A review by alexreverie
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan

4.0

Cahalan's saga of a descent into psychosis and accompanying troubling neurological effects was a difficult listen. The story has that car-crash draw that attracts morbid curiosity. It also rang strangely similar to the case of someone in my life who went through psychosis. Perhaps that was why it was so emotionally hard to get through this audiobook.

Spoiler

Cahalan's illness is rare, and part of her recovery story struck me as a bit unusual. She talks about now being off all medications, having fully returned to her baseline status. However, this is not often the goal for people with mental illnesses. Schizophrenic and bipolar patients are often dependent on medication to stabilize their moods, and going off meds is not the end goal. The end goal is merely maintenance of a normal life, as much as that is possible. So the fact that Cahalan's illness does not fit this mold, yet sounds a lot like illnesses that manifest in psychosis, left me feeling that the end of the story was misleading.

This story is unique in the etiology of Cahalan's condition, but I don't think it should be read in the pursuit of understanding mental illness.

Spoiler

In fact, it is more about an autoimmune reaction her body had that so happened to attack her brain.

Still, the story is enlightening and well-written, given that it is written by a (former?) New York Post journalist.