I feel more hurt by Robin Williams than terrorism (9/11 etc)

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At first I was revolted at the title of this thread. After all, something like 3,000 people died that day. Robin was a likable, funny man. One loss is more important than 3,000 ???

Many years ago there was a moving tribute written to a comedian who had died. It said that we feel sadder when a funny man dies than when a serious actor dies. After all, we've seen the serious actor suffer and die do many times during their career. But the comedian always seemed to cheat death, and somehow win out at the end. We may admire the serious actor, but we feel closer to the comedian. He reminds us of a favorite Uncle, or perhaps our Father. He made us laugh, tickled us, even when the jokes sometimes were getting a bit old. So when he passes we wish he had made one more funny movie, told us one last joke, somehow propped himself up on his deathbed and done one more punchline.

None of us knew Robin. Knew what was troubling him. No one may ever know that. But ASpies are more than a bit child-like, so perhaps we look upon him as a favorite Uncle, and as they say "one death is a tragedy, three thousand are statistics."

I was more shocked by 9/11. I was sad and scared over the plane being shot over Ukraine. I didn't know those people. My empathy doesn't stretch out that far. But when I like an actor, musician or artist that shares themselves by any other means I feel I build a connection to them, whether fantasized or real.

Robin wasn't a favourite actor but I still would see movies just because he was in them. I feel a bit selfish because I don't want him to be dead because I want him to make more movies.

I've read a lot of articles about his death lately and it seems a symptom early in the development of Parkinson's is depression and it's even a symptom of heart surgery. I'm not sure if he had bipolar but his drug addiction could have mimicked the highs and lows of bipolar.

I did see him as a father figure so I guess Prof is onto something.

He wasn't diagnosed or receiving treatment for anything and I remember how confused I was before my diagnosis. It's so much harder to fight or come up with coping mechanisms when you don't know what's going on.

One thing I keep reading a lot about is how cocaine calmed him down which is common in ADHD. But it seems he was going through a really hard time, became extremely depressed and decided enough was enough. I'm going to miss him.