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Tag: Robin Williams

  • Robin Williams’ Son Opens Up About Grieving, Suicide For New Campaign

    Robin Williams’ Son Opens Up About Grieving, Suicide For New Campaign

    The legendary entertainer’s son opened up about focusing on his own healing since losing his father as part of an awareness campaign.

    Robin Williams’ oldest son, Zak Williams, is speaking out about his grief and moving on after suicide as part of a campaign to support people who have had a loved one take their own life. 

    Williams, 36, appears on the Instagram page for FacesOfFortitude. 

    “There’s no education in place to tell you how to deal with this,” Williams said in the first post. “To balance how to grieve privately with your family and then also to have to grieve publicly. While it was nice to be heard, I was spending time on the outer layer instead of on the inside. It wasn’t just the survivor network for me, it was the whole world.”

    Robin Williams took his own life in August 2014 at the age of 63. In addition to Zak, Williams left behind two other children, Cody and Zelda, who are younger than Zak. 

    In another post, Zak talked about how he has had to focus on his own healing over the past few years. 

    “I started to feel bad for myself, I was seeking solace and healing through my grieving,” he said. “Once I took out all the inputs and elements of self medications, it all became really raw. It was super painful. I had to stop thinking big and expansive to heal everyone and look inward. I found a lot in there. I realized I wasn’t broken. There was a lot of strength I didn’t know was in there.”

    This isn’t the first time that Williams has spoken about his father’s death and their relationship. He told a biographer that is was difficult to watch his father’s well-being fade, according to Vanity Fair. 

    “It was really difficult to see someone suffering so silently,” he said. “But I think that there were a series of things that stacked, that led to an environment that he felt was one of pain, internal anguish, and one that he couldn’t get out of. And the challenge in engaging with him when he was in that mindset was that he could be soothed, but it’s really hard when you then go back into an environment of isolation. Isolation is not good for Dad and people like him. It’s actually terrible.”

    Williams also told the biographer that his father carried a lot of guilt about ending his marriage to the mother of his children, despite the fact that the kids told him he needed to move on. 

    “He couldn’t hear it. He could never hear it. And he wasn’t able to accept it,” Williams said. “He was firm in his conviction that he was letting us down. And that was sad because we all loved him so much and just wanted him to be happy.”

    Today, Williams serves on the board of Bring Change to Mind, an organization started by actress Glenn Close to reduce the stigma around mental illness. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Robin Williams' Daughter Zelda Pens Tribute For His Birthday

    Robin Williams' Daughter Zelda Pens Tribute For His Birthday

    In her Instagram tribute, Zelda encouraged fans of her father to volunteer at homeless shelters and spread kindness in his memory.

    July 21st marked what would have been the 67th birthday of comedy icon Robin Williams. His daughter Zelda Williams took to Instagram to pay tribute to her late father.

    Shortly before the actor’s birthday, Zelda wrote, “It’s that time of year again. Everyone who has dealt with loss knows the pain of certain anniversaries, moments full of memory that come around like clockwork and usurp all others, no matter how hard you may try to prepare for or avoid them.”

    When her father’s birthday comes around, Zelda revealed that she takes a break from social media because the outpouring of memories and sympathy on the net makes her father’s death harder to deal with.

    “These weeks are the hardest for me, and thus, you’ll see me a lot less, if at all,” she continued. “For all the internet’s good intentions in expressing to me their fondness for dad, it’s very overwhelming to have strangers need me to know how much they cared for him right now. It’s harder still to be expected to reach back. So while I’ve got the strength, consider this my one open armed response, before I go take my yearly me time to celebrate his and my birthdays in peace.”

    Zelda encouraged fans of her father to volunteer at homeless shelters in her father’s memory. “Look up how to make homeless aid backpacks. Give one in his name. He’d have loved that. Mostly, try to spread some laughter and kindness around. And creatively swear a lot. Every time you do, somewhere out there in our vast weird universe, he’s giggling with you… or giving a particularly fat bumblebee its wings.”

    Zelda ended her post by writing, “Miss you every day, but especially these ones.”

    The Hook actor died by suicide on August 11, 2014 at the age of 63.

    In the wake of her father’s passing, Zelda has said she’s become an “accidental advocate” for mental health.

    She told Women’s Health magazine, “Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it’s not ruining someone’s life. There’s a realization that everyone is fighting a different battle and you can’t fight it for someone else, but you can try to understand. Part of the first step forward, even before acceptance, but just toward understanding, is actually listening and learning.”

    View the original article at thefix.com