He had been diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s disease just months before he committed suicide in August 2014. But what I know now is that if Robin was lucky he would have made it three years. He was away from them for eight years. “And it’s a good chance he would’ve been locked up”, Susan Williams told ABC News.
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In the interview, Susan Williams claimed depression was not the cause of his death, but instead blamed a form of dementia called Lewy body.
“We want to connect people who are living with it now to support services, and we also want to look towards to the future so we have more information for those living with it”, said Sarah Holland, program director for the Alzheimer’s Association Oregon Chapter.
Susan Williams says she believes the illnesses would have killed the actor and comedian within three years – and that those three years would have been “hard years” for him.
In another interview with People, Susan says she hopes to raise awareness about Lewy Body Dementia. She points out that it was not depression, after all, that drove Robin to tragically take his own life. For one thing, the medications often prescribed for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s can be ineffective for LBD symptoms, or even exacerbate them.
Curious and concerned as to what he was doing, Schenider said she got out of the shower to check on her husband.
“It was not depression that killed Robin“, she told People.
“He said to me, he said, ‘There’s something really wrong with me.’ I said, ‘I know, honey”.
In her opinion, the suicide was Robin’s way of taking back control.
Lewy body dementia can cause visual hallucinations; rigid movements and motor problems similar to those found in people with Parkinson’s disease; sleep disorders; anxiety; interruptions in the ability to pay attention; and loss of memory, according to the National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke. “I don’t blame him”.
“I thought, ‘This is good, ‘” she said.
‘I mean, he was sick and exhausted of what was going on, absolutely … and when he got the Parkinson’s diagnosis, you know, I mean, in one sense, it was like this is it. This is what we’ve been – we’ve been chasing something, now we found it. And we felt the sense of release and relief.
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She said he motioned toward the door, and said just two words, “I miscalculated”. Of what was going on in his mind, what made him ultimately commit…you know, to do that act. While carrying out autopsy on Robin, doctors discovered about Lew Body dementia.
