Tom Tozer and Bill BlackMost of us have complained of feeling down in the dumps. We’ve said, “I’m depressed” when we’ve been in a funk. Usually we bounce back.
However, most of us also know that there is a whole other galaxy far, far away from the normal emotional roller coaster of life; it’s a black hole, an abyss so deep that some people fall into it, become paralyzed and cannot save themselves.
According to the World Health Organization, 121 million people worldwide suffer from clinical depression. The National Institute of Health says that 14.8 million adults in the U.S., age 18 and up, are afflicted with this type of mental illness.
How many times have we experienced the gut-wrenching news of a mass shooting carried out by someone who found life to be so devoid of hope that he resorted to the unthinkable? How often have we been jolted by the self-inflicted death of a celebrity who appeared to have the perfect life — only to discover later that he or she lived a private life of mental torment?
We could hardly make sense of the suicide of Robin Williams. Here was a truly gifted man who was a source of laughter for all of us. We were in awe of his comic genius. Most of us knew about his bouts with alcohol, drugs and depression, but we also knew he had sought and received treatment. How could Robin Williams not have felt loved and admired? The world was truly his stage and we were his appreciative and adoring audience. Then he was gone.