Robin Williams' final days revealed in new book

It is widely known that Robin Williams, the actor best known for Jumanji, Good Morning Vietnam, and Good Will Hunting, committed suicide on August 11, 2014.

However, not everyone knows what drove him to take his own life. According to Inquisitr, Dave Itzkoff published a book titled Robin wherein he revealed many aspects of Williams’ life.

While several people linked his passing with his previous battles with substance abuse, things were completely different. In May 2014, Williams was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

The truth is that the autopsy revealed that he didn’t have that illness but a different one called Lewy body dementia. It is often misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease because it has similar symptoms, but they are different conditions.

In William’s case, he started to lose his memory, had insomnia, and lost his sense of smell. There was a point in which he believed people were stealing things from him and he experienced several panic attacks.

As a way to help him, he was put on antipsychotic medication but it wasn’t enough. There were times in which he would ‘find himself stuck in a frozen stance, unable to move.’

Lewy body can have many symptoms, including difficulties remembering new memories, personality changes, and psychiatric symptoms.

It affects more than a million people in the U.S. per year but it is difficult to diagnose. Just as most degenerative brain diseases, it is incurable and the medicines available at the moment just ease the symptoms.

To expand people’s knowledge about Lewy body and to make it easier to diagnose, there are clinical trials being conducted. Dr. Bradley Boeve from the Mayo Clinic revealed that the ‘experienced eye’ can easily differentiate it from Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease.

Susan Schneider, who was married to Williams in his final years, labeled the illness as a ‘terrorist within his brain.’ She confessed that he experienced nearly all of the 40-plus symptoms of the disease and that it was very difficult for both of them.