Robin Williams Dead At 63

[milk]

Indeed.
Especially for endogenous depressions.

But it's certainly good to combine this treatment with probing conversations with a well-educated professional. They can give you advice and (non-medical) tools to deal with your disease.

Just a careful opinion though; this is a very complicated matter.
Each patient is different, despite all the similarities.

Unfortunately, there are also bad psychiatrists, who only make things worse, and they are also making lots of money, at the expense of patients who firmly believe in their doctor's treatment.

When I was on medication years ago, the Dr prescribing saw me in 20-minute appointments and she evinced absolutely no interest in my personal well-being whatsoever. I know there are good doctors out there. But my question is, does the medical model and constraints on medical practitioners push things in this direction?

Well, I didn't mean to hijack this thread. Obviously, Williams had some of the best treatments money can buy. Here's a very good interview with Williams on the Marc Maron show from 2010:

http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/remembering_robin_williams 

[Marc]

In reply to Marc's point: talk therapists make money too. Peddling talk is the same as peddling drugs that way.

Which was exactly my point.

[milk]

Which was exactly my point.

But who has more power, money and influence in this? Not that that proves anything either way by itself. But I'm thinking the drug industry knew what they were doing vis a vis the birth of the depression-as-disease model (Greenberg claims this follows the FDA decision to make companies prove that their medicine cures specific diseases). 
Well, looking at my original post on this I should apologize. My statement that "medication most often does not help people with depression" is not exactly correct and Marc may be right to be critical of this. So I'm sorry about that Marc. What is true is that there is conflicting research on whether or not placebos do better than anti-depressants in different forms of depression and a significant number of people do worse on antidepressants.
I still believe the medical model they sold to Americans and now are selling to the Japanese (who have never been interested in talk therapy) is questionable. Medication is big business. It may help some to change their personalities. Some people with very severe depression may even need it. But I continue to believe that it's important to think through the implications of using medication to change one's personality and that for many people medication won't get to the root of the problem. Medication may even help us avoid getting to the root of the problem. I wanted to add that I'm not saying mainstream talk therapy is all its cracked up to be either. Different methods will (hopefully) work for different people depending on the problems.   
But...
As Larkin puts it,

They *#@% you up, your mum and dad.   
    They may not mean to, but they do.   
They fill you with the faults they had
    And add some extra, just for you.

But they were *#@%ed up in their turn
    By fools in old-style hats and coats,   
Who half the time were soppy-stern
    And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
    It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
    And don't have any kids yourself.

Again, RIP Robin Williams. Nanu nanu!

[The new erato]

Well, might as well quote Lennon here:

As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still f*****g peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me
If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me

[milk]

Well, might as well quote Lennon here:

As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still f*****g peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me
If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me

[Brian]

Here's a very good interview with Williams on the Marc Maron show from 2010:

http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/remembering_robin_williams

Can I just strongly encourage everyone to listen to this. It's a podcast, so you can play it on earphones, in the car, whatever.

[Karl Henning]

I shall wait until I can be at emotional ease, but listen, I will.

[milk]

Leonard Cohen's interesting reaction to depression:
https://www.youtube.com/v/FAoHYBpj8vY&sns=fb

[jochanaan]

For many great creative artists--and there's no doubt Robin Williams was one--their "disease" is an essential part of, or goad to, their creativity.  They would not have been the same people without it.  Case in point: Edvard Munch.  A master artist--but after a successful treatment of his mental illness (can't remember what it was exactly now, but as I recall, it resulted in a suicide attempt), his art lost much of its early power.

For Robin Williams, any treatment may have seemed or actually been worse than the disease itself in that it might have robbed him of his creative impulse and probity.

[TheGSMoeller]

When I was on medication years ago, the Dr prescribing saw me in 20-minute appointments and she evinced absolutely no interest in my personal well-being whatsoever. I know there are good doctors out there. But my question is, does the medical model and constraints on medical practitioners push things in this direction?

Well, I didn't mean to hijack this thread. Obviously, Williams had some of the best treatments money can buy. Here's a very good interview with Williams on the Marc Maron show from 2010:

http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/remembering_robin_williams

I listen to Maron's podcast, and this one with Williams is a great conversation between them.

[Karl Henning]

For many great creative artists--and there's no doubt Robin Williams was one--their "disease" is an essential part of, or goad to, their creativity.

Thank you for using many and not all  0:)

[TheGSMoeller]

Didn't see it mentioned just by skimming through the comments, but Rob Schneider, actor/comedian and a friend of Williams, has come out publicly and said that a serious side effect of the Parkinson meds that Williams was on is thoughts of suicide.

[Karl Henning]

Argh, another case of the medication being worse than the ailment.

[vandermolen]

Was very sad to hear this news. Yes, Brian's sensitive piece is excellent. Liked Robin Williams in 'Dead Poet's Society' which tragically and ironically in the view of current events culminates in the suicide of one of his pupils.