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sare1125's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Forced institutionalization and Mental illness
book_concierge's review against another edition
3.0
Book on CD narrated by Heather Henderson
3.5***
From the book jacket One day in 2009, twenty-four-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a strange hospital room, strapped to her bed, under guard, and unable to move or speak. A wristband marked her as a “flight risk,” and her medical records – chronicling a month-long hospital stay – showed hallucinations, violence, and dangerous instability. Only weeks earlier, Susannah had been … a healthy, ambitious college grad a few months into her first serious relationship and a promising career as a cub reporter at a major New York newspaper. Who was the stranger who had taken over her body? What was happening to her mind?
My reactions
This was a fascinating memoir – drawn partly from interviews with friends, relations, colleagues and medical personnel, her journal writings during the period, and her medical records – of a time period when Cahalan was nearly completely lost. It was luck that caused her diagnosis to come early enough in her disease process to not only correct the problem, but minimize the brain damage she might otherwise have suffered. For the cause of her apparent mental illness (some physicians felt her symptoms pointed to alcohol withdrawal, other drug use, and/or schizophrenia) was actually a little-known form of encephalitis. The fact that she had a major seizure brought her to the attention of neurologists, rather than psychiatrists, and one neurologist in particular who followed a hunch and suggested a brain biopsy which discovered the autoimmune disorder which was causing her brain to swell.
As she recovered, Cahalan was encouraged to write about her experience, and the first article (published by her employer, The Post) gained world-wide attention, and resulted in timely intervention for many other patients as well.
Her training as a journalist is evident here. She includes much background information on the research into the disorder – anti-NDMA-receptor encephalitis – and the history of mental illness (including “demonic possession”) and autism. I was engaged and interested from beginning to end, though I did feel it was a bit repetitive.
Heather Henderson does a fabulous job reading the audio book. Her performance really brought to life the deterioration Cahalan experienced, as well as how anxious and confused she felt. Henderson’s skill as a voice artist also allowed her to give the other people in the book unique voices, making it easy to distinguish who was speaking. The only thing missing from the audio, of course, are the illustrations – pages from Cahalan’s journals at the time, or slides of her brain scans, etc. – but this did not materially affect my understanding or enjoyment of the book.
3.5***
From the book jacket One day in 2009, twenty-four-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a strange hospital room, strapped to her bed, under guard, and unable to move or speak. A wristband marked her as a “flight risk,” and her medical records – chronicling a month-long hospital stay – showed hallucinations, violence, and dangerous instability. Only weeks earlier, Susannah had been … a healthy, ambitious college grad a few months into her first serious relationship and a promising career as a cub reporter at a major New York newspaper. Who was the stranger who had taken over her body? What was happening to her mind?
My reactions
This was a fascinating memoir – drawn partly from interviews with friends, relations, colleagues and medical personnel, her journal writings during the period, and her medical records – of a time period when Cahalan was nearly completely lost. It was luck that caused her diagnosis to come early enough in her disease process to not only correct the problem, but minimize the brain damage she might otherwise have suffered. For the cause of her apparent mental illness (some physicians felt her symptoms pointed to alcohol withdrawal, other drug use, and/or schizophrenia) was actually a little-known form of encephalitis. The fact that she had a major seizure brought her to the attention of neurologists, rather than psychiatrists, and one neurologist in particular who followed a hunch and suggested a brain biopsy which discovered the autoimmune disorder which was causing her brain to swell.
As she recovered, Cahalan was encouraged to write about her experience, and the first article (published by her employer, The Post) gained world-wide attention, and resulted in timely intervention for many other patients as well.
Her training as a journalist is evident here. She includes much background information on the research into the disorder – anti-NDMA-receptor encephalitis – and the history of mental illness (including “demonic possession”) and autism. I was engaged and interested from beginning to end, though I did feel it was a bit repetitive.
Heather Henderson does a fabulous job reading the audio book. Her performance really brought to life the deterioration Cahalan experienced, as well as how anxious and confused she felt. Henderson’s skill as a voice artist also allowed her to give the other people in the book unique voices, making it easy to distinguish who was speaking. The only thing missing from the audio, of course, are the illustrations – pages from Cahalan’s journals at the time, or slides of her brain scans, etc. – but this did not materially affect my understanding or enjoyment of the book.
curlyc90's review against another edition
4.0
This definitely had the right mix of science and story. Both easily understood to the reader. Really fascinating and begs to question how many people in our psychiatric units may have this rare and mysterious illness.
readingwithkris's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
3.0
csgiansante's review against another edition
3.0
I feel like you have to really be invested in the topic of a memoir if you're going to commit to one. The story was interesting, but I think I could have done with a news article rather than a whole book.
jesslolsen's review against another edition
5.0
Whoa, what an amazing story! I've given myself a little time to try and articulate how I feel now I have finished reading this book, and I'm still blown away by it - how honestly it is written, trying to get my head around how remarkable yet fragile the body is (especially the brain) and what it must have been like to go through something like that, and return to 'normal' within a relatively short period of time.
Towards the end of the book Cahalan says she wouldn't wish it on anyone but that it made her grateful to go through something like this, and I can see why (as well as anyone can without having a similar experience to reference personally anyway) it would completely adjust your thinking and make you appreciate everything so much more. You really can't take your health for granted, especially the heath of your brain!
As I was reading this I googled several things that were referenced in the book, particularly Teratoma and Susannah Cahalan, because I wanted to see what they both looked like. Both were very confronting in completely different ways. Some of the Teratoma was quite scary looking, and so too were some images that came up of Susannah while she was in hospital. But when you look at pictures of her now, you would never guess that she had been through any kind of ordeal, let alone one so significant and life changing.
It was great to hear that from her article and book that there have been a lot more cases correctly identified of the disease - irregardless of any money made, that is a great way to judge the competence and success of her writing, remarkable when you learn how close she came to losing that skill.
I have seen online that they are making this story in to a movie - I imagine it would be a ridiculously hard character to play, it will be interesting to see it.
Towards the end of the book Cahalan says she wouldn't wish it on anyone but that it made her grateful to go through something like this, and I can see why (as well as anyone can without having a similar experience to reference personally anyway) it would completely adjust your thinking and make you appreciate everything so much more. You really can't take your health for granted, especially the heath of your brain!
As I was reading this I googled several things that were referenced in the book, particularly Teratoma and Susannah Cahalan, because I wanted to see what they both looked like. Both were very confronting in completely different ways. Some of the Teratoma was quite scary looking, and so too were some images that came up of Susannah while she was in hospital. But when you look at pictures of her now, you would never guess that she had been through any kind of ordeal, let alone one so significant and life changing.
It was great to hear that from her article and book that there have been a lot more cases correctly identified of the disease - irregardless of any money made, that is a great way to judge the competence and success of her writing, remarkable when you learn how close she came to losing that skill.
I have seen online that they are making this story in to a movie - I imagine it would be a ridiculously hard character to play, it will be interesting to see it.
kcrawfish's review against another edition
4.0
A fascinating chronicle of a horrible illness. When she was able, the author pointed her skills honed in journalism toward detailing her experience with brain infection, most of which she reconstructs from friends, family, medical personnel, diaries and hospital footage because she wasn’t mentally present. Having an infected “brain on fire” is one of the scary, fascinating things that is as rare as being struck by lightning and very understudied (at the time), so this first hand account is a landmark. Though she’s not a doctor, the author is able to clearly detail the specifics of her illness, and her internal struggle with the symptoms of bipolar 1, schizophrenia, paranoia, seizures, and a laundry list of issues, as she spirals, consciously, into madness.