Eventually Cahalan is admitted to the epilepsy unit at NYU Medical Center, where she becomes catatonic.Ī specialist was asked to review Cahalan’s case. Skeptical of the doctor’s initial diagnosis (alcohol withdrawal), Cahalan’s mother pleads with the doctor for hospitalization. 9).Ĭahalan’s health continues to deteriorate as her symptoms mount – migraines, tingling and eventual numbness in her left hand, insomnia, racing thoughts, anxiety, fatigue, nightmares, nausea, hallucinations, and episodes of mania and psychosis – eventually leading Cahalan to the doctor. It is unknown how she acquired her illness, but the author notes that the episodes that followed nearly sent her to an asylum (p. After returning home, Cahalan dismisses her ailments as the flu, and speculates on where she might have contracted the bug, attributing it to a sneeze on the subway. The memoir opens with the author convinced of a bed bug infestation, and preoccupied by this thought, Cahalan uncharacteristically neglects her work as a reporter at the New York Post. The book offers numerous themes on which student affairs professionals can pull perseverance, grit, persistence, determination, patience, positive thinking, and hard work – all important traits to instill in students. “A fascinating look at the disease uld have cost this vibrant, vital young woman her life” (People), Brain on Fire is an unforgettable exploration of memory and identity, faith and love, and a profoundly compelling tale of survival and perseverance that is destined to become a classic.Susannah Cahalan’s breathtaking and terrifying memoir, Brain on Fire, chronicles the weeks preceding her illness, her month long hospitalization of which she has no memory, and recovery. In a swift and breathtaking narrative, Susannah tells the astonishing true story of her descent into madness, her family’s inspiring faith in her, and the lifesaving diagnosis that nearly didn’t happen. Now she was labeled violent, psychotic, a flight risk. Days earlier, she had been on the threshold of a new, adult life: at the beginning of her first serious relationship and a promising career at a major New York newspaper. When twenty-four-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a hospital room, strapped to her bed and unable to move or speak, she had no memory of how she’d gotten there. An anniversary edition of the award-winning memoir and instant New York Times bestseller that goes far beyond its riveting medical mystery, Brain on Fire is the powerful account of one woman’s struggle to recapture her identity-with a new note to readers by the author.
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