Nu Vibez and Roleplay Guide Magazine - August 2014 | Page 96

Sad Mourning, Vale Robin - p3

be feeling such hopelessness for ever
escaping from their deep dark place
(depression), but, they also think about
what their effect is on their loved ones of
prolonged residence in that deep dark
place. Depressed people know it causes
ongoing pain for others as they feel
h e l p l e s s to m a ke a d i ffe re n c e .
D e p re s s i o n i s s o m e m e s s o a l l consuming and intractable, crea ng an
inability to respond to help, that it is
beyond the endurance of the sufferer.
There is no point in encouraging
someone with profound depression to
cheer up, or get over it, or even to
provide distrac ons and posi ve
affirma ons. It simply won't be seen. The
experience is like trying to smell your
favourite rose while you have a head cold
and your nose is congested, your friend
may present you with a lovely bunch of
flowers but you will be incapable of
smelling it. Your normal response is
completely knocked out by the illness.
But in some way the problems began
long ago for the deeply depressed like
Robin Williams. Unlike people who have
reac ve depression, where there is a
clear trigger event, like the death of a
spouse, folks with a tendency to
melancholy, that life-long sadness have a
tendency to never be blinded by window
dressing. They are not fooled into
believing promises by poli cians that
show they are lying through their
behaviour for example. And Robin
certainly called out hypocrisy when he
saw it, which was o en.
This life-long world view tends to set
them somewhat apart, and their life is
o en lived as though they are an
observer of it. They try so very hard to
give, they are always giving, because that
is their way of countering what they see
96 - Nu Vibez Magazine - August, 2014

is so wrong with so much. But despite
their sociability and compassion and
their pleasure in the happiness of others,
they o en live a life in which they feel
alone. They are misunderstood precisely
because to give so much requires the
maintenance of a façade, a mask of
having it all together, of having the high
and be er road.
Robin Williams was quoted as saying “I
used to think that the worst thing in life
was to end up alone. It's not. The worst
thing in life is to end up with people that
make you feel all alone.” This is the irony
of his life. The inner details of other
people are almost always opaque. We do
not know what went on behind closed
doors. But a common experience of the
deeply depressed is that they feel alone,
even when they seemingly have an
abundance of others around them.