{"id":15090,"date":"2020-09-19T13:55:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-19T17:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=15090"},"modified":"2020-09-30T18:44:17","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T22:44:17","slug":"brain-on-fire-my-month-of-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/brain-on-fire-my-month-of-madness\/","title":{"rendered":"The True Story of Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness<\/em> about? How did Susannah Cahalan put together what happened to her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness<\/em> tells the story of Susannah Cahalan’s missing month in the hospital. She appeared to have a psychosis, but her brain was attacking itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See what happened in Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

What Happened in Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After twenty-eight days in the hospital, Susannah is discharged. She\u2019ll need an at-home nurse; biweekly visits to the hospital to flush out the antibodies with a plasma exchange; a full-body 3-D scan; and full-time rehab. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still vastly divorced from her old self, Susannah has little self-awareness when she\u2019s released from the hospital. She makes significant progress over the next few months, but in her own mind, she\u2019s uncertain about herself. For Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness<\/em>, she had to research herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts are called in to do an assessment. It reveals a divide between Susannah\u2019s internal world and the world around her. Social situations are especially difficult because she\u2019s aware of how strange she appears to the people around her. Susannah often feels that her true self<\/a> is trying to connect with the world outside but can\u2019t break past her body. <\/strong>She worries that she\u2019s become boring\u2014the most difficult adjustment to a new self she has to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Susannah\u2019s old self finally reawakens. She begins reading again and starts keeping a diary. This was the start of Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness. <\/em>Her father encourages her to draw upon her memory, but she can recall only numbness, sleepiness, and three seizures. She remembers nothing from her time in the hospital.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of her illness, Susannah has gained 50 pounds. She obsesses about being fat. Her worries about being fat are actually worries about who she will become: Will she remain as slow as she is now, or will she regain the spark that defines her true nature? When people ask, \u201cHow are you?\u201d Susannah recognizes that she no longer knows who \u201cI\u201d is.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Susannah regains former functions and personality traits. She summarizes her experience for Paul, her mentor at the Post<\/em>, and he certifies that her writing skills have returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul\u2019s encouragement is all Susannah needs. She begins a program of research and becomes obsessed with understanding how a human body attacks itself. Paul actively encourages Susannah to return to work. On the appointed day, Susannah dresses up and takes a train into the city, but both she and Paul realize it\u2019s too soon for her to return to work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two weeks later Susannah gets an assignment from the Post<\/em>. Her article is published on July 28. She\u2019s published hundreds of pieces before, but none have meant more than this one. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness <\/em>signals her redemption. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A month later\u2014seven months after her illness forced her to leave work\u2014Susannah returns to her job at the Post. <\/em>Human Resources advises her to <\/em>start off slowly, but she jumps in as if she never left. Unable to type as quickly as before, she records her interviews, her speech slow, plodding. Sometimes she slurs her words. Her coworkers discreetly edit her work, reeducating her in the basics of journalism. Susannah is convinced she\u2019s back to normal, but in fact, she still has a long way to go before she returns to her former self. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working on Brain on Fire<\/em> by Susannah Cahalan<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

That afternoon, the Post<\/em>\u2019s Sunday editor asks Susannah if she\u2019d be willing to write a first-person account of her illness. It\u2019s the assignment Susannah has been hoping for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has four days to write Brain on Fire <\/em>by Susannah Cahalan. She interviews Stephen, her family, and Drs. Najjar and Dalmau. She learns many things in the course of her research:<\/p>\n\n\n\n