Essay on Brain on Fire: A Memoir of Susannah Cahalan's Struggle With Autoimmune Encephalitis

Introduction

Brain on fire is a book written by Susannah Cahalan. The book narrates about her life before and after being diagnosed with anti-NMDA receptors autoimmune encephalitis. She tells that she began by feeling emotional and tiresome, unlike usual. After that, she became obsessed with certain things, like believing that she had bedbugs in her apartment. She went ahead and look for someone to debug her house, but it turns out there were no bedbugs in the apartment. Secondly, she found herself in her boyfriend's place, looking for evidence about cheating. She believed that her boyfriend was cheating on her, but it was not valid because it turns out she was fighting the unknown and unusual conditions. After that, she experiences numbness on the left side of her body, and her behavior worsens to the extent her happiness was not there anymore like usual.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Her career as a journalist was not there anymore as she had lost focus completely. She starts by having a seizure and paranoid thoughts. After that, it was followed by the delusions and hallucinations as a result of the intensity of seizures. She was taken to New York University Langone Medical Center that month whereby she finally got diagnosed. Before the actual results were found, several psychiatrists try their best to identify the real condition, she was suffering, but all of them fail. However, after the arrival of the Syrian neurologist known as Dr. Souhel Najjar, at least there was light at the end of the tunnel (Cahalan, 2020). He told her to draw a circle of a clock and write the numbers inside. After seeing the paper, he found out that she had written all the numbers on the right side only. As a result of that, he found out that she was suffering from neurological and not psychiatric, as believed by many. He concluded that the brain was under attack by his own body. After correct diagnosis, she began to recover slow and later became ok and back to her work later.

Applied Learning

The following are ten examples of what I learned from the anti- NMDA receptor encephalitis condition that was suffered by Susannah Cahalan:

People become obsessed with certain things

This mental illness makes people obsessed with untruth things. Susannah Cahalan starts believing her apartment was infested with bedbugs, and his boyfriend was cheating on her. Based on this, it shows how deeply this kind of mental illness can make someone believe in false things. However, on the actual mind of the people suffering, it's true because they are out of their sense. This example is connected with psychology because it talks surround the mind of the person.

Lack of concentration

This kind of mental illness is linked to a lack of attention. Susannah began lacking attention and focus on his career as a journalist. As a result, she started to have failures in the workplace. This really proves how this kind of mental illness can alter the career of a person. It's like it is linked with psychology torture because a person lacks focus and concentration. Therefore, it's connected with the course content of psychology.

Numbness

A person began to have numbness as this mental illness progress. Susannah began by feeling prickling in her left hand, which resulted in paralysis ( BOOKHABITS, and P. A. U. L. A. D. A. M. S., 2018). This results from the brain attack, and therefore it's associated with psychology.

Disorganized speech

In this kind of mental disease, somebody experiences disorganized speech, as you can see from Susannah, who experienced it several times. As it progresses, she fails to speak. This results because of the attack of the brain. The brain coordinates all the functions of the body like talking, and when it's under attack, it alters its functions. All this concept shows the functions of the brain in the body of a person.

Insomnia

Susannah began to experience insomnia in her life. She lost her happiness and could not settle. This proves that this kind of mental illness deprives someone of joy and brings disaster to someone's life. The concept we learn from this is psychological torture because someone is disrupted until there is no contentment anymore.

Seizure

This mental illness causes seizures conditions such as confusion, uncontrollable lurching movement of legs and arms, loss of consciousness, anxiety, and fear. Susannah experienced all this especially when he began to have fear in public becoming blackout ultimately. All these results from a person who has epilepsy. The concept of this result from neurological disorder whereby brain activity becomes abnormal.

Paranoid thoughts

Susannah began to develop paranoid thoughts like the act of wanting to jump out of the window and escape for believing that his father was involved in the murder of her stepmother. Those were fearful thoughts that came across her mind while in the hospital. The concept is related to the psychological problems that someone undergoes when this kind of mental illness progress in attacking the brain further.

Hallucinations

Susannah began to see people talking to her on television and began to see his father killing her stepmother. All these were delusions because it wants true at all. Therefore, the concept here is how brain attack can cause hallucination to someone.

High blood pressure

When somebody has this mental illness, she experiences high blood pressure, which can make her unable to walk. Susannah experienced this while in the hospital. This brings in the concept of cognitive functions in that when the brain is altered, then a simple cognitive task is affected as well.

Catatonia

This the most dangerous because the person became hostile, whereby she wants to engage in a fight. This brings in the concept of madness and shows that when the brain is affected, someone can become mad.

These are five examples of the what I learned about the cognitive, emotional and social impact of mental illness on the families and friends of those with mental illness:

Fear and worry

The parents of Susannah were anxious about the life of their daughter. They were always there to see if the condition changes. The concept of mental illness is shocking and worrying; that's what I learned. That's the reason the parents had fear and worry.

Stress

This mental illness of Susannah caused mental stress to the parents because they used a lot of money to settle the hospital bills. We are told they used $1 million which shows it was costly (hoopla digital, 2016). The concept was of the economy because when seeking the medication you have to use money. I learned that mental illness is costly, unlike other diseases.

Frustrations

Her father was very frustrated seeing her daughter's health in the hospital. It was hard to tell his colleagues. He imagines how hard work her daughter made him so frustrated. The concept of frustration out of illness from one of the family members came in there. I learn that mental illness causes frustration in the family.

Despair

There was hopelessness in the family, especially the father, who see the condition of her daughter worsen. What I leaned hear is that family can lose hope when someone has a mental illness.

Dedication

When a family member is suffering from mental illness, the family and friends became dedicated to help her. Susannah's mother and her boyfriend were so dedicated to finding the right doctor. They could note down the symptoms to go and do more research. What I learned is that we should be dedicated to fighting mental illness.

Conclusion and Course Reflection

What I learned to be surprising in the books is Susannah recovering fully from the mental illness. It was facts that at the stage she was many people usually die, but it turns out that she survived and recovered fully. She went back to her job afterward. It was really hard to believe because Susannah was completely out of his mind. However, when the real diagnosis was found, it becomes easier for her to recover. In the book, the problems Susannah underwent were shocking.

I think those with mental illness can have faith that they will recover as well. It's only a matter of time to identify the actual type of mental illness that someone has. It's tough if someone is not diagnosed because it will create more problems instead of solutions. So, according to my thoughts, people with mental illness are capable of recovery like Susanna.

In conclusion, people should try to read and understand that there is no situation that is permanent in life. So, if you are out there and you know someone is suffering from mental illness, you should try to help them having read about the Susannah books. It's good to make them understand that mental illness changes. Also, people should not take mental illness for granted because the effects it has on someone is horrible. As a result of this mental illness, someone experiences adverse conditions. Those conditions are dangerous because someone can die. As well, parents should be supportive of their children with mental illness. They should not leave them to die or to look for assistance elsewhere. This was shown by Susannah's parents and friends; they cared about her.

References

BOOKHABITS, P. A. U. L. A. D. A. M. S. (2018). SUMMARY OF BRAIN ON FIRE: My month of madness by Susannah Cahalan. Place of publication not identified: BLURB.

Cahalan, S. (2020). The great pretender: The undercover mission that changed our understanding of madness.

Hoopla digital. (2016). Summary of the brain on fire by Susannah Cahalan. United States: iDreamBooks Inc.