Robin Williams’ Widow Opens Up About His Suicide: 'It Was Not Depression That Killed Robin'

[Demeter]

http://www.alternet.org/culture/robin-williams-widow-opens-about-his-suicide-it-was-not-depression-killed-robin?akid=13627.227380.Huzen6&rd=1&src=newsletter1045239&t=9

A report after the actor’s death revealed that he was suffering from Lewy body dementia, a complex form of neurodegenerative dementia that causes mood instability and hallucinations and impairs motor skills.

“People in passing… would say to me, God, I wish I had done something more for him. If only I had called him,” Williams explained. “And I’m thinking, No one could have done anything more for Robin. I just want everyone to know that. Everyone did the very best they could. This disease is like a sea monster with 50 tentacles of symptoms that show when they want. It’s chemical warfare in the brain. And we can’t find it until someone dies definitively. There is no cure.”

While Robin didn’t know what was wrong with him, Susan says he had scheduled neurocognitive testing the week before he died. She says she watched her husband “disintegrating” as a result of the unknown illness, racked by depression, paranoia and anxiety, and that she now knows he would have had only three years to live given his diagnosis. She says she does not blame him for taking his own life.

In her opinion, the suicide was Robin’s way of taking back control. “I mean, there are many reasons. Believe me, I’ve thought about this. Of what was going on in his mind, what made him ultimately commit… you know, to do that act. And I think he was just saying no. And I don’t blame him one bit. I don’t blame him one bit.”

In another interview with People, Susan Williams says she hopes to raise awareness about Lewy body dementia. “I’ve spent this last year trying to find out what killed Robin. To understand what we were fighting, what we were in the trenches fighting and one of the doctors said, ‘Robin was very aware that he was losing his mind and there was nothing he could do about it,’ ” she says.

“This was a very unique case and I pray to God that it will shed some light on Lewy body for the millions of people and their loved ones who are suffering with it,” Susan continues. “Because we didn’t know. He didn’t know.”

A BIT MORE AT LINK

[brett_jv]

1. So sad, on so many levels ... Robin was one of the good ones, for sure ...

But beyond that ... a person shouldn't have to HANG THEMSELVES.

Society should provide a legal and compassionate ... 'way out'.

[Demeter]

2. The Wikipedia article was informative and horrifying

It's a new disease on the frontiers of medical care: can't diagnose it, can't cure it, can't treat it.

[mrdmk]

3. Lewy Body Dementia from Wikipedia

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), also known under a variety of other names including Lewy body dementia (LBD), diffuse Lewy body disease, cortical Lewy body disease, and senile dementia of Lewy type, is a type of dementia closely associated with Parkinson's disease. It is characterized anatomically by the presence of Lewy bodies, clumps of alpha-synuclein and ubiquitin protein in neurons, detectable in post mortem brain histology. Lewy body dementia affects about 1 million individuals in the United States alone.[citation needed]


Classification

Lewy body dementia (LBD) is a progressive degenerative dementia primarily affecting older adults. Its primary feature is cognitive decline, which can lead to hallucinations, as well as varied attention and alertness when compared to a person's baseline function. Persons with LBD display an inability to plan or a loss of analytical or abstract thinking and show markedly fluctuating cognition. Wakefulness varies from day to day, and alertness and short-term memory rise and fall. Persistent or recurring visual hallucinations with vivid and detailed pictures are often an early diagnostic symptom. REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is a symptom often first recognized by the patient's caretaker. RBD includes vivid dreaming, with persistent dreams, purposeful or violent movements, and falling out of bed. LBD symptoms overlap clinically with Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, but are more commonly associated with the latter. Because of this overlap, LBD in its early years is often misdiagnosed.

In LBD, loss of cholinergic (acetylcholine-producing) neurons is thought to account for degeneration of cognitive function (similar to Alzheimer's), while the death of dopaminergic (dopamine-producing) neurons appears to be responsible for degeneration of motor control (similar to Parkinson's) – in some ways, therefore, LBD resembles both disorders. The overlap of neuropathological and presenting symptoms (cognitive, emotional, and motor) can make an accurate differential diagnosis difficult. In fact, LBD is often confused in its early stages with Alzheimer's disease and/or vascular dementia (multi-infarct dementia), although, whereas Alzheimer’s disease usually begins gradually, LBD frequently has a rapid or acute onset, with especially rapid decline in the first few months. Thus, LBD tends to progress more rapidly than Alzheimer’s disease. Despite the difficulty, a prompt diagnosis is important because of the risks of sensitivity to certain neuroleptic (antipsychotic) drugs and because appropriate treatment of symptoms can improve life for both the person with LBD and the person's caregivers.

Benzodiazepines, anticholinergics, surgical anesthetics, some antidepressants, and OTC cold remedies can cause acute confusion, delusions and hallucinations.

LBD is distinguished from the dementia that sometimes occurs in Parkinson's disease by the time frame in which dementia symptoms appear relative to Parkinson symptoms. Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD) would be the diagnosis when dementia onset is more than a year after the onset of Parkinson's. LBD is diagnosed when cognitive symptoms begin at the same time or within a year of Parkinson symptoms.

More at the Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dementia_with_Lewy_bodies


As stated above, 'can't diagnose it, can't cure it, can't treat it.' What a terrible way to die, slowly losing your mind and having no way of knowing why, only knowing something is very wrong.

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