On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 5:28 AM, Doug Eastick <[email protected]> wrote:
> time.com has a short piece from Alan Alda that is along the lines of > Doing Something. > > http://time.com/3103214/alan-alda-robin-williams-suicide/ > It is a nice thought by Alda, who has made a point of educating himself about science and psychology over the decades. He is right that we could and should be doing more to treat depression and other mental disorders, and I hope we do - we could save a lot of lives, and improve the quality of life of many more (the ACA has done a lot to expand coverage for mental health treatment already, but more is needed). I have already seen this morning though some misunderstanding of his closing lines (not on this thread, but elsewhere): "Maybe our grief can be transformed into an awakening. The man who enriched our lives could be the focus of saving countless other lives. Robin Williams could be with us a little longer." I don't think Alda means here that Williams might still be alive if we had done more to treat or educate about depression. Williams had a lot of knowledge about, and tons of access to, mental health treatment. While both are essential, and we need to do better, neither guarantees success in the fight against the monster that is depression. What Alda means here is that Williams might be with us longer in a lasting effort to do more to treat mental disorders. I have a child with friends who work on William's current sitcom; we were hearing reports all last fall that on set he seemed distracted, and that after delivering his lines in a manic frenzy, he would sit in a self-created bubble. Reportedly he was nice enough to the crew, but extremely low energy and at times almost non-responsive. At the time I did not know if that was just his usual working style, but I did note to my daughter that this behavior sounded worrisome to me. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
