah, suicide by asphyxiation according to the BBC.

Devastated. I have no words. What an unbelievable loss.

I was reading some other news on Yahoo and saw this and said - "No way. Someone fell for a death hoax thing."

Then I saw it was pretty much all over everywhere.

Suicide.

Damn.

The episode of Louie with Robin Williams will be forever how I remember him.

RIP.

Frank said:

The episode of Louie with Robin Williams will be forever how I remember him.

RIP.

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???

I don't think I've been affected by a Celebrity death like this since Steve Irwin passed away.

Jay said:

???

I don't think I've been affected by a Celebrity death like this since Steve Irwin passed away.

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Episode 6 of the third season of Louie called Barney/Never.

It's one of my favorite things Robin Williams ever did.

Celebrity deaths don't affect me much, usually. But this makes me very, very sad.

Cheesy1 said:

I'm going to feel really bad for Nick when he sees this thread. He always talks about that movie being one of his encouragers during his darkest time. Then to see Williams end his own life like that.

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I also consider Williams a role model, and still view his legacy in that light, but one of the things about role models is that you learn from their behavior and improve on it. And one of the improvements I plan to implement would be...to not commit suicide, obviously. I don't know the rationale that led to his decision (assuming it's not an elaborate murder setup, of course), but I have to assume that my committing suicide would count as probably be the worst way to honor his memory. No matter how shitty my life might be at times, I'm sure it's barely a squirt in the outhouse compared to what he's gone through.

--Patrick

Checking it out then.

I can't handle this.

Little tip: If you announce the suicide of someone famous, maybe not starting it with "Not at all surprising but..." is a good idea so people don't think you're a self-centered, callous attention whore.

(Sorry. Nothing to do with anyone here. Just infuriated at that attitude. I never thought that even of all the people I talked to on a suicide hotline. If it's not surprising to you, keep your fucking giant mouth shut.)

((Again, sorry. Just venting and crying.))

I hope when he arrives in Heaven, Mikko is sitting there in a hot tub next to Marilyn Monroe waiting to give him a cold brew.

stienman said:

He's been on TV and in movies for 40 years. There are few adults in the US now that aren't familiar with at least a few pieces of his work.

It's a bit of a sucker punch when anyone of note dies suddenly. Usually they fade from the limelight as their age and health issues increase, and you think, "Yeah, I guess that was coming." Sudden deaths of well known and currently performing people, though, come out of left field.

I can't help but feel that in this case there was a lot more left unacted that he would have made a mark in.[DOUBLEPOST=1407801806,1407801699][/DOUBLEPOST]

http://www.amazon.com/Barney-Never/dp/B008S7FPIY

Included with Amazon Prime.

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Only below the 49th parallel.[DOUBLEPOST=1407802542][/DOUBLEPOST]Is it wrong that I'm hoping he was trying auto-erotic asphyxiation rather than suicide? Accidental death is a lot easier pill to swallow for me. I always have to go out to suicide locations and investigate the chance of foul play and they always get to me.

Jay said:

???

I don't think I've been affected by a Celebrity death like this since Steve Irwin passed away.

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Leslie Nielson was the last one to hit me like this. These are guys I just assumed would be alive forever.

Robin Williams will always be the voice of the Genie to me. That may sound silly given the body of live action work the man has, but Aladdin was and still is a massive influence on me and that's the first thing i think of when i hear the name Robin Williams.

Suddenly the "food for worms" scene in Poets' has accrued an altogether uncomfortable amount of gravitas.

(Can't link it due to mobile, not sure I want to watch it right this second anyway, go find it yourself--I'm sure its view count has absolutely skyrocketed in the last few hours)

--Patrick

checkeredhat said:

Robin Williams will always be the voice of the Genie to me. That may sound silly given the body of live action work the man has, but Aladdin was and still is a massive influence on me and that's the first thing i think of when i hear the name Robin Williams.

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For me it was Princess Jasmine... for other reasons.

I wanted to show her the world.

I have to wonder if this is some how linked to his rehab re-admission last month.

I've seen just about everything that he did in his career, every since he showed up as an alien on Happy Days.

It is so sad to see him go out like this.

It's going to be weird seeing him on the big screen now... especially as he has a movie coming out for the holidays.

WasabiPoptart said:

I have to wonder if this is some how linked to his rehab re-admission last month.

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Which was probably linked to his show getting cancelled earlier in the spring.

The big thing on twitter is worth reposting:
If you have been thinking about getting help - now is the time. 1-800-273-TALK (8255) #suicideprevention #RobinWilliams

jwhouk said:

The big thing on twitter is worth reposting:
If you have been thinking about getting help - now is the time. 1-800-273-TALK (8255) #suicideprevention #RobinWilliams

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Hopefully some good can come from it and someone somewhere on the edge will get help.

This one really hit me hard today. I'm really going to miss him. But for now, I shall return to my viewing of The Birdcage.

I'm just now coming to realize that this is hitting me much harder that I would have thought. Last time a celebrity death affected me this much was when I heard that Jim Henson had passed. I've enjoyed Robin's work for many, many years, since that first appearance way back on Happy Days, and yes, I'm old enough to have watched it when it first aired. There was just something that really caught my humor with what he was doing there, on a throw-away guest bit. The Mork & Mindy... and the HBO Comedy specials and concerts and the movies. He's been a part of my comedy life for almost my entire life. I'm really just stunned.

Frank said:

Only below the 49th parallel.[DOUBLEPOST=1407802542][/DOUBLEPOST]Is it wrong that I'm hoping he was trying auto-erotic asphyxiation rather than suicide? Accidental death is a lot easier pill to swallow for me. I always have to go out to suicide locations and investigate the chance of foul play and they always get to me.

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It's not wrong; I was thinking the same and it does happen.

My wife is taking this pretty hard. He was her favorite comedian and his stand-up and movies helped her see the lighter side of things while surviving life with her abusive father. This sucks.

First Casey, and now this. I am so stunned and saddened. The fact he took his own life makes it even worst. I wish I could have just given him a hug and a thank you for all the years of laughs he gave me. I think I need to lay down.

This has hit not just for me, but for my Dad. Both of us are big fans of Robin Williams and his work. We've enjoyed his stand-up, we've enjoyed his films, and we enjoyed his show The Crazy Ones. It's so sad for the both of us to hear of his sudden death.

So long, Robin Williams. You shall be dearly missed.

My dad was crying after he heard the news, he almost never cries.

Goddamnit, that selfish prick!

I'm as bothered by all the inaccurate information about mental illness being expressed by people about this tragedy as I am by the death of a great man.

And I feel guilty about that.

I don't know what to say.

I don't even know how to react to this. What Dreams My Come is one of my favourite movies because I watch it every February in celebration for me not committing suicide year after year. And now Williams goes and does this. I can't even begin to imagine what he's gone through, but given my close to connection with that movie, I can't help but feel a small tinge of irony.

Yeah...I don't even know how to process this.

ThatNickGuy said:

Yeah...I don't even know how to process this.

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Annually.

EDIT: Every year, have a conversation with him about it. Yell at the screen. Ask him if he's ever going to finish the drink you poured for him on the coffee table. Read him a passage from that book you're working on, soliciting his opinion. Talk to him about his kids.

Keep his memory alive.

--Patrick

As an improv comedian, this man is one of my personal heroes. It's weird how this hit.

This is incredibly sad. Just very, very sad.

PatrThom said:

Annually.

EDIT: Every year, have a conversation with him about it. Yell at the screen. Ask him if he's ever going to finish the drink you poured for him on the coffee table. Read him a passage from that book you're working on, soliciting his opinion. Talk to him about his kids.

Keep his memory alive.

--Patrick

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I have absolutely NO idea what you're talking about here.

Sparhawk said:

Last time a celebrity death affected me this much was when I heard that Jim Henson had passed.

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I still can't think about his death without choking up, and I think it'll be the same with Robin.

Also, every little bit of everything else you posted.

ThatNickGuy said:

I have absolutely NO idea what you're talking about here.

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Hmm. I thought it was pretty straightforward.
Every February, when you watch the movie again, pull up an empty chair and include it in your celebration as you toast his memory.

--Patrick

Maybe I'm one of the few who didn't see this coming at all. I don't follow celeb news much. I knew he had troubles, but he was Robin Williams. Fuck depression. I grew up with him, and he was one of those people who should never die. Especially like this.

I am praying that it does not turn out to have been autoerotic asphyxiation. Something like that doesn't just tarnish legacies, it disintegrates them.

And dammit, if you are feeling bad about this and you need to talk to someone, there's a phone number: 800-273-8255. Good in the US and Canada.

jwhouk said:

I am praying that it does not turn out to have been autoerotic asphyxiation. Something like that doesn't just tarnish legacies, it disintegrates them.

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Not to mention that he was in a movie where his character's son died doing exactly that.

ThatNickGuy said:

Not to mention that he was in a movie where his character's son die doing exactly that.

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Ooh, I forgot about that.

I was on planes all day, and only heard anything during a 45 minute layover, so I'm reading more now. Living in the Bay Area, I would see him a couple of times a year, doing normal stuff: shopping, bike riding, restaurants, etc. Kind of sucks I won't have that to look forward to anymore.

Well drat

This fucking sucks. I've been in the middle of watching "The Crazy Ones" 1st and only season almost solely because of him even though it's not a great show.

Also, this is kind of dark humor, but my ~filez/torrenting~ forum had all Robin Williams movies for the entire first page, and it made me smile. Also it seems like every half-generation had a different favorite Robin Williams character/role/memory.

The news left me feeling rather stunned when I heard it on the radio this afternoon.

The guy has been in my awareness since my earliest memories as a child and has been such a huge source of entertainment and happiness and the idea that he is gone is horrible to say the least.

Cracked has an excellent argument written by someone "on the inside."
http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/robin-williams-why-funny-people-kill-themselves/

--Patrick

http://nickpiers.wordpress.com/2014/08/12/rip-robin-williams/

I go into great detail about What Dreams May Come and how I feel about all of this.

Heh, WHOOPS! Link fixed.

What sucky news to wake up to! Unmade my day five minutes after the alarm chimed in.

Dear Mr Williams, for all the joy and good memories you leave me with, I wish for you to find a quiet place now and rest in peace, all demons gone that haunted you.

*gets on the table*
Oh captain, my captain!

A belt.

Damn.

There is some evidence linking open heart surgery to depression related body chemistry that has come to the forefront out of all this.

[EDIT: Look, I listened to Charlie.]

The US Air Force needs to call in a drone strike on WBC, on behalf of their former "radio comrade".

Every time you post about the WBC, they win. Stop. Who cares what they're protesting.

Charlie Don't Surf said:

Every time you post about the WBC, they win. Stop. Who cares what they're protesting.

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*mashes the agree and like buttons until the end of time*
This. A million billion trillion zillion quadrillion times this.

Wow, maddox still exists? I remember when I thought he was awesome. Until his posts became more of the same droning over and over.

People fucking suck.

https://celebrity.yahoo.com/news/ro...-twitter-account-due-101000773-us-weekly.html

People were trolling her twitter account saying terrible things and photoshopping pictures of her dad with a belt tied around his neck, etc.

Sometimes trolls amuse me. But this goes beyond trolling.

Well, to paraphrase Yoda, it's easy to be a dick.

The generations who've grown up thinking trolling is normal human interaction and all other people really are just letters on a screen are growing up. the amount of sociopaths and psychopaths isn't rising ,the amount of people who like to dabble there is.

Seriously, making fun of a nip slip or bad hair? Sure. And I'm sure i'll joke about Robin Williams' death at some point as well - I think anything and everything should be allowed to be made fun of. That doesn't mean you have to be mean-spirited, nor that you should laugh with anything, anytime, anywhere. If my dad committed suicide and someone posted a photoshopped picture of him hanging himself, I'd have him up in court. Ah yes, Belgian law

I've always wondered, if I had some power to just make everyone who would register as a terrible human being to me disappear, how many people on this planet would be left.

I would think it would be of more value to keep the account open, and go through the trollish responses to add them to some sort of list.
It's a shame she chose the other route, but it's her account to deal with as she likes. Personally I'd prefer those trollish moments be read-only'd on the Internet to haunt the trolls' job searches and the like.

--Patrick

Dave said:

People were trolling her twitter account saying terrible things and photoshopping pictures of her dad with a belt tied around his neck, etc.

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I saw this on Twitter and decided to back off social media for a while because I got murderous and thought perhaps backing out of real life for a while might be a good idea.

(So I came here instead.)

I guess I don't understand the need for some people to do stuff like that. Humanity at its worst.

Job security.

And while it's a chilling commentary on the sad state of socio-psychological affairs in today's world, there's only so far she could take it.... I rather like Pat's "delayed karma" notion... I find it deeply gratifying...

Dave said:

I guess I don't understand the need for some people to do stuff like that. Humanity at its worst.

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Some people spent too many points in schadenfreude, I guess.
I'll admit to taking some enjoyment from the suffering of others, but for the most part, my joy comes from it being those people who actually deserve the pain they are experiencing, and not merely that they are having pain inflicted upon them.
I derive no pleasure from the suffering of the innocent or undeserving.

--Patrick

https://medium.com/the-nib/i-want-to-live-6a40fbc76ef4

In slightly happier news, this is beautifully done.

PatrThom said:

This picture makes me want someone to make a really good ceramic tragedy/comedy pair, but with his face as both representations. It fits so well.
View attachment 15592

--Patrick

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I saw this online today

Hylian said:

I saw this online today

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Thank you. "Tragedy" is not as outwardly anguished as I was looking for, but since my art skills are way underdeveloped, I'll take it.

This entire incident has made me wonder if Robin was just sick and tired of all the attention Robin was getting. That is, when you spend that much time creating that outer persona, and everyone in the world falls in love with that persona and tells you how wonderful it is and how much more they love that persona than they love the "real" you, I can see why a person would get depressed.

I mean, think about it. You build this wall to keep yourself from being hurt by other people, and all you do is create a tourist industry of people who want to come see the wall, have their picture(s) taken with the wall, have entire television programs/movies built to showcase the wall to as many people as possible, and nobody bothers to come all the way in to see you, and you get reeeeally lonely, really fast. You become sort of like the Siamese twin of that persona, and everywhere it goes, you get dragged along whether you want to go or not, and everyone ignores you because they just want to interact/hang with the persona, not you. And when you try to speak up a little and maybe join in, on your own terms, people are all, "Hey! What happened to the other guy? We want him back! He was a lotta fun!" This is what you really hear whenever someone says to you, "Hey...do something funny!" And maybe you start to resent that other guy a little bit, or maybe a whole lot, but you can't get rid of him, because doing so would be...well, it would be suicide, is what it would be.

I'm sorry I didn't know more about the man inside, and I'm not sure that I would have ever been allowed to find out, even if I had ever had the opportunity, but the idea of just how lonely someone like that must get when they're finally alone, and no longer have to be "on" is just...crushing to me.

--Patrick

I went to the Internet to see what Weird Al had to say, because I think his reaction would be relevant.
I discovered that Al had nothing of his own to say about Williams' death, instead his only acknowledgement has been to retweet the following article:
http://fusion.net/culture/story/hero-paul-tompkins-robin-williams-meant-938627

--Patrick

Were we expecting something? I wasn't aware they had any relationship.

I wasn't able to find anything where they have directly worked together, but I'm sure they would've crossed paths at some point. Both of their careers took off at about the same time (1979) so I assume their respective reputations for being "the zany guy" both orbited each other to some degree. Maybe not any sort of actual relationship, but at least a kinship. And so I thought that Al would have something to say. Observation, remembrance, whatever.

--Patrick

Conan O'Brian remembers Robin Williams.


The cast of Broadway's hit show "Aladdin" created their own tribute. James Monroe Iglehart, who won a Tony Award as the Genie, led the crowd at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Tuesday in a rousing version of "Friend Like Me" after the curtain went down. The show's Playbills had been stuffed with the song's lyrics and everyone was encouraged to sing along. (via AP)

Apparently, according to his widow, Williams was privately dealing the early onset of Parkinson's Disease.
https://www.yahoo.com/movies/wife-robin-williams-had-parkinsons-disease-his-94744481702.html

By the way, for anyone who has Disney XD, they'll be showing Aladdin today at 11 A.M. and 7:30 PM. These screenings will be without commercial interruption, if they're anything like the Disney channel screening I stumbled across last night.

filmfanatic said:

By the way, for anyone who has Disney XD, they'll be showing Aladdin today at 11 A.M. and 7:30 PM. These screenings will be without commercial interruption, if they're anything like the Disney channel screening I stumbled across last night.

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I hope they aren't sped-up/edited like I've seen them do movies on the regular Disney channel.

Zero Esc said:

I hope they aren't sped-up/edited like I've seen them do movies on the regular Disney channel.

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"Time-compressed"
Most of the time I don't even notice the slight speed-up, but there are those times when it's really noticeable and you feel like you're watching a Keystone Cops short.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

"Time-compressed"
Most of the time I don't even notice the slight speed-up, but there are those times when it's really noticeable and you feel like you're watching a Keystone Cops short.

--Patrick

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Fuck that.

It's mainly jarring in movies I've seen many times and know their timing, like Aladdin or The Incredibles.

GasBandit said:

This film has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit your screen, and to run in the time allotted.

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But I didn't know what that meant when I was a little kid!

Marc Maron re-released his interview with Robin. It's such a rare experience to hear Robin talking candidly and openly about his life without that exaggerated frenetic energy which accompanies him in all the tv interviews I've seen him in. It's funny, sad, and wonderful to hear.

filmfanatic said:

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While the sentiment is genuine, does it bother anyone else that he (they) could not help themselves from plugging their wares? It's a statement about the death of a great man, and it most certainly could have been expressed as just "Mork & Mindy" & "Aladdin" without the shameless branding plug.

redthirtyone said:

While the sentiment is genuine, does it bother anyone else that he (they) could not help themselves from plugging their wares?

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I think it's hugely ironic considering there was all that animosity between Williams and Disney, and he had his name removed from all Aladdin merchandise. (I have a nice making-of book somewhere and he's referred to only as "the Genie.")

People using the Genie "you're free" image especially get my goat because Robin Williams isn't "free" to go to Disneyland or whatever. It's such a cloying, romanticized view of suicide and it gets my goat every time. (Luckily I have a lot of goats.)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

ZenMonkey said:

People using the Genie "you're free" image especially get my goat because Robin Williams isn't "free" to go to Disneyland or whatever. It's such a cloying, romanticized view of suicide and it gets my goat every time. (Luckily I have a lot of goats.)

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I would like to apologize to you, then, ZenMonkey, for when I had used the image earlier in this thread. I had not meant for any connotations like that in relation to suicide. I had chosen the image simply to go along with my sentiment for how I will miss Robin Williams and the impact that he had made for me and my father. I'm sorry if I am among the many to have gotten your goat that way. I did not mean to.

Aww. Now I feel bad; I didn't even see your use of it. It was more the barrage on Twitter and Tumblr that annoyed me. Lazy image reposting without any thought. I'm on my phone so can't search too well, but I'm sure your post was far more articulate.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

ZenMonkey said:

Aww. Now I feel bad; I didn't even see your use of it. It was more the barrage on Twitter and Tumblr that annoyed me. Lazy image reposting without any thought. I'm on my phone so can't search too well, but I'm sure your post was far more articulate.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Don't worry about it. I can understand how it could annoy someone, seeing Twitter and Tumblr just spamming the same message instead of people voicing their individual stories in a more articulate manner.

Well, Tapatalk is great, but I really did mean to give you a hug and not just coldly "agree." ;-)

ZenMonkey said:

Well, Tapatalk is great, but I really did mean to give you a hug and not just coldly "agree." ;-)

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Thanks for the sentiment, ZenMonkey. Even with all the spamming out there on the internet, it's good to see real sentiment and impacts.

I choose to believe that robin williams did not die but finally released his true pure energy form from his meaty chrysalis.

ZenMonkey said:

I think it's hugely ironic considering there was all that animosity between Williams and Disney, and he had his name removed from all Aladdin merchandise. (I have a nice making-of book somewhere and he's referred to only as "the Genie.")

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To be fair, he did return for the third movie. Though I recall he once called is contract with Disney as "the contract from Hell." Apparently, when you sign with Disney, you don't just sign for one movie. You sign for several, some being mandatory. That's apparently how he got stuck doing, say, Flubber.

EDIT: I just spent a few minutes trying to find anything on this apparently contract from Hell. All I found was a post I made in the Movies thread about Flubber. I swear I heard it somewhere, but maybe it was just from a friend that was full of shit. Anyone ever heard about this?

After reading some of the writeups on Parkinsons medications, I think I may know what happened.

One of the meds that is tried first, Dopamine Agonists, has a couple of very nasty side effects: insomnia, confusion and hallucinations.

Put two and two together, and... ouch.

ThatNickGuy said:

To be fair, he did return for the third movie. Though I recall he once called is contract with Disney as "the contract from Hell." Apparently, when you sign with Disney, you don't just sign for one movie. You sign for several, some being mandatory. That's apparently how he got stuck doing, say, Flubber.

EDIT: I just spent a few minutes trying to find anything on this apparently contract from Hell. All I found was a post I made in the Movies thread about Flubber. I swear I heard it somewhere, but maybe it was just from a friend that was full of shit. Anyone ever heard about this?

Click to expand...

I don't have a source to link to, but you are correct about the multi-commitment contract. Disney isn't the only studio to do this, but when it comes to their contracts, they don't screw around.

jwhouk said:

After reading some of the writeups on Parkinsons medications, I think I may know what happened.

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I've also seen alimony troubles and abortion (?) tossed around as reasons for his suicide. As if struggling with your sobriety and severe clinical depression after being told you have an illness that's likely going to fuck you up for the rest of your life weren't enough. I am phenomenally lucky enough not to have struggled with drug or alcohol addictions, but I can say with certainty from my own experience that the news (and possibly symptoms) of his diagnosis didn't necessarily require another agonist to make him fatally suicidal. And in my own opinion -- flame away -- all the speculation is unnecessary and rather disrespectful.

I'm not trying to flame, but it's in human nature to speculate on any occurrence.

I think that's Rupert Murdoch's motto.


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Imagine you have been having issues with addiction and mental health issues for most of your life. Then, you discover you have an illness that requires you to take medication to reduce its effects. The doctor tells you about the side effects: insomnia, disorientation, and possible hallucinations.

What I'm suggesting is that his death should be classified as suicide under the influence. The same way that someone on a trip of LSD decides to jump off a bridge because they think they're invincible.

I suffer from depression, and have had suicidal experiences. There is a dark part of me, when I read about things like this, that thinks I'll simply never outrun it. Perhaps suicide is my end, whether tomorrow or when I'm 63, or 97.

I read something about that today--how news about suicide affects people with suicidal thoughts. It must be difficult to be reminded that it's always a battle. :-/

stienman said:

His toxicology report will help them determine that.

But to be pedantic, in the same way no one dies of cancer (it's heart failure, liver failure, etc) there is no "suicide" or "under the influence" in the examiners report. They don't suppose a why, only a how.

The actual cause of death is "asphyxiation." The police investigation may say, "Self inflicted." There is nothing beyond that, unless an outside party (family, usually) starts their own investigation and subsequently sues anyone they believe is partly responsible for his death - and perhaps at this point the courts can decide whether the drug is to blame, and then you might have an "under the influence" ruling.

It may also be that once the toxicology report is done, then it will trigger a report to the FDA or CDC based on what else was in his system. This is how some drug interaction effects are discovered or measured.

Until either of those things happens, though, we can do nothing more than speculate.

As far as the validity of speculation, it may be impolite or offensive, but this is how humans grow and learn - if something bad or scary happens you can either run away and ignore it, living in fear of it, or you can pry it apart and find out why so you can avoid the same fate. We've evolved for this sort of discovery - those who seek to understand and learn from their understanding have a better chance at reproducing.

Then there's those of us who just reproduce willy-nilly regardless.

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Well said, Steinman.

I'd also like to use this post as a springboard for an impromptu "ask me anything" about mental illness. I'm heavily involved in figuring out the biological basis of depression; I feel that things are less scary the more we know about them, and because explaining how we might be able to 'figure out' depression helps me cope with Mr. Williams' loss.

Cheers.

redthirtyone said:

While the sentiment is genuine, does it bother anyone else that he (they) could not help themselves from plugging their wares? It's a statement about the death of a great man, and it most certainly could have been expressed as just "Mork & Mindy" & "Aladdin" without the shameless branding plug.

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It bothers me that it felt "boilerplate," mainly.

--Patrick

Enresshou said:

Well said, Steinman.

I'd also like to use this post as a springboard for an impromptu "ask me anything" about mental illness. I'm heavily involved in figuring out the biological basis of depression; I feel that things are less scary the more we know about them, and because explaining how we might be able to 'figure out' depression helps me cope with Mr. Williams' loss.

Cheers.

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How far away are we from a cure for depression?

bhamv3 said:

How far away are we from a cure for depression?

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We are pretty far, unfortunately. This is, largely, due to the fact that depression is an extremely complex illness and we're still trying to figure out the "nuts and bolts" of the disorder.

Take something like Huntington's disease: it's caused by a single gene, and it's entirely genetic. Depression, on the other hand, is not entirely genetic. It has both genetic causes (studies using siblings/twins have shown there's about a ~40% rate of inheritance of depression) but also experience-dependent causes, primarily long-term stress (link, if you're interested: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/stress-management/expert-answers/stress/faq-20058233). Even the genetic causes are murky, because different parts of your brain do different things and have different patterns of genes to identify. To help clarify why this can be a big deal, one gene goes UP in the amygdala (controls fear/emotion) but DOWN in the prefrontal cortex (controls the stress response/some higher functions) in patients with depression. Considering that our genes are what dictate our biochemistry, that our biochemistry is altered in depression, and that drugs act by altering our biochemistry, understanding the genetics behind depression is a big deal.

In a nutshell, this is all important because to design treatments to cure depression we need to understand the biological basis for it. Until then, we might get lucky with some drug treatments (such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors), but we're kind of grasping blindly.

Part of the reason we're still so in the dark is because research on depression is SHIT compared to other illnesses. Forgive the rant, but it infuriates me that--despite the fact that depression is the #2 leading cause of disability worldwide (Source) and the #1 leading cause of disability in people aged 14-44 (Source) it is woefully underfunded. To give an example: depression is over a hundred times more prevalent than AIDS and, factoring in disability, results in eight times more years of life lost (Source). In spite of this, it receives less than 12% of the funding that AIDS does.

Personal anger aside...I think it's important to keep several things in mind. The first is that biology is finally starting to implement computational approaches, and I think we're poised on the cusp of a golden age for medicine. What this computational approach means is that, instead of examining only one gene/cell/etc at a time, we're getting much more high-throughput methods. My own research, for instance, focuses on looking at how each of ~25,000 genes varies in the prefrontal cortex in depression--something that would have been unthinkable even ten years ago! So we should be getting much faster and more efficient at identifying the biological roots of depression and, hence, figuring out what to 'attack' in developing new treatment strategies. It sucks how slow science can be sometimes, but I think it's important to remember that we only discovered the structure of DNA--and that it carried genetic information--sixty years ago. Imagine what the next sixty will give us.

And, if I explained anything badly, please feel free to ask me to clarify.

Enresshou said:

Wbiology is finally starting to implement computational approaches, and I think we're poised on the cusp of a golden age for medicine. What this computational approach means is that, instead of examining only one gene/cell/etc at a time, we're getting much more high-throughput methods.

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Programmers often learn by taking working code, making tiny changes to it, then recompiling it to see what happens. Leaving the (SUBSTANTIAL!) ethical considerations aside for the moment, engineering retrovirii to reprogram DNA in itself sounds like a daunting enough challenge.

--Patrick

If it makes you feel any better, it's hard for physicists and engineers to sell computational methods to customers as well. Well, except in mechanics, where people are cool with it because it follows logically. I do computational physics for a living, and it can be really difficult to convince oil companies that this code with a runtime of weeks is as valuable as Jim the Experienced Geologist down the hall who can look at the same data and do similar things in his head based on experience.

--Patrick

(Edited to update dead video link)

When it comes out on Sept 1, I will be on vacation. Assuming I can find it, I will be watching this, as Billy Joel says, “...to forget about Life for a while.”

—Patrick

PatrThom said:

Assuming I can find it, I will be watching this

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Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Robins-Wish-Susan-Schneider-Williams/dp/B08FF7Q8S5/
FandangoNow: https://www.fandangonow.com/details/movie/robin-s-wish-2020/MMV6BEA6F3D87815E4C01CBDC77305CF9823
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Robin_s_Wish?id=el4EqSekklY.P
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/robins-wish/id1526227199
Vudu: https://www.vudu.com/content/movies/details/title/1492041
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX3wNWEV13o

...apparently not available on Hulu nor Netflix, though.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 92% so far, with audience rating still pending.

--Patrick

Man, fuck this guy.

--Patrick

It's been long enough that people will act like that. You often see it. No surprises.

PatrThom said:

View attachment 46584

Man, fuck this guy.

--Patrick

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"Formulaic emotion jerkers" is code for "his movies made me cry and I'm angry about it". Also, "pretentious"? I have serious doubts that this person has even seen much of Robin's work, I'm thinking he just picked a topic to get the most Reddit votes.

PatrThom said:

View attachment 46584

Man, fuck this guy.

--Patrick

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He's in the right sub.

I won't say I haven't been critical of RW back in his day. Not every movie he was in was pure gold or anything.
Things like: the Centennial Man was a bad adaptation, and Ms Doubtfire was x likely to be evolved past in his lifetime. He was still an amazing person, a great comedian, a great actor, a tormented soul, and in some of his work truly inspiring.
Saying he's a hack or formulaic is just trolling though. Some things are a formula now because of him.

There is rarely (if that even) anyone who claims to have met Williams and had a bad experience. Even those who saw him at his darkest, that darkness never seemed to be aimed at anyone except himself. His humor was often gold and there are so many stories of actors being unable to to keep a straight face during takes because every take would be some new ad-lib from him. Not everything can be masterpieces but this was someone who could do everything from comedy to drama with emotional heart.

Most stuff on unpopular opinion is made up anyways. The whole point is to say something so unpopular people upvote you for it. This guy likely just realized saying this would be an easy bait since Robin Williams has been so beloved over the years.

ScytheRexx said:

Most stuff on unpopular opinion is made up anyways. The whole point is to say something so unpopular people upvote you for it. This guy likely just realized saying this would be an easy bait since Robin Williams has been so beloved over the years.

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The only way it could be more bait would be if it ended with "and don't get me started on that Steve Irwin prick"

Dropping this here because it belongs here.


(YouTube link: "Oral History: How Robin Williams EXPLODED onto Happy Days")

"It's a very full hat." - Classic.

--Patrick

What a great episode. Thanks for sharing that!