14 DAY TRIAL // On August 11, actor and comedian Robin Williams took his own life after a years-long battle with depression, which had gotten worse in recent months. He was survived by his wife and 3 children from his previous marriage, who, according to actor and rocker Henry Rollins, should have been the only reason for Williams to want to stay alive.
The actor’s death was very shocking because it was completely unexpected: the last time the fans had heard anything of him was just a few months before, when his rep confirmed he had checked into rehab in a bid to continue with his commitment to sobriety.
In other words, while the entire world knew that he had been struggling with addiction and depression for years, no one had an idea of just how bad things were, until they learned he had hung himself in his own home.
According to Rollins, writing in an editorial for LA Weekly, his children should have been the one reason for which he should not have taken his life.
“I simply cannot understand how any parent could kill themselves. How in the hell could you possibly do that to your children... choosing to kill yourself, rather than to be there for that child, is every shade of awful, traumatic and confusing,” Rollins writes.
He believes that the moment you become a parent, you lose “the right” to take your own life because, at that moment, your goal becomes that of doing whatever you can to not traumatize your children in any way. That includes the desperate gesture of taking your life so, for them, you have to fight adversity and overcome it, even at those times when its source is inside you.
Rollins claims that he understands that Williams was depressed and that depression is the “silent killer,” but even so, he doesn’t understand how parenthood wasn’t enough to get him – and others who suffer from depression – out of death’s clutches.
It is precisely this statement that proves that he has no idea how depression works, angry voices are saying online. No man or woman, Rollins included, should pass this kind of judgment on Williams especially since no one but his loved ones know the whole truth, the degree of his suffering and how hard he struggled.
At the same time, critics point out, it’s disrespectful to Williams’ family for Rollins to publicly bash him like this. And the worst part is that, in the editorial, Rollins inserts a few paragraphs in which he explains how anyone who takes their own life is worthless in his eyes afterwards.
“I no longer take this person seriously. I may be able to appreciate what he or she did artistically but it’s impossible to feel bad for them. Their life wasn’t cut short — it was purposely abandoned. It’s hard to feel bad when the person did what they wanted to. It sucks they are gone, of course, but it’s the decision they made. I have to respect it and move on,” he says.
“Almost 40,000 people a year kill themselves in America, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In my opinion, that is 40,000 people who blew it,” Rollins continues. He might appreciate some of Williams’ work after his death by suicide, but Williams as a man is worth nothing to him now.