"You will have bad times, but..." ~ Robin Williams [600x1326]

Who is anyone to judge his suicide? The problem is most people are blissfully ignorant of mental illnesses. They assume mental illness is that weird kid in 3rd period, or some gray term "autism" that they never bothered to actually research, or the "I'm bipolar" or "I'm going to kill myself" attention whores. They assume everyone who acts that way or has a problem is just doing it for attention and/or "need to buck up".

A lot of it stems from a lack of compassion and empathy. The rest of it is good old "I fear that which I don't understand, so I will do what I can to separate myself from it". That leads to stigma, which strengthens bigotry.

The fact that Robin made it to his late 50s while dealing with one of the most mentally taxing illnesses before taking his life after a terminal diagnosis should, if anything, be honored.

Life isn't rainbows and sunshine to everyone, and the people who look down upon those who commit suicide feel that life is great and people are stupid for believing or feeling differently from them. These people are judgmental and cruel, and have no leg to stand on in their indictment of suicide. They've never suffered mental illness, or they'd have a completely different view of it. And it's this sort of shitty behavior that leads people to hide or deny their own mental illness and seek treatment: because people will criticize you, think you're crazy and/or incompetent, and it reflects poorly on your professional and legal prospects.

In short, yes, I can blame them. They lack empathy and are no more deserving of positive affirmation on their shitty opinion than a toddler pitching a tantrum. They contribute to the stigma on mental illness, and it would do society a lot of good if they shut the fuck up.

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