Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan -- Summary

by Omar Elbaga

"A chilling yet uplifting tale."
"A reporter crashes and burns, but how she recovers is even more powerful."

This book is a summary of the original book "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness" that was written by Susannah Cahalan compiled for you so that you can take away the major ideas and change your life in the shortest amount of time possible. This book is for you if you want to devour the greatest books even with a busy schedule. It makes for a great companion and guide to the original book.

This story is about Susannah Cahalan, a twenty-four-year-old New York Post reporter who suddenly suffers an illness that takes rather long to diagnose landing her in a psychiatric ward. Despite being a naturally independent go-getter, she learns the importance of patience, family and true friendship, and how to appreciate their help in such a trying time. She also takes everything she learns from her illness and uses it to help spread the word to others with similar illnesses to show them that there is hope for them as well.

Genres: Nonfiction

76 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 10, 2014

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read about a woman's descent into madness due to an unknown, at the time, autoimmune disease that attacks the brain. Her recovery and lifelong mission of making this mystery known to the world and medical world is amazing .

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Well written, wonderfully combining a compelling personal story will scientific research to contextualize and explore memory, personality and madness.

[Donna Clay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memoir of a young woman who finds herself suddenly in the hospital. A month after being admitted, a doctor is confused as to what is wrong; she was asked by one of the many doctors to draw a clock. Instead of spending the rest of her life in a psyche ward, she was diagnosed with anti-NMDA... receptive autoimmune encephalitis. The brain is literally on fire... and her way back...

[Eli Decker · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was cool that she pieced the past together through accounts of other people. I didn't like how scattered i felt reading it. I might recommend this to my mom as she has a degree in collage

[Karen K - Ohio · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a frightening book. A rare and only recently understood autoimmune disease that presents like schizophrenia. Prior to 2009 people with this condition were diagnosed with a mental illness and never received the treatment needed. Truly a horrifying thought.

[Gayle Sands · Rating 4 out of 5]

A medical mystery, solved. Fascinating account...

[Bob Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

A horrifying story that one can easily imagine could happen to themselves.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book but the facts are scary. At the same time it is good to be able to be aware of this disorder.

[Darlene Holmes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting disease and informative. The story dragged on a bit for the last 1/3.

[Lydia Morejon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book!