O’ Captain! My Captain!

Being known, being active, bringing people to laugh, it does not mean that person cannot be struggling with inner difficulties and with a blackening visions, not showing a way out of the misery or negative thoughts.
Let us hope people shall be able to find easier somebody who wants to listen and somebody who can help to get the dark curtain opened to let the sun shine in.

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To remember

• Depression robs you of perspective- blocking out the joys of the past and the promise of tomorrow.
• You believe that it is not worth living in a world without light.
• But depression can lift.
• If given the opportunity, if you can hold on through that darkest hour, the light does return.
• Depression is stigmatized and people avoid having contact with that person they consider having a mental illness and addiction.
• Fighting depression requires Herculean levels of strength.
• There is help for those who have depression; therapy, medication, and even meditation.
• It is important to keep fighting.

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Related articles

• Blackness ever blackening: My lifetime of depression (psypost.org)
  I don’t remember ever being called a happy-go-lucky or sunny-natured child, or feeling like one, although I certainly experienced varieties of happiness sometimes. I have a clear memory of somersaulting out of bed one morning when I was six or seven for the pleasure of getting up and going to school. Yet I’m suspicious of that moment as having more to do with me trying to manipulate the family mood than a genuine expression of joie de vivre. It looks, in retrospect, too theatrical. It’s the only really energetic recollection I have of myself, but I’m sure there were others.
• I am the Face of Depression and This is My Story. (dmmcginnis.wordpress.com)
  We are told that, tragically, Mr. Williams took his own life after suffering from major depression. I think this is ultimately why it has hit us so hard.  Society as a whole stigmatizes depression, they sweep it under the rug and make it even harder for those that are suffering. People as a whole do not understand truly what depression is. I think Mr. Sean McGuire would agree with me that you can not truly understand depression unless you have experienced it. To suggest otherwise is insulting and asinine.
• Depression-seeking help (exegete77.wordpress.com)
  Over the last four years since I began writing about depression and the Christian life, several people have contacted me about depression. They had been battling it for months or years.

  For some the fear is that a Christian should not have a problem with depression. Some view it as a sign of weakness or lack of faith. Others see a continuing rerun of the same thing. For some depression seems to establish a life of its own that seems to never end, rearing its ugly head time after time.

• Depression – let’s tell the real stories (kateonthinice.com)
  I did not go to my GP because I felt silly about doing so and like it was typical of terrible me to be making a fuss unnecessarily and wasting everyone’s time. I slept because I was exhausted. I did not exercise but then I had not done so previously. I bought self-help books and trawled the Internet looking for answers but I did not get better.
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  Personally, I find it very simplistic to say that there are only two types of responses that people have to depression. Every individual has their own story to tell and their contribution to make to raising awareness of the realities of depression. Whether they feel strong enough to have that voice or whether the stigma of mental health issues gets in the way is another matter.
• Depression in cancer ‘overlooked’ (bbc.co.uk)

  People often wrongly assume that major depression is part of a natural reaction to cancer – but this is much more than transient sadness, the Edinburgh and Oxford university researchers say.

  Their report suggests a new nurse-led treatment could help thousands of people.

  In a series of studies they analysed data on 21,000 cancer patients living in Scotland.

  They found 6% to 13% of people had clinical depression, compared with just 2% of the general population at any time.

  Cancer survivor Sonia Wilson said cancer made her feel “like a burden to society”

  Sufferers of major depression feel persistently low, may find it difficult to sleep and have poor appetites.

  But researchers found 75% of people reporting these symptoms were not receiving treatment, partly because they did not consider seeking help and professionals did not pick up on their illness.

• When the sun shouldn’t shine. (failingathaiku.wordpress.com)
  Is it just me, or on a day when someone you loved dies, isn’t it weird if the weather is nice? We don’t think that way if it is a celebrity, but if it is a loved one we kind of expect it to rain, or for the sky to grow dark early, or something.
• How to have the best day Ever! (annasuvorova68.wordpress.com)
  When we take responsibility for one day, just today, we create a Life we want to live.
  Here are a few little guide lines for those who need a gentle reminder.
  One step at a time.
  One breath at a time.
• Fly high. Soar and Be Free. (lovelifeandlemonade.com)
  We’ve never talked. And yet I’m so sad he is no longer in this world. Is it crazy? Crazy that I’m essentially mourning the death of Robin Williams?
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  Society has such a negative (and nasty) outlook on mental health related issues.  The whole “just snap out of it” thing, by the way – doesn’t work. Don’t you think those that are feeling this enormous amount of anxiety, pain and sadness would snap their fingers and make it go away if they had that ability?
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  Zelda Williams, daughter of late Robin Williams, has been flooded with horrific messages about her father. So much so that she has stepped away from social media to grieve in private. Ridiculous. What has this world come to? We don’t understand something in it’s entirety so we belittle, bash and demean it? Demean people?
• Surviving Cancer & Depression: 4 Steps to Success (Part 2) (breastcanceryogablog.com)
  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mental illness is very common. One in five Americans aged 16-85 experience some form of mental illness in any year. Suicide is among the top 20 leading causes of death globally for all ages. According to (WHO), every year over 800,000 people die from suicide. That is an alarming statistic.

  The most common mental illnesses are depressive, anxiety and substance use disorder. These three types of mental illnesses often occur in combination. For example, a person with an anxiety disorder could also develop depression, or a person with depression might misuse alcohol or other drugs, in an effort to self-medicate. A third combination would be incompatible pharmaceuticals that exacerbate mental illness during treatment for a physical illness.

• The Dark Cloud Of Depression (anempoweredspirit.com)
  It felt as if I was imprisoned in my own body, unable to be the person I once was. I couldn’t get dressed, I couldn’t eat, and I had no interest in anything but the dark cloud. I began losing weight, and sat in a chair all day and stared out the window.

Connect. Evolve. Thrive.

RIP Robin Williams.

Robin Williams was an amazingly gifted man. His joys and his sorrows were palpable to the audience- whether he was performing stand-up or acting. He made all of us feel: laughter, elation, sadness and pain.

His manic style and twinkling eyes were a part of my childhood- and when I heard of his suicide- I cried. I was surprised by how hard it hit me, but I believe it is also a testament to his gifts as an entertainer that I felt so connected to a man I never met.

I also cried because it always devastates me when I hear that someone who has battled depression has lost their fight. The joy and laughter that Robin Williams gave to so many was not available to him when he needed it on Monday. And the world is surely a less joyous place as a result.

Robin Williams…

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