Focusing her journalistic toolbox on her story, Cahalan untangles the medical mystery surrounding her condition. 'Without this electronic evidence, I could never have imagined myself capable of such madness and misery,' she writes. DVDs recorded in the hospital were the only link she had to her startling condition. Physicians remained baffled until one extraordinary doctor determined that Cahalan was 'in the grip of some kind of autoimmune disease.' Released from the hospital after 28 days, she had no memory of her stay there. But suddenly, as she tells it in this engaging memoir, she began suffering from a bizarre amalgam of debilitating symptoms including memory loss, paranoia, and severe psychosis that left her in a catatonic state that moved her close to death.

In 2009, Cahalan was in a serious relationship and her career as a reporter at the New York Post was taking off.

“A fascinating look at the disease that…could 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. In an “unforgettable” ( Elle), “stunningly brave” (NPR), 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 almost didn’t happen. Now she was labeled as 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. NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING CHLOË GRACE MORETZĪ “captivating” ( The New York Times Book Review), award-winning memoir and instant New York Times bestseller that goes far beyond its riveting medical mystery, Brain on Fire is a powerful account of one woman’s struggle to recapture her identity.

Brain on fire by susannah cahalan