Hamster: 'I'm still depressed after my high-speed crash - and I can't park my car'

[phuckingduck]

Best of thoughts for Hammond. He's one of my favorite television personalities, and comes across as a great guy. Hope it all turns out for the best!

[LurkerPatrol]

Originally Posted by No Boss

I'm sure everyone, including him and his family, saw something like this coming. His crash was too intense and too death defying to come out completely unscathed.

This asks an interesting question.... Die young and leave everyone that loves you in pain? or Live through it and have to suffer, for the rest of your life, the pains of recovering from massive head trauma?

Interesting.

That's an easy one. The first is very selfish while the latter isn't. And being a family man, I'm sure the first thing Hammond thought of when he "fully" recovered wasn't "Man I wish I was dead, I don't want to worry about post-accident trauma and stress", it was definitely "Man, thank God I'm alive and I get a second chance to be with my wife and see my kids grow up".

[Cobol74]

Originally Posted by SupraSkylineSTI

Has anyone ever considered the fact that he just might be saying these things to file a law suit, to shwo that things are still not OK, and that he has injuries. I mean c'mon, out of the blue he admits his head hurts and he forgets stuff. I smell some moo-lah in his near future.

No.

[anti-net]

I'm not surprised that he's still suffering from the crash, in fact I was more surprised he went back to doing the show so quickly after the crash

[Momo63]

Originally Posted by SupraSkylineSTI

Has anyone ever considered the fact that he just might be saying these things to file a law suit, to shwo that things are still not OK, and that he has injuries. I mean c'mon, out of the blue he admits his head hurts and he forgets stuff. I smell some moo-lah in his near future.

Jeez how 'ing cynical can you get.
Nope , don't think anyone thought that.

[Ruthi]

Originally Posted by SupraSkylineSTI

Has anyone ever considered the fact that he just might be saying these things to file a law suit, to shwo that things are still not OK, and that he has injuries. I mean c'mon, out of the blue he admits his head hurts and he forgets stuff. I smell some moo-lah in his near future.

No i have never wondered that.
He doesn't need anymore money, he is gettin lots from presenting Top Gear and then writing magazine columns. And it probably won't be for publicity either, if you had a serious head injury and nearly died would you prefer to be reminded of how it happened constantly, or would you try and forget about it and focus your attentions on recovering. I know which i would prefer.

[MattD1zzl3]

Christ, i dont CARE about his recovery, they need to stop doing tabloid reports about how he's going to die any second.

Leave him alone, let him recover, and call me when he's back on TV. He's not my friend, he's not my family, he's just some guy on TV. I wish him the best, but i dont care to hear about every little development.

[Blind_Io]

Originally Posted by Prost264

So why is he still doing stuff/stunts for Top Gear? Why don't they just make him rest for a good while?

This is just bad news.

Trust me, depression is worse if you just sit and ruminate. He has the right idea getting back into the swing of things, it's hard and not very fun most the time, but it will help with his continued recovery and keeping the symptoms of depression from becoming severe.

[Mr-Stabby]

Originally Posted by MattD1zzl3

Christ, i dont CARE about his recovery, they need to stop doing tabloid reports about how he's going to die any second.

Leave him alone, let him recover, and call me when he's back on TV. He's not my friend, he's not my family, he's just some guy on TV. I wish him the best, but i dont care to hear about every little development.

Have to agree with this. His recovery should be private. The only time i want to hear about his head again is if he does some work to promote brain injury charities. At the moment it's just a case of personal advertisement. Maybe his book sales are dwindling?

Would Hammond even have an autobiography out if he hadn't have crashed?

I hate sounding cynical, but if i was a celebrity and i'd damaged myself in such a way, the only thing i'd do in a public way is thank the people who helped me (which to be fair Hammond did) but he seems to have milked it. It really hit home when i saw a video of him on Amazon advertising his book saying something along the lines of 'Read how i escaped a fatal car crash'.

May i be shot down for saying it, but it's my opinion Take it or leave it.

Though i will add that his crash did get a lot of money donated to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, so that can be nothing but good. But none of that was through personal advertisement from Hammond as far as i know.

[BlaRo]

^ Well you're forgetting that he's famous, so naturally the tabloids are going to jump on him in the same way a deer tick jumps onto an unsuspecting ankle.

The same thing's going on with Britney Spears, except to a worse extent because unlike Hammond she deserves to be shot in the throat.

[Kenyeres]

Well, I don't think he talks too much about the crash, not enough to be irritating or make me think he's promoting himself...
But everytime a tabloid paper interviews him, naturally they ask him about the crash and how he feels now. OK, he could say "Thanks, I'm 100% recovered", but why should he lie when it's pretty obvious that he still has problems?

[Mr-Stabby]

I would personally say i would rather not talk about it But I see your point. I suppose it could just be the tabloids making an item out of a small quote.

[Ottobon]

Sounds like hes at least working through it properly, i remember exactly those moments of realization when I thought "damn, I've come a long way" when i was clinically depressed. I would have those moments even when I knew I was nowhere near cured.

He talks with really thick skin for a depressed person though, i suppose the actual article reads more like he was really depressed and is better now, but its hard to say as people can mask their feelings of depression to avoid pity. Personally, if i wouldn't have ignored that i was depressed for so many months i may have never had to have sunk so deeply.

[robybobey]

To be honest though, im sure many people on this forum and in general see Hammond as like a hero or even a father figure. Some people may want to know how he is doing. If he hadnt released news about his general condition for the past few months, we would have presumed his is back to normal, personality the same etc.........but that just isnt the case...

I dont blame him though to be honest, he gets paid for interviews and so on........money is money

By the way, when i spoke to him at TG, my first words were "Hi Richard, im from FinalGear" he looked at me and just said hi..........I went on to ask "Did you like the helmet" then it hit him and he started saying "Wow! yes I loved it! Worn it on several occasions for filming, thank you so much!" then he signed the picture and so on....

I know what i'm saying seems a little pedantic, but even so, his memory doesnt seem tip-top

[MattD1zzl3]

Originally Posted by robybobey

To be honest though, im sure many people on this forum and in general see Hammond as like a hero or even a father figure.

...wow... just wow..

You really should watch less top gear, that sounds a little too "it puts the lotion on its skin".

[robybobey]

Like i said, "im sure many people".......that doesnt infer the fact that i think it...

[anti-net]

^ But you do...Don't you...admit it!...we won't laugh much!

[MattD1zzl3]

Originally Posted by robybobey

Like i said, "im sure many people".......that doesnt infer the fact that i think it...

If a single person considers some random guy on TV a friend, much less a father figure, then this community has some SERIOUS issues.

[robybobey]

For instance, im sure people on myspace put Hammond on their list of who they want to meet and so on........(Im saying this because i dont have myspace) lol

But nah, im not sad enough to think of him like that........

Im thinking more of younger teenagers that are hooked on top gear more than us people are.

But back to the point, i suppose its good to be realistic and think that he hasnt recovered fully. Many people were deluded from the start and thought he was back to normal in 9X01 when he claimed he was.

[Jocó]

Originally Posted by robybobey

But back to the point, i suppose its good to be realistic and think that he hasnt recovered fully. Many people were deluded from the start and thought he was back to normal in 9X01 when he claimed he was.

Yeah, many people were sure he was completely ok when he returned to the show, but in reality now, more than one year later, he still isn't.

To people who think he's promoting himself in these interviews: you'll never know what the full discussion was between Hammond and the journalist, maybe they spoke for an hour and he mentioned the crash in just 2 sentences, but that was what the journo needed and wrote a whole article of it.