‘DEPRESSION DIDN’T KILL ROBIN WILLIAMS’

WIDOW SAYS ACTOR SUFFERED FROM DEBILITATING BRAIN DISEASE

LOS ANGELES: Depression did not kill actor Robin Williams but it was a debilitating brain disease called Diffuse Lewy Body Dementia that moved him to death, reveals his widow Susan.

Robin took his life in 2014, leaving his millions of fans, family, and friends shocked and grieving. He was 63. For the last year, Susan has remained mostly silent about her husband’s tragic passing in an effort to uncover and study the real cause of his death.

Opening up about his suicide, Susan shared the details of Diffuse Lewy Body Dementia or Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) that took hold of Williams and the couple’s harrowing ordeal to fight it.

“It was not depression that killed Robin. Depression was one of let’s call it 50 symptoms and it was a small one,” Susan said.

Frequently misdiagnosed, DLB is the second most common neurodegenerative dementia after Alzheimer’s and causes fluctuations in mental status, hallucinations and impairment of motor function.

The disease started taking its toll on Williams in the last year before his death, by way of its “whack-a-mole”-like symptoms which included heightened levels of anxiety, delusions and impaired movement.

“They present themselves like a pinball machine. You don’t know exactly what you’re looking at,” she said. Robin’s symptoms worsened in the months leading up to his death.