In light of recent news that Owen Wilson, the Hollywood actor/comedian who allegedly attempted suicide, I began to wonder about depression and how to spot it in friends or family. I’d like to use this as an opportunity to be more aware of those around us, and to motivate us all to give an extra hug or smile. To do some small thing to let those we care about know we love them.
It seems that not all depression may be recognized through classic symptoms like withdrawal, fatigue or heightened emotional levels of sadness and anxiety. It’s interesting to note that former comedians like John Belushi, Phil Hartman, and Chris Farley had problems in life that some believe were linked to their depression. At the same time it seemed that friends and family felt that because their loved ones were so happy and playful that nothing was wrong.
I’ve been surprised in the past that many former comedians have suffered from drug and alcohol abuse, suicide attempts and other problems. I think many people, including myself, see these people as funny, smiling and always happy. If we have friends and family that are this way, we may miss signs that something is wrong. Perhaps we will brush off our uneasiness by thinking that they are having a bad day, maybe they are tired or overworked.
Here is a web site with a list of comedians that suffer or have suffered from depression. I was surprised by the list. http://depression.about.com/od/famous/Famous_People_With_Depression.htm
Even if everyone you know seems fine, you may want to reach out to someone to let them know you love them. There’s no time like the present! I’ve hardly ever regretted sharing a kindness or doing something for a friend, but there have been many times I have regretted NOT doing it. Let’s take some hope from a possible tragic event and turn it into a positive. To help you get started here are some great web sites with tips on just that. Now go give your loved one a hug!
http://www.unt.edu/recsports/pdf/star_chart/steps_to_compliment.pdf
70 simple ways to brighten someone’s day.
http://www.funpages.com/101ways/
101 ways to ways to make someone smile and make yourself feel good.
http://www.helpothers.org/ideas.php
Ideas and stories of how kindness touched the lives of both receiver and giver.
It is interesting how many comedians struggle with these sorts of problems. I heard one time that one hidden pitfall is that everyone expects these guys (and gals) to be the life of the party, which can add a lot of extra pressure and often leads to drug and alcohol abuse. They feel like they can’t ever be down, and bottle it up inside.
It’s certainly not meant to serve as an excuse for people making bad decisions, but perhaps even more of a reason of why your suggestion of people reaching out in love to the people that are close to them is so important.
Well, I’ve been doing comedy now for about 9 total shows, mostly open mikes, and I can tell you that to start out as a comedian you go through depression. I’ve never had a self esteem problem until now. Sometimes they laugh, most times they don’t, and you just feel like your a total piece of shit for wasting these people’s time that come to watch you. Maybe it those feelings stick with you as you get famous; but I’ll probably never know at the rate I’m going. ***I just bombed tonight and I googled depression + comedians; I figured with how advanced google is I would see a pic of myself.***
I believe there are so many depressed people in our society because they aren’t happy with themselves. There are sooooooo many outside pressures——including the ones we let in through the media etc., that we are bombarded with how we should act, feel , work, play and so on. Come on people—-forget the status quo!!!!
Depression, The Life Destroyer.
I think a lot of it has to do with energy levels & outside stimulation.
Next time you’re feeling depressed, I want you to drink 3 gatorades and watch your energy level skyrocket.
Also, if you’re at 6 flags great america and you just stepped foot off of a terrifying roller coaster, chances are you wont be feeling down & out about yourself…adrenaline wont allow it.
I think many people think their way into depression, making knowledge the most important goal in their lives.
True knowledge is knowing that you know nothing.
So instead of hacking apart your own self to blueprint the basics of that onto others to try to appease some kind of psychic wonderment inside your own brain, you should be more extroverted.
i think comedians are funny because they work at it. And they work at it because they have a lifetime behind them of needing to be funny, which correlates with a desperate need for approval, which correlates with depression. It’s the antecedent need for approval that fuels both the ability, born of practice, to be funny and the accompanying depression.
This is just from my experience, but as a comedian, the money is generally bad, the competition fierce, the likelihood of success is very low, and because of the horrible hours that you would be required to travel once you started to get work but still at a very low wage you cannot keep many friends and relationships never seem to last. And at that income, don’t even think about a family. Also, you have very few resources and the ability to recover from stress is a function of resources(*citation needed). As an example: you think poor people are more depressed than rich ones?(*citation needed)
Why they keep at it despite all everything telling them to stop? My best explanation is that the laughs we get function as a drug, and strongly reinforce the act of getting on stage and telling jokes. But comedians also bomb a lot, so why don’t we stop then? The behavior is reinforced intermittently, and behavior that is reinforced like that takes longer to stop(*citation needed). But again, laughter acts like a powerful drug and keeps us going back. Then, eventually, we get so far into the game that it becomes all we know and all we know how to do, and it would seem that the only way out would be death. I think.