Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
Ratings120
Average rating4
While I understand the author wanted to document every detail of her illness and recovery, I think the story and her writing style would have made for a better longform magazine piece. Found myself bogged down by minutia.
A scary read if you're someone with chronic, unexplained health problems, but it was fascinating and wonderful that they figured out how to cure her.
3.5 rounded up to 4
Susannah Cahalan details her month of madness when a rare auto-immune disease ravaged her mind and took from her her speech, her personality, ability to make memories, and her trust in reality. She was able to find a treatment that helped her gain most of her health back, but the month of madness and the fear of it happening again left its mark on Cahalan.
The book is straightforward and well-written. Underlying Cahalan's plight and her recovery is the medical systems that are still in place in today's world. It is no one's direct fault, but the current system doesn't allow everyone to get tested or to have access to the healthcare that Cahalan had. Her comments about the system remind me of my psych professor's rant about capitalism and how in this current state of things, there are health concerns that frankly don't get diagnosed or treated because they aren't profitable.
The major takeaway of this book is just how fragile reality truly is. Cahalan remembers things vividly that never happened and heard her boyfriend or others say things about her. The mind is a truly powerful thing and I find it incredibly interesting. We are truly all brains in skin suits pretending that we have a grasp on reality on this tiny blue marble of an Earth.
The perfect mix of informative and inspiring. This book walks through an unimaginable journey and explains every detail along the way.
This is an amazing and haunting story. It makes my hair stand on end considering what this must have been like. It's like a living nightmare.
I'm grateful for Susanna bravely sharing her story. I hope I don't forget this should I encounter a patient with these symptoms.
I finished this book mainly because I didn't have the energy to start a new one at the time. The mystery of Cahalan's illness intrigued me, but I found her to be unlikeable and couldn't connect.
Excellent balance between narrative experience and factual information. Also, greatly appreciated the introduction and how she states that she is an unreliable source, but she does her best. Loved the information towards the end about the experiment with ketamine and the rubber hand to better understand schizophrenia. Most of the time she came off as quite skilled and competent, but there were a few moments where it felt hackneyed due to her flippant use of common turns of phrase or came off someone acting like a journalist. These moments are few and a majority of the writing is interesting and feels authentic.
I did watch the Netflix special of this, the book (or at least audiobook) is much better. In the book Stephen is much more caring and present. I think they also misrepresented her age and ability in the show, perhaps so the actress comes off as more believable. The book also spends some time talking about her recovery, which is important as well as how she tries to help others with her knowledge and experience. The special is pretty good, but the (audio)book eclipses it.
Very enjoyable read for such a frightening situation. Not what I necessarily expected, subject-wise, but very good all the same. Readable, personal, and medical - meets all my criteria for a “fun” non-fiction read.
Part medical mystery, part fear-and-loathing-in-Las-Vegas. Susannah Cahalan tells the story of how she went from a completely normal 24 year old to someone afflicted with paranoia, psychosis and finally catatonia within just a few weeks/months. She has epileptic seizures, hears voices, partially loses her abilities of speech and movement all the while a variety of doctors try to figure out what is attacking her brain. She pieces together the story of her month of madness - of which she herself has no recollection - with the help of her family and friends, hospital surveillance tapes and diagnosis reports.
This is scary - how some brain condition suddenly could out of nowhere completely change who you are - and touching - in her parents and friends devotion to her, and in hearing how her story has helped other patients to be correctly diagnosed.
Super fascinating story of a woman who starts getting mysterious symptoms - seizures, catatonia, inability to speak - and the neurologists who finally figured out her diagnosis of a rare auto immune disease. This disease is more prevalent in women and many think it's the source of some demonic possession stories. A great read - while only make you slightly paranoid that you're going to get this disease! ;)
This was SO GOOD and SO TERRIFYING.
Susannah's descent into madness and near death was so abrupt, so near-complete and so inexplicable you can't help but get sucked in to her story. This could happen to any of us if the stars seem to align just so. Near the end of her story she wonders how many people have been misdiagnosed and how many have died simply because we know so little about so many autoimmune disorders.
I recently watched Lotje Sodderland's My Beautiful Broken Brain, a documentary about her hermorrhagic stroke and recovery. I found it interesting that Susannah and Lotje's favorite director was David Lynch. Doesn't mean anything in particular, I just found it interesting!
A true-life Dr. House mystery. What starts as two suspected bedbug bites for 20 something reporter Susannah Cahalan quickly escalates into hallucinations, out of body experiences, rampant paranoia and massive seizures. Doctors are stumped when MRIs and blood work come back clean and dismiss is as stress or drinking too much. It takes the persistence of her parents and the intervention of one Dr. Souhel Najjar and a simple paper and pencil test that sets her on a path to recovery. Cahalan digs through medical records, video footage and countless interviews to piece together her month of madness. Riveting.
I'm really gobsmacked by how good this memoir is. You keep turning the pages because you're wondering what Susannah is suffering from, and how can you not when the suffering is so painful, so deep, so personal? Which is why, if possible, you should not to spoil yourself about WHAT the illness is. I went into the book believing that it's some other ailment, and was astounded to find out what it is. It goes to show how rare this disease is, and how much the world needs to know it exists.
The book is very well written; its structure is like a mystery novel, with the tension rising as Susannah gets worse.
One thing that stands out for me is the author's experience with doctors. It was a frustrating experience for her as so many refused to acknowledge that she was really ill, declaring her “fine” numerous times. It was not until she had a violent seizure in a hospital that they took her seriously (or her parents, as she was pretty out of it by then). Even then the frustration is not over as so many seemed determined to chase their own theories or refused to give up their prejudices to “think out of the box”.
I had an experience just like that, though my illness is by no means as grave as Susannah's. I do wonder why some doctors think they are 100% right, and how some refused to entertain alternative treatments....
This just might be the scariest book I have ever read. It is brilliantly told and fascinating as much as completely terrifying.
It did bother me that Susannah is clearly from a wealthy family, and she had very good health insurance which is absolutely not the case for everyone. To her merit, she addresses this near the end of the book and acknowledges that she was one of the lucky ones.
This was my first time reading a book like this and I absolutely loved it. The way that Susannah wrote about herself captivated me and I felt as if I was sitting right net to her throughout the entire experience she described. I don't really know what else to say, but I really enjoyed this book and I'd recommend it to people who like mystery/thrillers. Although they're not really connected, I personally think you feel similar things while reading this book.
Very interesting book. Sad that many people are probably mis-diagnosed and end up institutionalized. I hope the research continues to quickly diagnose and treat this disease.
An utterly fascinating exploration of one girl's fight against a rare autoimmune disease that almost got her locked in the nuthouse. Makes you realize just how little we still know not only about the brain, but about the brilliant machinations of our entire bodies and all the cells that make it work.