Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness Reaction

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
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Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
Susannah Cahalan narrates how she questioned her sanity due to a rare disease referred to as anti-NMDA-receptor in her book, “Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness”. In a captivating description, Cahalan explains how she woke up in a hospital bed after a month’s stay, of which she had no recollection of, with a wristband stating that she was a flight risk. Her account of the various diagnoses that the doctors made before the correct diagnosis is riveting as she explains how she came close to death. The story has a happy ending because Cahalan eventually recovered from her condition after undergoing intensive treatment under Dr. Najjar, who was also responsible for making the correct diagnosis.
While her recollection of the events during her illness is clearly unreliable, Cahalan uses her journalism skills to collect and analyze the available evidence to recreate those events(Cahalan, 2012). Thus, she is able to provide her readers with a vivid description of her condition in order to give insight into the rare disease. Her work explains well how her condition affected not only her brain but also her family and friends. Personally, I have only seen the concept of clock test as a tactic of identifying whether a person has a brain condition in medical movies. Knowing that Cahalan’s rare disease was identified using the same concept is thus an interesting discovery that points out to the realism of it all. The title itself sheds light on what the patients with that condition experiences and therefore gives a hint on what the disease entails.
The title of Cahalan’s memoir can have several meanings. First, brain on fire can be used on a literal form based on the symptoms of anti-NMDA-receptor disease. According to Bartolini (2016), the symptoms of the disease are similar to those associated with the flu. As such, the patient experiences high fever and severe headaches, similar to what Cahalan’s had experienced prior to diagnosis. These symptoms are followed by other psychiatric symptoms such as hallucinations and insomnia which mostly occur if the brain’s functionality is abnormal(Bartolini, 2016). Thus, brain on fire can be used to literally mean that her brain was on fire based on the headaches and fever she had experienced. Second, the title can also mean that her brain was under attack from antibodies that fight diseases, thus causing the fever. The title stems from how Dr. Najjar explained her condition after diagnosis. As Cahalan (2016) reveals, the doctor used the statement “her brain is on fir...