Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Jul 06, 2018 Krissy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: pgs-200-299, audiobook, nonfiction, 5-motherfucking-stars, cover-color-gray-silver

Fascinating!

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Jan 27, 2016 Larissa rated it really liked it

This was an enthralling story about a woman who gets a strange disease which simulates someone who literally is losing their min and going crazy! Wow what a story! It seemed extra interesting because she seems like a type of friend I would have and to picture the breakdown of such an outgoing person is heartbreaking! Thankfully - no surprise as she writes the book - she returns to health and her former healthy self ! But what a scary thought. This disease - Anti-NMDA Receptor Autoimmune Encephal ...more

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Nov 03, 2019 Isabel Jazmín rated it really liked it

Me gustó mucho cómo la autora hizo de su caso una investigación ya que durante mucha parte de su enfermedad no estuvo consciente de sí misma, debió recurrir a entrevistas y grabaciones para reconstruir su paso por el hospital. De esta manera, combina sus recuerdos, los de su padre, el personal a su cuidado, los videos y la investigación sobre los procedimientos que llevaron a cabo con ella.

El resultado es un texto lleno de datos sobre la enfermedad, sensaciones de la autora, sentimientos de sus ...more

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Mar 27, 2018 Kristin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A fascinating look into a patient's acute descent into a deep state of mental illness from the patient herself, who lived to tell her story. Although there are many effective, or at least seemingly effective, treatments for mental illnesses that allow people to enjoy normal lives, in Cahalan's case, doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with her because her symptoms were so vast and varied. Seizures put her on the epilepsy ward of the hospital, but she never had a seizure while she was ther A fascinating look into a patient's acute descent into a deep state of mental illness from the patient herself, who lived to tell her story. Although there are many effective, or at least seemingly effective, treatments for mental illnesses that allow people to enjoy normal lives, in Cahalan's case, doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with her because her symptoms were so vast and varied. Seizures put her on the epilepsy ward of the hospital, but she never had a seizure while she was there. Her mental decline from a 100% functional baseline continued so quickly that it became impossible for her to have any control whatsoever of her care, unable to answer basic questions, describe her symptoms, or interact realistically with her surroundings. By a stroke of luck, one of the physicians called in for a consult had just done a study where the patients mirrored her symptoms almost identically, and he was able to diagnose her with an autoimmune disease known to affect less than 200 people at the time. This diagnosis was particularly interesting, as I work in a field that deals with the immune response to transplanted organs as well as autoimmume disorders that lead to renal failure, plus I just saw an enlightening talk by a physician who specializes in immunotherapy for patients with metastatic cancers for whom FDA-approved chemotherapies have not proven effective.
The book was as frightening as fascinating. Although I am 10 years older now than she was when stricken, it is hard to fathom that one day you can be perfectly fine and the next day overcome by hallucinations and seizures. Even once she gets her diagnosis and the doctors find effective treatment, there's still the unknown long term prognosis, that she could relapse at any time and if she's not around people who know of her condition, she may be involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility instead of a hospital that can provide the IVIG infusions and steroids to fight off the autoimmune response. The purpose of the book is not only to tell her story, but spread awareness of autoimmune disorders of the brain, which can present with similar symptoms as the more commonly known mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder but require very different treatments, treatments that must be administered ASAP before any long term damage, or even death, results from the disease. ...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Sara rated it liked it

Shelves: book-club-reads, 2013-reads

I had never heard of this book until someone nominated it for book club this month. Reading the blurb, I was really excited to read this.

I must say, I enjoyed this book. I felt that the author's writing style was very engaging and relatable. I liked her, I was worried for her, and I wanted to be there with her throughout the book. It helped that even while writing about this horrific part of her life, she was able to keep a sense of humor.

One thing I didn't love was the "sciency" parts. I have n ...more

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