How can one have between 55 and 130 million dollars and not find something to be happy about or a distraction to make the misery better?

We have been talking about this. Obviously, malignant depression can visit anyone. I think a roof, power and not having to worry about what to eat should do it, but depression is I guess about lots more than that.

If nothing else, it’s proof positive that money can’t buy happiness.

Evidently his struggle with depression was a lifelong one. But it’s such a shame that even tho he could certainly afford it, somehow he couldn’t connect with the right Psychiatrist to either talk him out or medicate him out of depression.

He was such a unique talent and loved by so many. It’s unfortunate that he couldn’t find a way to connect with that enough to give him that glimmer of hope that if he
stayed alive long enough, things would start looking up.

His distraction was part of what killed him. Drugs. Money does not buy happiness.

I didn’t read his recent story. He was a drug addict?

I saw a photo of him on the Today Show this morning, taken in July 2014 after getting out of rehab or while in rehab (but out at an ice cream shop or something). Very skinny, arms like twigs, a few days beard growth, very haggard, not like the plump, rosy complexion in some of his photos.

People with lots of money and power have never been immune to depression and suicide. The money might be able to provide some part-time relief from the symptoms but most of the time do not address the cause evidently.
Perhaps it is more a case of having the resources to stay healthy and fed, get emergency medical and psychological help and survive a little longer whereas folks with fewer monetary resources die from a lack of them before suicide becomes an option.

Must have been more of an existential crisis of some kind. That coupled with an extremely high IQ can lead to extreme overthinking which leads to what we see here!

Money doesn’t buy happiness.

Didn’t you ever learn that @Hypocrisy_Central?

Depression is a medical condition. It affects people to varying degrees. Yes therapy may help. Yes, medication may help. Then again they may not help enough.

Having all the resources in the entire world may not help. Beyond that, therapy and medication are not a CURE for clinical depression. They are simply band-aids. I do not say that to make light of the relief they do provide. I only mean they do not cure it.

I’ll say it again….clinical Depression is a medical condition. It is not an “existential crisis” or having a “bad day” it is a ILLNESS.

What @anniereborn wrote, “Depression is a medical condition”.

Money doesn’t protect you from depression any more than money protects you from heart disease or cancer.

You know what I think wasn’t helpful to Robin Williams? Every time he appeared on a talk show, he did that whole funny, multiple characters, crazy talking gig, where he acted wacky and manic. Everyone loved it. I found it extremely annoying and I couldn’t stand him (I know I am in the minority). I felt like “why can’t he just act like a regular person?” However, now it was expected for him to act that way. If he were to go on a show and not act that way, it would be like “what happened to him? He used to be so funny and now he’s boring.” He should have nipped that whole routine in the bud long ago.

Just my thoughts.

He acted like that on talk shows because he was nervous, and then jacked up on coke. He and Pam Dawber were major coke heads.

^ I met him in LA in the early 80’s at a coke dealer’s place and he acted just like that

I’m amazed by how well we think we know celebrities based on watching them on TV or reading about them on the Net, even to the point of analyzing them as if we were their psychiatrists ... and we never even met them.

@zenvelo Money doesn’t buy happiness.
Didn’t you ever learn that @Hypocrisy_Central?
I have heard that, but in reality it makes the misery a lot less noticeable. Myself, with feta like that I would be an adrenaline junkie, or a massive shopaholic, which would be far better than self-medicating with booze, dope or other chemicals (which seem many people method of choice).

@rojo The money might be able to provide some part-time relief from the symptoms but most of the time do not address the cause evidently.
Glossing over my boredom and such with massive amounts of cash, or huge quantities of booze, dope, and whatever……… get the charge card! What is sad is to have all that cash and ability to explore multiple whims of fancy and fail to do it.

Apparently Robin Williams’ illness was such that the relief you described (shopping) was not enough for him. We can never know the depth of another’s despair. Combine that with the public’s fickleness about fame, and the celebrity’s personal life’s issues (who can I trust? are people nice to me because I’m famous or because they really like me for me? are my employees stealing from me? does my wife really love me or is she just using me for my money? I can’t leave the house without being photographed by the paparazzi, so I’m like a prisoner. I feel like an unworthy fraud because people think I’m so incredible and I don’t feel that way. Etc. Not saying these are his thoughts, but some possible thoughts that any famous person might have).

Money cannot buy happiness but I know a couple people with no running water, car or air conditioning that are convinced they’d be happier if they had those things. Things we take for granted.

Apparently, but there is still no money that will cure Parkinsons. He had Parkinsons. Latest news from the family. He decided he didn’t want to try to live with it. Somehow…I am more fine with it, but I wish he could have tried just a little, but I’m selfish and wanted a world with the man I knew as the entertainer, Robin Williams, in it and not without it.

In some ways, perhaps those of us who must scuffle to fend off the wolf have an advantage. I know for a fact that were I to acquire a pile of money sufficient to sparing me the need to worry about financial matters for the rest of my days, and yet found myself unhappy, the disappointment would be depressing indeed!

stop with the ‘money can’t buy happiness’ thing. Anybody that thinks this has never been homeless. His death had nothing to do with solvency. I can tell you right now that money is buying my family heaps of happiness.

^ I never get that argument. It could just as easily be said, “Anyone who believes money does buy happiness has never had a real problem.” Just as untrue, but same reasoning.

I, for one, have had all sorts of problems money wouldn’t have solved. Money can solve problems, but some problems need a different approach.