Robin Williams Was Depressed

Yesterday, I found out that Robin Williams committed suicide.

Since then I've been reading more about how many comedians are depressed.  It's especially sad to realize that Robin Williams was depressed, though, because so much of his work is about giving people hope, motivation, inspiration, and of course, comic relief.  He plays a mentor in many of his roles, like the Genie in Aladdin.  You can tell he really cared about other people.

Mental Problems are Funny!

Pilot episode of United States of Tara

This is a new comedy about a woman with dissociative identity disorder, which used to be called multiple personality disorder. It's pretty funny, although it reinforces the established perception of people with DID that was established by the movies and case studies "Sybil" and "Eve Black/White."

In this typical characterization of MPD, the person with MPD switches personalities openly and announces when there is a switch. Also, the person does not remember things that the alters do. MPD is a controversial diagnoses, but even therapists who use it say that usually the switch is discreet since the person tries very hard to seem like a normal person.