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Stephen Fry reveals he attempted suicide in 2012

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Stephen Fry reveals he attempted suicide in 2012

#21

Post by magicalist »

koningrobot wrote: post #19
eksith wrote: post #11

I don't even want to imagine a day Stephen Fry isn't around. What a horrible, horrible void there would be where he stood. The insidiousness of this disease is in how well it hides itself in plain sight in many cases. And how terrifyingly easy it is to fall to it. He said there is "no reason" for someone wanting to take their own life. "There is no 'why', it's not the right question. There's no reason. If there were…

Stephen Fry should speak for himself. People can have very good reasons to want to die. Reasons that are so good that, besides outweighing the value that their life has to them, still have enough oomph to carry one over the high doorstep of fear and pain that comes with taking one's own life. Life is not infinitely valuable. Its goods can be outweighed by bads. People who really just want to go should be respected an…

We don't have the full interview here for context, so I don't think either of us should be absolute on this, but I would guess that he's specifically speaking within the bounds of suicide rooted in mental illness. In fact, I would place very good odds that Stephen Fry would highlight the issues inherent in assisted suicide but still support it on the whole.

Re: Stephen Fry reveals he attempted suicide in 2012

#22

Post by icebraining »

koningrobot wrote: post #19
eksith wrote: post #11

I don't even want to imagine a day Stephen Fry isn't around. What a horrible, horrible void there would be where he stood. The insidiousness of this disease is in how well it hides itself in plain sight in many cases. And how terrifyingly easy it is to fall to it. He said there is "no reason" for someone wanting to take their own life. "There is no 'why', it's not the right question. There's no reason. If there were…

Stephen Fry should speak for himself. People can have very good reasons to want to die. Reasons that are so good that, besides outweighing the value that their life has to them, still have enough oomph to carry one over the high doorstep of fear and pain that comes with taking one's own life. Life is not infinitely valuable. Its goods can be outweighed by bads. People who really just want to go should be respected an…

Fry said that in a very specific context, you shouldn't assume he meant it as an absolute statement.

Re: Stephen Fry reveals he attempted suicide in 2012

#23

Post by [deleted] »

pyre wrote: post #15
DanBC wrote: post #8

It's tempting to think that he's wealthy and working and so this disclosure is easy to make, because it won't affect his work life. In theory we have anti-discrimination laws here, but it's hard to prove that someone hasn't employed you because of your mental health problems. And actors usually need to be insured when they're doing a film. It's hard for some actors to get that insurance, expensive, because of past me…

This particular disclosure is new, but he's been open about being bi-polar for a while, and IIRC about at least one past suicide attempt (see the documentary mentioned elsewhere).

[deleted]

Re: Stephen Fry reveals he attempted suicide in 2012

#24

Post by daeken »

DanBC wrote: post #8

It's tempting to think that he's wealthy and working and so this disclosure is easy to make, because it won't affect his work life. In theory we have anti-discrimination laws here, but it's hard to prove that someone hasn't employed you because of your mental health problems. And actors usually need to be insured when they're doing a film. It's hard for some actors to get that insurance, expensive, because of past me…

I'm not wealthy or well-connected, but I'm "coming out" about mental illness myself. I've talked about it at length on HN (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2043019), but I'm working on a blog post now that talks about this in detail, with the goal of actually opening a dialogue about mental illness in the tech industry. You can read what I have so far here: https://gist.github.com/daeken/8bc79e53311d2e32a981 It still needs a lot of work, and my mother (a mental health practitioner by trade) wrote a section with extensive resources that I haven't yet integrated, but it's coming along.

I've been getting better lately, but for a few months I was the worst I've ever been in my life; not being able to talk publicly about it for fear of discrimination and the general mental health stigma makes the loneliness... crushing. I'm hoping this will help others take the first step to helping themselves and others.

Re: Stephen Fry reveals he attempted suicide in 2012

#25

Post by dwc »

koningrobot wrote: post #19
eksith wrote: post #11

I don't even want to imagine a day Stephen Fry isn't around. What a horrible, horrible void there would be where he stood. The insidiousness of this disease is in how well it hides itself in plain sight in many cases. And how terrifyingly easy it is to fall to it. He said there is "no reason" for someone wanting to take their own life. "There is no 'why', it's not the right question. There's no reason. If there were…

Stephen Fry should speak for himself. People can have very good reasons to want to die. Reasons that are so good that, besides outweighing the value that their life has to them, still have enough oomph to carry one over the high doorstep of fear and pain that comes with taking one's own life. Life is not infinitely valuable. Its goods can be outweighed by bads. People who really just want to go should be respected an…

That's substantially different than suicide due to physiological imbalances. It's fine to raise awareness of that separate issue, but let's not conflate these things.

Re: Stephen Fry reveals he attempted suicide in 2012

#27

Post by hawkharris »

We need more people like Fry to speak up about their experiences with bipolar disorder. It's widespread yet stigmatized because not everyone understands it or knows how to seek treatment.

I was diagnosed bipolar as a kid and spent over three years in a locked disciplinary boarding school. At first I was reluctant to take medication because of the stigma associated with it, but taking lithium changed my life.

I've been completely stable for 9 years, taking the same low dose.

It's really hard to find the right mix of medication and / or behavioral changes because every person is different. But it is possible for people with bipolar to find balance, stability and happiness. I think that speaking up about our personal experiences helps shatter the stigma while supporting families who are still considering different treatment options.

Re: Stephen Fry reveals he attempted suicide in 2012

#28

Post by ghswa »

gregorymichael wrote: post #10

I have bipolar and ADHD. I've been speaking on it at tech conferences this year [1]. Recently we started devpressed.com [2], a forum where the tech community can talk about depression. We need to destigmatize mental illness so that our friends and coworkers aren't ashamed to ask for help. There are a lot more people going through this than you think. If you're struggling, and don't have anyone to talk to, check out d…

Thanks very much for posting those links, I too am bipolar. Unfortunately I'll have to put off checking them out properly until another time.

Until last December I'd been stable for around 5 years. Now I'm putting together an account of my health over the last 6 months for the benefit of my department's special circumstances committee. With any luck I'll make it through to the next year of my degree.

Thank you for your efforts, I hope to be able to contribute similarly when I'm stable again.

I'll forward this to my wife[1] as I expect she'll find them of interest too (she's also bipolar).

[1] http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/blog/academic-life-mental-i...

Re: Stephen Fry reveals he attempted suicide in 2012

#29

Post by winter_blue »

citricsquid wrote: post #3

The documentary mentioned about his bi-polar is available on Amazon (and without permission on Youtube) for anyone interested, it's a very good insight into bi-polar and depression, worth the 120 minutes: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808482/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Fry:_The_Secret_Life_of... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stephen-Frys-Secret-Manic-Depressive...

When you use words like "bi-polar and depression" it gives the sense that this is a medical disease. And while speaking strictly, it is indeed a medical disease -- I want people to see the raw human factor in this.

Depression, for example, in my experience, and from what I've seen -- often has a cause; a rational, explainable cause (that the sufferer often isn't aware of). When you treat someone's depression as a "medical disease" like the cold or the flu, you are completely ignoring the human factor.

Many cases of depression can actually be solved without drugs -- by addressing the problem at the root of it. "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy" by David D. Burns, goes into this. (http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-New-Mood-Therapy/dp/03808...)

I don't know why people ignore the real human factor when it comes to depression. Instead they resort to a bunch of drugs that do not address the root (psychological) cause of the depression, but rather just give some temporary fleeting relief.

Re: Stephen Fry reveals he attempted suicide in 2012

#30

Post by masklinn »

koningrobot wrote: post #19
eksith wrote: post #11

I don't even want to imagine a day Stephen Fry isn't around. What a horrible, horrible void there would be where he stood. The insidiousness of this disease is in how well it hides itself in plain sight in many cases. And how terrifyingly easy it is to fall to it. He said there is "no reason" for someone wanting to take their own life. "There is no 'why', it's not the right question. There's no reason. If there were…

Stephen Fry should speak for himself. People can have very good reasons to want to die. Reasons that are so good that, besides outweighing the value that their life has to them, still have enough oomph to carry one over the high doorstep of fear and pain that comes with taking one's own life. Life is not infinitely valuable. Its goods can be outweighed by bads. People who really just want to go should be respected an…

> People can have very good reasons to want to die.

You seem to have missed context here. The context being him talking about his depression. He's not talking about suicide in general, he's talking about suicide of the clinically depressed.

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