Robin Williams Widow Recounts His Final Year

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by JamieC, Oct 1, 2016.

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  1. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    This is absolutely heartbreaking.....
    Robin Williams' Widow Writes A Devastating Account Of His Final Year | Huffington Post »

    Susan Schneider Williams, Robin Williams’ widow, wrote a devastating account of her husband’s final year of life before he died by suicide in 2014.

    An autopsy revealed that Robin Williams had Lewy body disease, an umbrella term used to describe both Parkinson’s disease dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies. In a letter this week addressed to neurologists, Susan described the “terrorist” who lived inside her husband’s brain and caused him to forget his movie lines, plagued him with delusions and paranoia, and engulfed him in fear, anxiety and depression.

    Her account of his medical journey illustrates just how difficult it is for a typical Lewy body disease patient to get properly diagnosed, how prescribed medicines for misdiagnosed conditions may have exacerbated his symptoms, and how patients who are properly diagnosed have no cure for their disease.

    “I am not convinced that the knowledge would have done much more than prolong Robin’s agony,” she wrote. “Even if we experienced some level of comfort in knowing the name, and fleeting hope from temporary comfort with medications, the terrorist was still going to kill him. There is no cure and Robin’s steep and rapid decline was assured.”

    Physical symptoms lead to cognitive problems
    Susan begins her letter describing the fall of 2013. By then, Robin was already seeing a doctor to cope with physical symptoms like a tremor in his left hand, constipation, heartburn, insomnia and a poor sense of smell. Then, one weekend in late October, she observed that his fear and anxiety had “skyrocketed” to alarming levels, beyond his usual stress.

    By winter of that year, Robin was having problems with paranoia, delusions, insomnia, memory and high levels of the stress hormone cortisol. He sought psychotherapy to help him cope with his fear and anxiety.

    In April 2014, he had a panic attack while filming “Night at the Museum 3.” During filming, he struggled to memorize his lines ― unusual for the Juilliard-trained actor ― and his doctor prescribed antipsychotic medications.

    Susan would later find out, months after her husband’s death, that antipsychotics can cause severe reactions in people with LBD, and in some cases even worsen their cognitive and physical symptoms.

    Finally in May, doctors diagnosed Robin Williams with Parkinson’s disease, which would explain physical symptoms like his hand tremor and difficulty moving. While the diagnosis proved comforting for a while, Susan writes that Robin sensed something was still deeply wrong ― specifically with his brain and his cognitive behavior.

    “I just want to reboot my brain,” he said on one occasion. “Do I have Alzheimer’s? Dementia? Am I schizophrenic?” he asked on another.

    For the rest of the summer, the couple focused on dealing with his symptoms. He went to therapy and worked out with his trainer, and he learned meditation, yoga, self-hypnosis and more to calm his anxiety.

    By July they decided to do more tests to get to the root of his depression and anxiety, and he switched medication. In August, it seemed the change had worked and his symptoms were improving ― but on Aug. 11, 2014, an assistant found his body in his home. Robin Williams had killed himself.

    Three months later, his widow learned from his autopsy report that his brain had been riddled with Lewy bodies, abnormal protein deposits that develop throughout the brain.

    “The massive proliferation of Lewy bodies throughout his brain had done so much damage to neurons and neurotransmitters that in effect, you could say he had chemical warfare in his brain,” she wrote.

    Dementia with Lewy bodies has a few defining traits: progressive dementia, features of Parkinsonism, disordered sleep and hallucinations. While Robin Williams never admitted to having hallucinations, a doctor reviewed his medical records after his death and said it was likely he did have hallucinations but was keeping this information to himself.

    Williams’ widow ended her letter with a note of encouragement for neurologists to continue their work researching cures for brain diseases. She also thanked them for their future work, and said she hopes some might turn out to discover the truth for LBD.
     
  2. bababooey

    bababooey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX USA
    After reading that and other information that has come out since, I am much more understanding. I had a wonderful uncle who had Lewy Body/ Parkinsons and I would not like to spend my final years as he did. I'd choose suicide over what my mom (Alzheimers) or my uncle went thru.
     
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  3. johnny q

    johnny q Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bergen County, NJ
    Horrible...very sad and tragic.
     
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  4. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    At the time a lot of people(including some on this forum) made comment about them sleeping in separate rooms. This certainly explains it.
    For someone who had a razor sharp wit and improv skills, his brain was functioning like wading through molasses.
    This is allegedly Robin's last photo taken a week before his suicide at a local Dairy Queen. He just doesn't look like the Robin we all knew.
    [​IMG]
     
  5. Murphy13

    Murphy13 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland
    Very sad. I think as baby boomers age and with advance medicine, we will see more "brain" disease discussions. Hopefully, treatment options continue to improve and research gets well funded.
     
  6. parman

    parman Music Junkie

    Location:
    MI. NC, FL
    Thanks for the info. I was shocked when this happened
     
    keyXVII likes this.
  7. segue

    segue Psychoacoustic Member

    Location:
    Hawai'i
    But isn't she the one who prevented Robin from interacting with his kids and long-time friends, which friends say made him depressed and anxiety ridden ? And the fact that she never told his kids about any health or mental issues he was having seems strange.
     
    Last edited: Oct 1, 2016
  8. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    As there seems to be no animosity at this point, I would say no. Somehow I don't think she was running Robin, or keeping his kids away. IMO that was probably Robins choice. Think about it. He didn't want them to know when HE didn't know. And they would know. Robin loved his kids. He said it was like getting to be a kid all over again watching them and listening to them. I doubt that Susan was dominating and running Robin.
     
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  9. markshan

    markshan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    I agree completely.
     
  10. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    A sad loss and a tragic story.
     
  11. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    Thanks for sharing.

    I didn't realize he was that far gone.
     
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  12. Scope J

    Scope J Senior Member

    Location:
    Michigan
  13. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Surely understanding a disorder better after the fact cannot have been easy for her, or the family. They'd been living with it for as long as they had seen it in him. But, he'd been living with it far longer, it seems. And who knows how much of his psychotic (if that's a correct term here) disorder had actually contributed to his performances, which nevertheless brought great joy to millions.

    Watching him from as far back as Mork, it's easy to wonder if there was ever was a time in his life when he was totally in control of his muse. The stuff that would come to him from synapses and neurons far beyond those of us mere mortals; that manic stage patter; the pixillation changes in perspective, subjects and even topics: all signs of genius, all potentially (at least partially) caused by a literal demon residing inside his brain, throwing spitballs at the side of his skull. And we would not come to understand this better for decades. Anybody who has lost somebody to cancer that progressed unseen or misdiagnosed until it was too late to deal with it, knows this situation far too well.

    So again, fresh condolences to family members...and thank you Mrs. Williams, for sharing the ugly details. Who knows, perhaps this could ultimately save the next family from the frustrating confusion and helplessness of dealing with a disorder they might otherwise never understand until too late.
     
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  14. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I got to work a little bit with Robin on a bad 2009 film nobody saw, Old Dogs (with John Travolta), and I thought at the time that Williams seemed kind of subdued and not the manic guy people remember him as. He was in pretty good physical shape and was very nice to everybody, rarely forgot his lines, and did his best to get through a not-so-funny movie. It's clear that his health problems were really horrendous, basically a version of MS (with a lot of complications), and we now know there was no cure and he was facing an awful downhill spiral. It's a very sad story. The handful of people I know in LA who dealt with Robin have nothing but good things to say about him in terms of being pleasant and upbeat, though he was known to sometimes ad-lib too much and cause delays in shooting. But he was extremely good-natured and thoughtful, and remembered people's names and was far friendlier than a lot of big-names I've seen.
     
    Simon A, DLeet, Dirkwkirk and 14 others like this.
  15. Holy Diver

    Holy Diver Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Amazing guy and talent. We all miss you, Robin. RIP.
     
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  16. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    This is from 1977 and the young comedians HBO special. I wish I could find the entire set but here is the closer. This was Robin, Julliard trained actor, taking a path through stand up comedy to acting professionally. This is before Mork, and maybe before he was on Richard Pryor's show. Note the stage outfit, which recalls Godspell more than anything else or maybe a mime, became the template for Mork.
     
    Alan G., asdf35, Vidiot and 3 others like this.
  17. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    It is something to think about. That Robins brain was slightly skewed because of medical reasons even back in the early days. That which made him a unique comic eventually took over.

    I dont believe that was the genesis bullet of his genuis comic skills, but I wonder if it was the powder and trigger.
     
    David Campbell likes this.
  18. genesim

    genesim Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Louis
    I read on another post where you made a comment saying that his illness was impacting his work based on your limited experience with him. The man was close to retirement age and put out so much gold, the only thing that I see truly taking a toll on him is the idea that he should be like some kind of dancing chimp that can only be appreciated if his work is as good as his highest peak.

    Pity this example wasn't followed. I often feel it is like reading a TMZ blog with some of these posts.
     
  19. asdf35

    asdf35 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin TX
    Love those old clips. This material (more or less) is on his first comedy album, Reality....What A Concept. The album seems to get panned, or listed as a mere footnote - but it's a whole universe unto itself in my world. Found a cassette around age 5 (!). Trying to unravel his schizo pop-culture references was an early education. I wish more recordings could be issued from those early years.
     
    Gems-A-Bems likes this.
  20. Zoot Marimba

    Zoot Marimba And I’m The Critic Of The Group

    Location:
    Savannah, Georgia
    That seriously broke my heart to read.
     
  21. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    this is the saddest thing I've read in quite a bit...poor soul.
     
  22. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    you were blessed dude.
     
  23. Gems-A-Bems

    Gems-A-Bems Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Duke City
    Lewy Body Dementia is not “basically a version of MS”, but it is the second-most common type of dementia (after Alzheimer’s)
     
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