Robin Williams was sober but was struggling with depression, anxiety and the early stages of Parkinson’s disease when he died, his widow said Thursday.
The diagnosis of the progressive illness was “an additional fear and burden in his life,” a person familiar with Williams’ family said on Thursday.
This news hit me particularly hard this week as I grew up on Mork and Mindy and all the amazing movies he stared in since. I have never been so deeply effected by a celebrity’s death like this before. Maybe it’s because I can relate to his challenges with depression as I had a bad case of it several years ago. I can also relate to the chronic illness being a chronic neurological lyme disease survivor. Maybe its also a bit of the fact that I’m invoIved in treating PD in my own practice. I loved his humor and it makes me so sad to think someone that great would do such an extreme thing leaving his kids and wife behind like that. I wonder if I would have been able to reach him in his last hours if things could have been different? Could I have given him some hope?
Anybody who has PD must realize that there is much that can be done most of which is outside the medical care system. The advances in Functional Neurology, Glutathione, and PEMF and just a few. Just take a look at all the video’s on this site and you can see that this disease can be changed for the better.
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In his own words: Williams on depression“Since his passing, all of us who loved Robin have found some solace in the tremendous outpouring of affection and admiration for him from the millions of people whose lives he touched,” Schneider said. “His greatest legacy, besides his three children, is the joy and happiness he offered to others, particularly to those fighting personal battles.
Comedic actor Robin Williams dies“Robin’s sobriety was intact and he was brave as he struggled with his own battles of depression, anxiety as well as early stages of Parkinson’s disease, which he was not yet ready to share publicly.”
“It is our hope in the wake of Robin’s tragic passing, that others will find the strength to seek the care and support they need to treat whatever battles they are facing so they may feel less afraid.”
Williams had been active as an actor in the last year of his life, performing in a CBS sitcom that was canceled this year and acting in four films that have yet to hit theaters.
It is not clear whether the early-stage Parkinson’s disease affected his ability to work.
“Friends and family can usually detect changes in the Parkinson’s patient including poor posture, loss of balance, and abnormal facial expressions,” according to the National Parkinson Foundation. “During this initial phase of the disease, a patient usually experiences mild symptoms. These symptoms may inconvenience the day-to-day tasks the patient would otherwise complete with ease. Typically these symptoms will include the presence of tremors or experiencing shaking in one of the limbs.”
Parkinson’s disease “causes certain brain cells to die,” according to the website of the National Institutes of Health. It is more likely to affect men than women and most often develops after age 50.
Williams used exercise and cycling to manage his stress and depression, and the prospect that the illness would prevent him from doing that was extremely upsetting, adding to the depression, the person familiar with his family said.
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Fellow actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson’s and established the Michael J. Fox Foundation, said Thursday that he was unaware of his friend’s condition.
“Stunned to learn Robin had PD. Pretty sure his support for our Fdn predated his diagnosis. A true friend; I wish him peace,” Fox tweeted.
Investigators believe Williams used a belt to hang himself from a bedroom door sometime between late Sunday and when his personal assistant found him just before noon Monday, according to Marin County Assistant Deputy Chief Coroner Lt. Keith Boyd.
Boyd would not confirm or deny whether Williams left behind a letter, saying that investigators would discuss “the note or a note” later.
The coroner’s investigation “revealed he had been seeking treatment for depression,” Boyd said.
He spent time in a treatment facility in July, a time when his wife and representative have said he was battling depression.
Media reports at the time speculated that Williams had resumed drinking alcohol, but the statement from his wife appears to dispute those reports.
Williams entered rehab because of drug and alcohol addiction at least twice previously.
“Robin spent so much of his life helping others,” his wife said. Whether he was entertaining millions on stage, film or television, our troops on the front lines, or comforting a sick child — Robin wanted us to laugh and to feel less afraid.”
