Susannah Cahalan wrote Brain on Fire after what seemed to her as an endless struggle with a rare disease known as anti-NMDAS-receptor encephalitis that severely affected her cerebrum. Cahalan’s traumatic but inspiring experiences with this illness are thoughtfully documented and analyzed in her memoir as she describes, in as much detail as her damaged brain will allow, the most candid moments during this medical nightmare. Along with her on this painful journey were her divorced parents, devoted boyfriend, and dedicated friends, who all ignored their personal differences to come together and take back the Susannah they loved from the incomprehensible madness she had fallen into. Susannah Cahalan was twenty-four years old when the onset of her disease began. As a young and bright journalist, Cahalan constantly relied on her advanced brain making the neurological symptoms blatantly obvious to Susannah and those around her. It started with subtle fits on paranoia like the bed-bug incident in which she panicked about two bites on her arm, calling the exterminator to check her apartment for pests and ever after being told things were completely clear, insisted she get her living space sprayed for…show more content… Susannah’s violent outbursts of paranoia, in which she was constantly convinced that everyone was out to get her, she was told that she had bipolar disorder, multiple personality disorder, and even schizophrenia. Susannah became an entirely different person during the worst of her disease. Her slurred speech, zombie-like movements, and worsening social skills reflected the deterioration that was taking place in her brain and raised the dreaded question no one wanted to ask. Would she ever be the same, brilliant
