What it brings up is that emotional challenges have little to do with the outward trappings of success and all to do with physiology and how we feel about ourselves. There is still a lot of stigma and misunderstanding surrounding mental illness, even now, that keeps people from reaching out and getting help. Three decades ago when I first started going though debilitating depression it was all I could do to keep myself going when all I got was remarks that I was being lazy and selfish, because depression was not all that understood. It probably took twice as long for me to finally start healing because I had to get past that stigma first.

In regard to "what of the rest of us?"... We learn from it. We read the stories, the comments. We see that others also don't understand how strong depression can be. We see that suicide hurts many, many more people than the individual who unfortunately thought there was no way to go on. We look for others who might be struggling and reach out. We talk about depression as an illness that needs compassion, time, love and sometimes medication to work through it. We realize this isn't an isolated case and that those who seem to have it all can still take their own lives, and of they can do it with all the stuff they have, we should be questioning what they didn't have and want that. There is always hope. There is always someone to talk to. Time doesn't stop for anyone if they choose to keep going. Things can get better.

Yeah I doubt I will...

But He at least he had alcohol!

I never heard of him until he killed himself. Did he die due to low ratings like in that great movie "Network"(1976)? According to CNN, no. [cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com] So his death brings to mind a famous poem. [poetryfoundation.org]

He was 4 years my junior... I think you are mistaken about dificult one to pass through but in the positive for you... You may never make it to that age.

Suicide and depression like so manymanare issues regarding mental health, are often under the radar or not taken seriously but that's not to say they our without treatment. Illness does not discriminate though.

I often feel my reaction to another's choice is based on my own selfishness.

One of the things that I've been reading about is his open admissions of addiction and depression. Those by itself are horrible, but when you combine them are usually lethal.

Being a person that suffers from suicidal ideation occasionally, I feel for him and his friends/family. It's a horrible burden to have.

To each his/her own I say, and if I'm not mistaken he did have a serious drug problem when he was younger, so his life was far from ideal.

He had a good life compared to many, but we don't know the reasons behind his apparent suicide. I read something about mouth or throat cancer?

I feel for anyone who becomes that desperate.