Robin Williams' health was deteriorating at a rapid rate before he died

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Susan begins her letter describing the fall of 2013. By then, Robin was already seeing a doctor to cope with physical symptoms like a tremor in his left hand, constipation, heartburn, insomnia and a poor sense of smell. Then, one weekend in late October, she observed that his fear and anxiety had “skyrocketed” to alarming levels, beyond his usual stress.

By winter of that year, Robin was having problems with paranoia, delusions, insomnia, memory and high levels of the stress hormone cortisol. He sought psychotherapy to help him cope with his fear and anxiety.

In April 2014, he had a panic attack while filming “Night at the Museum 3.” During filming, he struggled to memorize his lines unusual for the Juilliard-trained actor and his doctor prescribed antipsychotic medications.

Susan would later find out, months after her husband’s death, that antipsychotics can cause severe reactions in people with LBD, and in some cases even worsen their cognitive and physical symptoms.

Finally in May, doctors diagnosed Robin Williams with Parkinson’s disease, which would explain physical symptoms like his hand tremor and difficulty moving. While the diagnosis proved comforting for a while, Susan writes that Robin sensed something was still deeply wrong specifically with his brain and his cognitive behavior.

“I just want to reboot my brain,” he said on one occasion. “Do I have Alzheimer’s? Dementia? Am I schizophrenic?” he asked on another.

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Robin was growing weary. The parkinsonian mask was ever present and his voice was weakened. His left hand tremor was continuous now and he had a slow, shuffling gait. He hated that he could not find the words he wanted in conversations. He would thrash at night and still had terrible insomnia. At times, he would find himself stuck in a frozen stance, unable to move, and frustrated when he came out of it. He was beginning to have trouble with visual and spatial abilities in the way of judging distance and depth. His loss of basic reasoning just added to his growing confusion.

It felt like he was drowning in his symptoms, and I was drowning along with him. Typically the plethora of LBD symptoms appear and disappear at random times—even throughout the course of a day. I experienced my brilliant husband being lucid with clear reasoning 1 minute and then, 5 minutes later, blank, lost in confusion.

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One professional stated, “It was as if he had cancer throughout every organ of his body.” The key problem seemed to be that no one could correctly interpret Robin's symptoms in time.

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