James Leroy Wilson's one-man magazine.

Tuesday, August 02, 2016

Robin Williams' real disease, for those who still don't know

Near the end of a May 17 Joe Rogan podcast, Bobcat Goldthwaite talked about the death of his best friend Robin Williams. He felt it was important to mention it, nearly two years after the autopsy results were announced, because the news hadn't sunk in.

Robin Williams didn't commit suicide because of Depression. Not because he faced a bleak future with Parkinson's (which was an incorrect diagnosis). Not because of marital problems; there weren't. Not because of financial difficulties, of which there were none. As to Robin having spoken of suicide in the past, Bobcast said the question should be: When do comedians NOT talk about suicide?

Bobcat said the autopsy revealed that Williams had Lewy Body Dementia, and that was concsistent with his experience that on most days Robin was most often misperceiving reality. There was no speculation on the podcast as to what was going on in Robin's mind at the time of the suicide, but Bobcat is certain it wouldn't have happened without Lewy Body Dementia. 

I recall in the immediate wake of Robin's death, the conclusion was that he must have had Depression, with the undertone of why else could he have committed suicide? There were pleas to those who were contemplating it to get help RIGHT NOW with hotlines promoted on tv. Perhaps that was helpful to some people, so this immediate reaction may have been a good thing. There's no shame in Depression.

But it's unfair to Robin, and to the truth, if the facts aren't known. Because then there weren't be awareness of  Lewy Body Dementia..

So I'm posting this in case some readers don't know the facts.

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