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Who would have thought it !!

Keoke

Great Pumpkin
Country flag
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I had a friend that was a master aviation mechanic and air racer that was a victim of depression, the Black Dog he called it. He committed suicide about 3 years back. It's a horrible thing.
As a teen I was a musician in the 70's, I sang in rock and roll bands. Many very young creative people found solace in music and drugs in my experience then, too many died of overdoses. I've often wondered if many of them weren't clinically depressed. I've spoken to my oldest daughter whom is a psychiatrist about it and she says it's far more prevalent than one might think.
Chris...
 
Terrible news, I've seen many of Robin Williams movies. My favorite is "The Fisher King".
Robin's 3000 is being cared for here in Brisbane.
Alwyn
 
My neighbor killed himself last January. He was a well to do CPA and would have been one of the last persons I would have ever thought that would do something like that. I had spoke to him the evening before and seemed fine. He was very out going and usually was telling a joke or laughing. You never know. I enjoyed all of Robins films, my wife stops everything shes doing when "Hook" comes on TV.

Marv
 
Just read an article that claimed that white males over the age of 60 have the highest suicide rate. Can't speak to clinical depression--some days I feel better than others, but that's just the flow of life--but the article subtly says that these men, often high achievers, sometimes lose the will when personal/health/professional/financial issues get the better of them. My dad has suffered a heart attack, quintuple bypass and colon and throat cancer (the worst), and no one would have blamed him if he quit fighting (he'd never commit suicide, but could have just 'thrown in the towel' and given up). But, despite losing most of his hearing and suffering from macular degeneration he has too many projects to finish, and a few more he'd like to start, and he just keeps pushing. This has convinced me that no matter your position or stage of life you need a passion. Not just a hobby, something to 'putter around' with, but something that drives you to get out of bed and give it a go every day you can no matter how low you feel.

This is where our collective passion--Austin-Healeys--come in; they're more than just an 'old car hobby,' they're a passion, one of many potential passions, that add something to life beyond creature comforts and even the joys that friends and families contribute to our sense of well being. It's anecdotal 'data,' but I can't think of anyone with at least one such passion that has ended his/her own life; certainly, none in the Healey community that I know of and we know people like Dave R and Rich C fought til the end.

Sorry for preaching; just wanted to say it.
 
On the eve of his death, a commentator said: "but he had so much to live for." The point is that in HIS mind/brain he had nothing to live for. True clinical depression is not a version of a normal persons being down, no matter how upset. Mustering the motivation to get from the bedroom to the kitchen, much less to take vintage car for a spin or even a free flight and ticket to Spa that weekend seem pointless, and one even wonders how it could have ever held an allure. Some theorists believe that the biochemistry sets the mood and we then search out something in our environment to justify having a good or bad day, goodness knows that our lives are complicated enough that there usually is something in the past or future 24 hours that we can hang our emotional hat on. It is as though one's cornea suddenly had a filter so that everything is blue, will, the color of the sunset, etc. has nothing to do with it, it is synonymous with being alive that everything is blue. Will, motivations, when the going gets tough the tough get going, have nothing to do with true clinical depressions. It is like the operating system your computer uses, every input is processed, "felt" though that operating system, synonymous with being alive.
 
Having fought to get my life back__from being real dead__I lose all respect for someone that throws theirs away. I whole heartedly agree with what Bob says about his dad; good for him, and I hope he does get all those projects taken care of.

Culverts are like oak trees, in that I didn't move that man's driveway one inch (1")! Shortened the **** out of that MGBGT though, by about three feet (3')! May 5, 1983.
 
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