{"id":15188,"date":"2020-09-18T00:17:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T04:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=15188"},"modified":"2020-09-30T18:15:52","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T22:15:52","slug":"what-is-survivors-guilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-is-survivors-guilt\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Survivor’s Guilt? Examples in Brain on Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is survivor’s guilt<\/a>? How does it affect Susannah Cahalan in Brain on Fire<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After her article about her illness was published, Susannah received a lot of emails from people who read it. One letter seemed resentful that she was able to get better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about the question “what is survivor’s guilt” in Susannah’s situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

What Is Survivor’s Guilt?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On October 4, Susannah\u2019s article runs in the Post<\/em>. She receives hundreds of emails from people who have the disease and want to know more about it. She even receives phone calls from people who want a diagnosis from Susannah herself. Acknowledging how lucky she is to have recovered, Susannah is overwhelmed by survivor\u2019s guilt. What is survivor’s guilt in this situation? One man, whose wife is ill, calls Susannah and aggressively challenges, \u201cWhy did you get better while my wife\u2019s still sick? Are you so sure you won\u2019t get sick again?\u201d Two weeks later, he calls back to tell Susannah that his wife is dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s cost-prohibitive to test all psychiatric patients for an autoimmune disease<\/a>. <\/strong>Susannah was lucky; she had a financial safety net<\/a> that allowed for expensive testing. Many people with lifelong psychiatric conditions don\u2019t have that kind of safety net and may remain incorrectly diagnosed their entire lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many doctors don\u2019t keep abreast of current medical research.<\/strong> While writing her article, Susannah reached out to Dr. Bailey, the neurologist who had declared Susannah an alcoholic. She was shocked to find that he had never heard of anti-NMDA-receptor encephalitis, even though her case had recently been covered in every major medical journal, the New England Journal of Medicine<\/em>, and the New York Times. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet Susannah receives other types of phone calls. One comes from Bill Gavigan, whose daughter fell ill and was routinely misdiagnosed for more than a year. The girl was saved only because Bill\u2019s sister sent him a video of Susannah talking about the disease on the Today <\/em>show, along with Susannah\u2019s article in the Post<\/em>. Bill gave the video and the article to his daughter\u2019s neurologist, who immediately agreed to test Bill\u2019s daughter for anti-NMDA-receptor encephalitis. The girl was diagnosed and treated by Dr. Dalmau\u2019s colleagues. She made a complete recovery. On the phone, Bill tells Susannah, \u201cWithout you, our daughter would be dead.\u201d\u00a0Susannah uses moments like these to help combat her feelings over the question “what is survivor’s guilt?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Susannah\u2019s article is translated into Arabic and published in multiple papers throughout the Middle East. Syria\u2019s news agency publishes numerous stories of the Syrian boy who\u2019d become a miracle doctor in the US. The Syrian ambassador to the UN congratulates Najjar personally. That same year, Najjar is designated one of the best neurologists in the US by New York Magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Susannah returns to the Post <\/em>full-time. She and Stephen move in together. In a few months, she feels comfortable in her own skin again. There\u2019s no longer a gap between what she feels inside and how other people see her. She doesn\u2019t struggle for words anymore. She feels in control. Most importantly, she\u2019s regained her old sense of humor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is survivor’s guilt? How does it affect Susannah Cahalan in Brain on Fire? After her article about her illness was published, Susannah received a lot of emails from people who read it. One letter seemed resentful that she was able to get better. Read more about the question “what is survivor’s guilt” in Susannah’s situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,24],"tags":[130],"class_list":["post-15188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-society","tag-brain-on-fire","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Is Survivor's Guilt? Examples in Brain on Fire - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is survivor's guilt? 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