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Brain on Fire is a memoir by New York Post writer Susannah Cahalan that details her struggle with a rare autoimmune disease, anti-NMDA-receptor autoimmune encephalitis. In plain words, it's a disorder where the body attacks itself, causing inflammation in the brain. Cahalan spent a month in the hospital where she was misdiagnosed as a psychotic among other mental disorders. She went through numerous tests and attempted treatments during this time and has no memory of it. Cahalan restructured her
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Interesting, informative, also horrifying to know there is this type of disease out there. And I most certainly agree that a lot of the mental illness diagnoses made in the past were just plain wrong and these sufferers also had "brain on fire."
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I loved this book. It had been on my "to read" book for months and it wasn't until I flipped through the pages and found that the author's hometown happened to be 2 towns over from the one I grew up in in New Jersey. I love this book because it delivers an important message - when it comes to medical diagnoses, always get a second opinion if the 1st proves to be pretty grim! Susannah Cahalan descended into a month of madness, luckily to come up on top in the end only because she had fallen into
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In short chapters, Susannah Cahalan tells her tremendous story of surviving a rare autoimmune disease and the loss of her life as she knew it. Her raw account of waking up in the hospital, having mental breakdowns, and the frustration of the health care system had me in tears as well as ready to go to bat for her. I couldn't put the book down. I connected with Susannah to the core.
Five years ago, I went through a similar health scare and life altering experience. I awoke in a hospital after bein ...more
Five years ago, I went through a similar health scare and life altering experience. I awoke in a hospital after bein ...more
This was a fascinating book. This 24 year-old reporter suddenly starts having these weird symptoms like hallucinations, paranoia, slowed thought and speech and within a few weeks she is nearly catatonic! Can the doctors correctly diagnose and help or even cure her in time? There are a few F-words unfortunately. It is a quick read that is almost like a murder mystery in its style.
I was not sure whether I would like this one or not. I thought it might be another "poor me" memoir but it was very well written and emphasized the importance of continuing to search for answers to questions in medicine that as yet have no concrete answers and are ignored by most people as being unimportant.
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Jan 08, 2013
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