In 2014, the world was shocked to learn of Robin Williams' suicide death at the age of 63. The tragic news that he had Parkinson's disease and was suffering from Lewy Body Dementia (LBD), one of the rarest but most lethal brain diseases, just added salt to the wound. Williams began experiencing symptoms in 2013, unbeknownst to fans. Fans, friends, and family of the Good Will Hunting star would be mourning his death a year later.In May of 2014, Williams was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Williams, however, was told by a doctor that he did not have Alzheimer's disease and was not schizophrenic. He had "almost all of the 40-plus signs of LBD, except for one," he said. Susan Schneider, the actor-widow, comedian's claims in a post for Neurology that her husband never admitted to having hallucinations. Doctors then speculated that he may have been hiding symptoms from those close to him, suffering in silence. Schneider interviewed four doctors after Williams' death, and they all agreed that the situation was one of the "worst pathologies they had ever encountered."Susan Schneider discusses William's final years and raises awareness about LBD.
Schneider recalls her spouse suffering from seemingly unrelated symptoms such as:
"Constipation, urinary problems, heartburn, sleepiness and insomnia, a bad sense of smell, and a lot of stress are all symptoms of this condition. In addition, he developed a tremor in his left hand that came and went."
She wrote in an editorial for Neurology that his symptoms had progressed to include paranoia and insomnia. She expressed herself as follows:
"I witnessed my smart spouse being rational with clear thinking one minute and then blank, lost in confusion five minutes later."
Schneider claims that when she and Williams initially went to a neurologist's office,
"Robin got the opportunity to ask some tough questions. 'Do I have Alzheimer's?' he inquired. Dementia? Is it possible that I'm schizophrenic?' The responses were the best we could come up with: There were no signs of any of the other illnesses. It's clear to me now that he was most likely concealing the severity of his problems."
Williams' autopsy revealed alterations in his brain that were similar to those seen in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease patients. These changes affected his behavior in the days preceding up to his death, although his wife, Susan, said the comedian appeared great the night before he died. As a result, his suicide the next day was unexpected. Dr. Bruce Miller of the University of California, San Francisco, revealed in the 2020 Robin's Wish documentary that Williams' condition was so serious that "it actually shocked me that Robin could walk or move at all.""The huge growth of Lewy bodies throughout William's brain had done so much harm to neurons and neurotransmitters that you can say he had chemical warfare in his brain," Susan Schneider wrote. She is currently a member of the American Brain Foundation's Board of Directors, where she works to raise awareness about the neurological condition that took her husband's life.
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