Dial a Cliche

Must not get angry.  Must remain calm, and not react in the face of crass ignorance.  You see here is the thing.  Whenever a mental health issue is brought to the fore, the media (Social wing in particular) seems to spout forth crap in an unceasingly irritating fashion. 

Example number 1;

“Tears of a Clown”

Robin Williams it would appear, took his own life.  This is a tragic occurrence, and one which most people seem to be rightly very sad about.  It is not however an appropriate time to drag out that crass, awful cliche about funny people being prone to depression.  EVERYONE can be hit by depression, and EVERYONE can be funny.  The two are really no more interconnected than that.  Following the logic that because Tommy Cooper and Peter Sellers suffered from mental health issues, I may as well point out that they also defecated, and there is, as a direct result, a connection between excreting fecal matter and depression.  See how silly the connection is now?

Example number 2;

“Why did he do that?”

Ever considered that it wasn’t a choice?  Maybe consider your position, your family, the mess that your suicide would leave behind first.  Now that you have considered all of those things, then maybe consider that Robin Williams probably did consider those things as well.  Perhaps choice doesn’t enter into it?

I have never been his biggest fan, but lets pay the man the tribute of looking at his impressive body of work, rather than making bland, cliched, stupid and insensitive remarks.  Lets not treat Depression, Mental Health, Bi-Polarity etc as something that just makes you a bit sad, something that you can just pull yourself out of.  Mental Health kills so many more than you could ever imagine possible, and yet here we are, in 2014 with supposedly intelligent people saying “I just don’t get it”.  Much work needed.