![]() Najjar used this to help diagnose Cahalan and start her road to recovery. Rather than drawing the clock face normally, the disease caused Cahalan to draw all the numbers 1 through 12 on the right face of the clock, because the right side of her brain, which regulates the left side of the body, was inflamed. Najjar diagnosed Cahalan using a test that involved her drawing a clock, a test normally given to people suspected of having dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Souhel Najjar, began to suspect that Cahalan was suffering from an autoimmune disease. Eventually several physicians, including Dr. Her eventual diagnosis was made more difficult by various physicians misdiagnosing her with several theories such as "partying too much" and schizoaffective disorder. She woke up in a hospital with no memory of the previous month's events, during which time she had violent episodes and delusions. The book narrates Cahalan's issues with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis and the process by which she was diagnosed with this form of encephalitis. It was first published on November 13, 2012, through Free Press in hardback, and was later reprinted in paperback by Simon & Schuster after the two companies merged. The book details Cahalan's struggle with a rare form of encephalitis and her recovery. ![]() It’s easy to understand and provides a new perspective on how fragile life truly is.Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness is a 2012 New York Times best-selling autobiography by New York Post writer Susannah Cahalan. This truly shows how powerful her writing is. The overwhelming positivity leads her to adapt the article into a book. She received so much positivity and was able to help many families suffering from similar circumstances. She first wrote her story as a featured article for The New York Post. Cahalan made a full recovery and was able to use her revived journalism skills to write this story. Her ability to write this book is amazing because the doctors on her team thought she would never be the same as she was before the disease. We are able to get a feel for how traumatizing this event was for her and her family. Usually, the public hears the doctors’ side of the event through the news and other published media, but this is a special book since it was written from the patient’s point of view. She explains the events in great detail, even though she didn’t remember anything from that time and she used her resources mentioned above to make a truly beautiful piece of writing. It makes the story more personal to the reader. This journal along with surveillance footage from her hospital room and her friends’ and family members’ personal experiences during this time helped her write “Brain on Fire” and learn about what happened to her since she didn’t remember anything from this time.Ĭahalan writes like she is talking directly to the audience. Souhel Najjar figured out what was wrong with her.ĭuring her stay in the hospital, her parents kept a journal of all her medical information which later helped piece together the time she lost. She was in the hospital for about seven months when Dr. The crazy thing is, all her blood tests, MRI scans and other tests came back 100% normal. She slowly started showing symptoms of psychosis, schizophrenia and other non-life threatening diseases. ![]() “Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness” is an autobiography about Cahalan’s struggle with a rare brain disease. One day everything changed and she almost lost it all, including her life. Susannah Cahalan had a great life: she was a journalist for The New York Post, she had a loving family and boyfriend and she was independent.
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