Can Robin Williams's death change how we talk about suicide? - CBC News - Latest Canada, World, Entertainment and Business News

Just hours after her father's body was discovered, the 25-year-old posted a heart-wrenching message on Twitter.

Zelda Williams quoted Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's book The Little Prince: 

“You—you alone will have the stars as no one else has them… 

In one of the stars I shall be living. 

In one of them I shall be laughing. 

And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, 

when you look at the sky at night, you — only you— will have stars that can laugh.” 

Following the quote, she added, 

"I'll try to keep looking up."

Can Robin Williams's death change how we talk about suicide? - CBC News - Latest Canada, World, Entertainment and Business News: Conservative U.S. talk show host and political commentator Rush Limbaugh also waded in, blaming Williams's death on his leftist worldview.

"Now, what is the left's worldview in general?" asked Limbaugh rhetorically. "It's one of pessimism and darkness, sadness. They're never happy, are they? They're always angry about something. No matter what they get, they're always angry."

Many of these negative comments were met with a flurry of public outrage on social media platforms.






But it is not just Williams's reputation that was at stake here.






As Dr. Peter Selby, chief of the addictions program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, says, disparaging comments about people who have died of suicide can have a damaging impact on others who are at risk of doing the same.



"Overall the responses are a lot more thoughtful," he says, with media outlets displaying more sensitivity when deciding on what to report and how to report news in a way that minimizes harm.



Williams himself was an advocate for breaking down the silence and stigma around addiction. He spoke publicly about his personal struggles with alcoholism and cocaine.



And his death has clearly affected many people, particularly those who share his passion for comedy as well as his struggles with depression.

 "No problem...

gets smaller by not talking about it."

Al Tompkins from the Poynter Institute, an American non-profit school for journalism, says being sensitive to the possibility of triggering suicide in someone at risk shouldn't mean refusing to talk about the subject.



"We avoided this very serious public health topic in the past," says Tompkins. "No problem gets smaller by not talking about it."