Robin Williams death prompts me to examine the irrationality and rationality of depression. I think weve all been depressed to varying degrees but what makes someone call it quits? I used to believe that successfully remedying depression had to do with someones personal method of coping. I still believe in that, but theres more. First off, I regard depression an emotional sickness. And like sickness in the physical sense, treatment gets provided. But, ultimately, we are forced to just wait our physical sickness out. Battling depression, as the cliche goes, is sometimes a misdirection. Those of us who have had the depressive experience know Its sometimes a passive experience. You have to sit back (more like curl up in bed and remain crippled there with the intrusion of harassing thoughts) and endure natures turmoil until the emotional storm passes. I think this is important for all to recognize because failure to effectively battle depression can exacerbate the hopelessness thats characteristic to depression. By why call it quits? Well, I think on one level suicide can be seen simply as a painkiller. Its a fundamental principle of our psychology that what drives us is the desire to avoid pain or seek pleasure, with the former arguably being the stronger impulse. Just look at Robin Williams who has probably extracted pleasure from every source life provides but judged these extractions to be insufficient. Having it all, sadly, isnt enough sometimes. If were rational, one can make the case that suicide, and assisted suicide, are very ethical considerations that shouldnt be mired in taboo and stigma. One can further make the case by saying that the remedies we provide for our sicknesses should have a proportional relationship to the ailments they are intended to treat. This formula is easy to understand in terms of headaches if we are taking 4 Tylenol for it. But with more pain comes the need for strong opiates. And with more and more pain comes the need for medicine that doesnt exist yet. So, on another level, people who suffer deep depression are a victim of medicinal deprivation. Severe depression is then like the cancer of the emotional world. Sometimes theres nothing we can do to help. Euthanasia becomes a viable alternative. As humans, we live our lives with every intention of keeping pain to a minimum. That, to me, Is the definition of self interest. Our species is almost destined to be druggies as a result. We are the drug seeking species because we understand that being pain free in the here and now is all that matters. You may argue to the contrary and say that you also live in anticipation of future rewards. But recognize that that anticipation is giving you pleasure in the here and now. And Part of happiness depends upon anticipation... Just like how anticipation can also make pain worse (stubbing your toe is made worse if you know its going to happen simply because the anticipation spoils the moments prior to the stubbing.) anticipation can heighten your level of happiness. Even with anticipated rewards, as Im sure the late Robin Williams had, wealth, fame, prestige, love, etc. significantly depreciate to us when in the throes of depression. Whether or not Robin Williams suicide was warranted is up for debate.. But Our depression doesnt care about the good things in life any more than cancer does. Either that, or the good things in life are disregarded because the pain from depression distracts us. When you cut your finger, do you immediately start thinking about all the fun you have left in life? No. You dont even think about all the pain you have left. Your focus zooms in on the current pain until it subsides. You tend to the wound and nothing else. So, its not difficult to see that in the absence of a proportionate solution to pain we resort to an alternative that may be disproportionate, but nevertheless functions as desired. Getting rid of pain comes first. Family and fortune? A distant second and third if anything. We are a species thats just stuck with being a slave to the passions... Just as much as we are a slave to the internal workings of the cells of our bodies. Depression is far less deadly than cancer so there is a silver lining in my comparison to it. Why people kill themselves isnt always deep and meaningful. They are just sick. Yes, there is a construct of meaning inside the heads of the people who kill themselves, but meaning isnt necessarily meaningful. Its just chemicals. We dont stigmatize and debate the circumstances of getting a runny nose. We dont shame ourselves and call each other weak for not having a nose that cant hold its own. We understand physiological reactions dont belong to the will, so runny noses are exempt from our criticism . What people dont understand is that there is nothing about us that isnt physiological. We arent spiritual beings in a body. We are just simply bodies at the mercy of what our physiology dictates. Runny noses and depression stem from the same physio, yet they are unnecessarily distinguished in the realm of taboo and stigma. So the point I want to end on is that we owe it to the Robin Williams of the world to recognize depression to just simply be a matter of chemicals, not character.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 02:44:09 +0000
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