Robin Williams' Widow Reveals The Struggle of His Last Days

Robin Williams' widow, Susan Schneider Williams has finally opened up about the actor's final days before his death on Aug. 11, 2014 at 63 years of age.

In an emotional essay written in the medical journal Neurology, titled "The Terrorist Inside My Husband's Brain," Schneider William talks about how an undiagnosed form of dementia literally caused a "chemical warfare in his brain."

"Robin was losing his mind and he was aware of it. Can you imagine the pain he felt as he experienced himself disintegrating? And not from something he would ever know the name of, or understand? Neither he nor anyone could stop it - no amount of intelligence or love could hold it back," said she in the essay

Williams had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2014 but an autopsy after his death revealed that he suffered from Lewy body dementia, a hard-to-diagnose mental illness that could have contributed to the actor's decision to end his life according to medical experts.  

The essay details how the disease affected William's life and its impact on his faculties.

"He had been struggling with symptoms that seemed unrelated: constipation, urinary difficulty, heartburn, sleeplessness and insomnia, and a poor sense of smell and lots of stress," she wrote. "He also had a slight tremor in his left hand that would come and go."

His widow recalled that he had difficulties in remembering his lines which he first noticed while filming "Night at the Museum 3," which devastated him.

"He kept saying, 'I just want to reboot my brain,'" she wrote.

Schneider William said that while his treatment was on the right path, she wasn't convinced that there would have been any difference in his life if the illness had been diagnosed earlier. He would have just become a famous test subject for new medicines and techniques, which would have only  prolonged his agony.

"I will never know the true depth of his suffering, nor just how hard he was fighting. From where I stood, I saw the bravest man in the world playing the hardest role of his life," wrote Schneider William.

She hopes that her account of the ordeal would "help make a difference in the lives of others," and add to the understanding of researchers, doctors and caregivers.