Robin Williams Committed Suicide: In the Past, Would He Have Died In An Insane Asylum?

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It’s hard for me to not write about suicide today. Robin Williams just committed suicide, grabbing our national attention, but for me it hits closer to home. You see my whole life, I’ve happily surrounded myself with creative types and so the art and science ones I love tend to suffer depression. It’s nothing I know intimately (sure the usual down day) yet I’ve been around those managing depression in their heads – a lot.

We read so much about the word “depression,” but we really don’t read about all the mental conditions/disorders that are linked to its manifestation. Have you read what was causing Williams’ depression? Case in point given all the posts flooding the net. We lack an in-depth understanding. We need to start talking about these conditions. Get comfortable saying them if we want to help lower the increasing number of suicides. Robin Williams would talk about his mania and depression, hedging around the term bipolar. There is too much societal stigma around mental disorders.

A friend recently explained to me that bipolar is ranked on a scale with zero representing those feeling normal. When someone hits a plus 3 they go to the “funny farm.” When they hit a minus 3 they commit suicide, like Williams did.

What I can say is we sure as hell don’t know much from where I stand. I struggle to be there for those I know who are such great fun and rewardingly happy one minute and then desperately struggle to simply take a shower to stay clean the next.

This gives me the greatest level of frustration.

I’m no therapist or researcher, but the hole in the fabric of our knowledge is painfully wide and depressingly deep – speaking of depression. As you will read on the net over and over again, the suicide rate is rising and has passed the number of car crashes a year. It’s also increasing in older adults like Robin Williams. I can state a lot of facts here, but why when I can give you a bunch of links at the end.

St. Joseph’s Retreat
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Instead consider that up until the 1950s insane asylums (lunatic asylums) were still growing in numbers in the US. It’s where we housed and locked up all those with mental disorders. I remember our local insane asylum St Joseph’s Retreat not far from my house in the suburbs of Dearborn, Michigan. It was the first private mental institution in Michigan opening its doors in 1885. When it closed, I sat in the car at a shopping center parking lot on a warm summer day while my parents sneaked in to explore through the cavernous building, salvaging antique hardware. They returned with tales of an endless maze of rooms, each with more doors then they could count.

Did you know the term “stress,” as we know it, only took hold in the 1920s?

Did you know that “female hysteria” was once considered an exclusively female mental condition treated by outright nutty methods, including doctor-administered masturbation, into the 1950s?

The positive news is I’ve noticed some experts are starting to view depression as a possible conduit for how creativity takes place. Hence the reason those with depression shape our world in a most fun and interesting way filled with great innovation.

For such a contemporary society, we have barely begun to understand what’s behind depression and how to treat it. My goodness, consider it wasn’t long ago that Robin Williams may have died at St Joseph’s Retreat. It catered to the affluent and he was raised in wealthy Bloomfield Hills only 45 minutes away. Unusual behavior and depression was not easily accepted back then and people were strapped down and locked away against their will. Yet in today’s world, suicide was his relief.

I ask you, do you think we have gained better insights and solutions?

SevenPonds past posts on suicide:

• Understanding Suicide, An infographic reveals crucial information on suicide’s connections with culture, race, gender and history.
• What is Suicide Prevention? An interview with Jennifer Lockman, MS.