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.***
El jeffe mate
This is almost personal experience i guess…comedians and the mostly the famous ones are depressed not because they had a hard time dealing with their “break” but dealing with their life.
self loathing and dissatisfaction can trigger deep analysis in some people. Making one look at things most people miss. being very selfish, leading to comparisons with others.
Try and observe…most happy..no…most satisfied people are never entertaining/funny, they are just an optimistic sack full of bore.
Now to get personal with you…if you had self esteem issues, then you could have better “luck” perhaps. It might not be too late now. If you take your rejection to heart…and i mean deep into your left ventricle…then you will pump comedy gold maybe. (My analysis points to the human condition of survival of the fittest….as we plunge into darkness….we either off ourselves or look for the darkness of others…or find the darkness and then off ourselves (maybe my favourite flavour).
please dismiss “carrot tops” and other veggie/container lid specimens.
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.
LOL. This is so fer real. I used to be very extroverted, lost it on my “quest for ultimate knowledge” and then become depressed. FOR 6 OR 7 YEARS. Like crippling, can’t hold a job depressed. Actually it started out of poor treatment from my mother, i was always nerdy, but the self-esteem/anxiety, made me hide inside, then i did the “quest for knowledge” which is really just a justification for your new insular self. F it!!! I’m trying to show my new non-depressed self off but quite lonely. sucks.
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.
I think its’ important to note it’s not only famous comedians who have a problem with this, but also just generally funny people in your everyday life. Lots of teenagers and adults with that comedical relief that you think are just ‘too funny for words’ might have problems too. I know I got voted funniest person in my senior class and I have a depression issues, but not one person knows. Being a ‘comedian’ allows you to put on an act for everyone, all the time.
Humor is one of the great defenses of human brain from pain. I come from war-torn country of Croatia, and people from these areas were famous for their “funny approach” to pain and death that surrounded us all of the time. It seems to me that one can feel better about his/hers pain if he/she takes it with humour.
I am a person with drug and alcohol abuse history, and I have tried two times to commit suicide. And, ironically, I was always seen by people around me as “hilarious, funny guy”. Everybody thaught that my whole life is a party and that I was happy, but when I am honest, I have to admit that I was sad and miserable all of the time.
I think comedians are (generally, not all, of course) just depressed people who use humour as defence, and actually they make good careers out of it. But don’t forget there are millions of depressed people who never have the chance to make a living out of their depression and misery. But as they are depressed, even comedians are only human, I think sometimes the pain is for them too great, and also they get exhausted from wearing the “happy mask” at all times. And after long periods of abuse of drugs and alcohol, the defence systems just crash one by one. I have been there myself!
This is all just my opinion, of course.
Drasko,
Great insight here. I too believe that many comedians use their comedy early on as a “shield” against pain. Then later when the pain is overwhelming, they don’t know how to stop the humor long enough to work through their pain. I think you had it right when you said they get exhausted from using their “happy masks” all the time. I’m sure you’re comments will give people something to think about. Thanks for stopping by.
P.S. I just want to give a hearty THANK-YOU to all the comedians out there. Humor and laughter are very important and useful defenses against feelings of hopelessness and sadness when we are facing harsh times. Thank you all for the smiles and laughs when we need it most!
On his days off the comedian sits back and laughs at everyone and all the pain they have created. Then on the weekend he shares it with people and they laugh at themselves. Then he becomes more depressed. He has to laugh even more than he did before, just to make it through the next week. And thus begins the cycle. The anxiety and depression that kill the comedian where there all along waiting for his laughter to run out.
Too true, too true..
I have been told that I am the ” funny one” my whole life.
In high school my mates would just sit around waiting for me to say something. At the time I loved the attention, I loved any attention my quick wit got me – but as I got older…
I realised that these people who laughed at my jokes and stuff, they weren’t really my mates. They got satisfaction from me but I could never turn to them for help when needed – or they wouldn’t take it serious if I said I was in trouble.
I can definitely relate to the famous ones who suffer from depression/anxiety/commit suicide.
Cannot imagine how crazy it must be to have it on that large scale though
There is a difference between feeling blue or having a pessimistic attitude in life and suffering from medical depression. A lot of the comments on this thread don’t seem to get that there one is nothing like the other. Actual clinical depression is a medical illness, as the brain of a depressed person is basically sick. It is not something they can just drink some gatorade and think happy thoughts and then suddenly become happy. It is part of the reason there are treatments out there like Electroshock therapy and medication for depression. Bipolar disorder is also nothing like the run of the mill blues, but a heavily researched mental illness which has known genetic causes. We need to stop confusing serious mental illness with a negative view at life. I suffered and recovered from clinical reactive depression, I never knew the difference until I went through the absolute hell that was depression. My body barely functioned properly it was nothing like anything I had gone through before. For me it was a combination of time, medication and cognitive behavioral therapy and traditional therapy that worked. But my brain needed to heal, I couldn’t just wish the bad thoughts away. The brilliant Robert Sapolsky has an amazing lecture on youtube about the medical and physical causes and symptoms of depression. Watching the lecture saved my life because I realized how sick I really was and how I needed medical intervention in order to get better.
Jared, you are very observant or a genius or – more probably – both! That’s exactly how it is – no need for expensive time consuming,high fulatin’ university studies,that is the answer in a nutshell. It is not strange how the best comedians will often self-deprecate to such a degree that they court,even wantingly need and feed off the squeamishness of their audience.This is a dangerous practise as most people do not want to recognise nor accept their own – often very universal – shortcomings,shortcomings most do not want to be reminded of! Obviously a backlash can be expected,and it is this that the comedian feeds off and will inevitably destroy him in some way.
This blog was… how do you say it? Relevant!!
Finally I have found something which helped me.
Kudos!
Rorschach: I heard a joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he’s depressed. Life seems harsh, and cruel. Says he feels all alone in threatening world. Doctor says: “Treatment is simple. The great clown – Pagliacci – is in town. Go see him. That should pick you up.” Man bursts into tears. “But doctor…” he says “I am Pagliacci.” Good joke. Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains.
-THE WATCHMEN