This time it’s Naomi Judd who lost the “long battle with mental illness” according to her family. A few years ago she had even written a book about her recovery. Suicides of the rich & successful are especially depressing because you realize they had all the resources available, the best doctors & therapists, support from their circle of friends, family & business associates, support from fans. But I guess like cancer this disease is incurable no matter what you throw at it. If they couldn’t survive then what chance do we have?
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Thank you for this post. It’s the same with Robin Williams, and also Chester Bennington from Linkin Park. The latter is actually such an irony & tragedy, because he is very successful, popular, famous, rich, & seems to have it all, but only to lose to his drug addictions (if I’m not mistaken) & childhood traumas (even with all his current successes, it all just doesn’t seem to matter to him, in the end).
There is a HUGE/BIG mistake when people (& society) think that only poor people are depressed, and the rich people should have *no* reason to be depressed. I think that’s a very simplistic, ignorant, & naive thinking that most people unfortunately have.
I myself, although not very rich, even consider my life to be quite privileged, & even spoiled, which perhaps leads to my own failures, again, ironically & tragically perhaps. But here I am now, at 40 years old, with severe/heavy depression (diagnosed) & suicidal, and it’s just only getting worse.
Life is full of irony & tragedy.
It’s all random.
ANYTHING could happen, including ANY type/kind of BAD things, situations, etc etc etc.
That’s life (which is IMHO depressing, and pointless, stupid, ridiculous, & meaningless).
Sorry for the long comment.
Just suddenly feeling to share my thoughts & feelings on your great post.
– from Indonesia –
Thanks for those insights..Chester is a great example… he openly suffered from depression all his life and made at least one serious attempt before he did it, so it’s not like he was hiding it. Everyone around him knew. And they were probably giving him all the support that’s available but it still couldn’t save him.
I agree, the world seems to have this attitude toward suicide like only the losers & failures do it. Only the people who don’t seek help. But I think it hits everyone. I’m talking about chronic, lifelong suicidal depression (not just an impulsive moment). For those people it seems like no amount of money, success or even love can save them.
“I myself, although not very rich, even consider my life to be quite privileged, & even spoiled, which perhaps leads to my own failures”
That’s a powerful thought. Maybe our comfort makes it worse? I think so. I’m not rich either but I have enough that I don’t worry about survival, so I guess that’s privilege. When we’re privileged we start feeling an obligation to do more. To deserve it? And if we do nothing, or if we fail to make progress, that’s when our self worth drops to zero no matter what our status is. Maybe some people who are struggling to survive at least have a distraction. They can focus on immediate problems like where to find food. Whereas we who are comfortable have nothing to distract us from the idea that our lives are pointless.
I dunno. Maybe it doesn’t matter… Maybe some of us are marked for death no matter what we do, or what we become.
I get a sort of sick satisfaction, not specifically on a death, but with the concept that despair comes for us all.
Be realistic; being rich and famous is a matter of luck, even luckier if you can do it minus the fame. I doubt it will ever happen to me, and therefor usually when I hear about the rich and famous my reaction is; “wow, sucks for them, glad it isn’t happening to me.” Like there’s a huge defamation trial, and it is awful, but that’s a liability I’ll never have.
Kurt Vonnegut remains the one famous person I know of who endured a full lifespan in complete depression. It made him a great writer, we should all be so lucky. He would joke about it, especially later in his life because he smoked like there was no tomorrow , for 80 years. No cancer, no COPD, he just tripped one day and fell, and so it goes(I’m not being flip, “so it goes” became a slogan of his)….
I anticipate I’ll have to live the whole course, I’m 34 now, and by most estimates I’m going to live into my 90s…. I’ve tried everything, drinking, smoking, being promiscuous with my body in every way I could imagine…. at the end of the day I’m just not interesting enough to die of such things.
Best I can do is sleep as many hours of the day as my body is willing, fast forward through this mess and hopefully meet nothingness on the other side.
“despair comes for us all”
I get a weird satisfaction from that too. I’m sure there’s some catty jealousy in it, but there’s also a calming feeling like “See it doesn’t matter how much you succeed… So I don’t have to try”
Kinda like when you’re on an airplane and there’s turbulence and some people freak out, but I’m like Oh well, if we all go down in a ball of flames no one’s gonna be any better off than the rest, First Class or Economy, just sit back & enjoy the ride
That’s cool to hear about Kurt Vonnegut, I didn’t know that. Wouldn’t it be funny if the cure for suicide was having measured doses of self destruction. Smoking, drinking and all the vices they tell us to avoid. Maybe they got it backwards and we should indulge a little bit. Now there’s a sort of therapy I’ll volunteer to try… Show up to the doctor’s office once a week to get drunk, high & laid. Sounds as valid as anything else.
Lauren Burnett, Sarah Shulze, Katie Meyer.
None of us is immune, celebrity, athlete….human. We’re all susceptible.
The young athlete suicides really get to me, because not only do they have a promising future ahead but they’re literally *healthy*. So all that stuff about exercise,diet, fresh air and ‘healthy body healthy mind’ is just BS. The picture of health, or an overweight chain smoking alcoholic. Like you said we’re all susceptible.
Indeed mental illness, brain damage/disease can strike any of us, esp. as we get older. There’s an interesting Wiki page of all the celebs that committed suicide in the past few decades.
To think these attractive, hardworking people made that decision is pretty eye-opening. Some gave up due to failed careers, relationships or personal life problems and ofc also disease.
But yes mental illness is a real wall. Robin Williams knew exactly what was coming and it was just getting worse for him by the day. I would’ve done the same in his shoes, or if I ever develop such an illness that destroys my brain.
It’s sad but that’s life. Try to live the best life you can while you’re able and then (for me) plan to check out before everything goes to hell.