Susannah's book, Brain on Fire, is classified into three parts according to the progression of her mysterious illness, each part described certain moments of the illness in conjunction of her life. She had passed through severe symptoms and erratic behaviors followed by wrong diagnosis which indicated that there is something extraordinary. After hospitalization and massive investigations, Dr. Najjar had finally reached to the correct diagnosis before she received full course treatment as well as enrolling in cognitive and speech rehabilitations. Susannah classified her book into three part, crazy, the clock, and in search of lost time.
In part one, crazy, Susannah described the beginning of her illness and how she got crazy from ambiguous symptoms, insignificant investigation results, and symptomatic treatment. First, the symptoms ranged from moderate to severe but the most severe symptoms were in her brain. To illustrate, she grew dizzy and queasy when she moved into crowded area. Moreover she had insomnia with sharp pain in her mind, like a migraine. Irrational jealousy compelled Susannah snoop through her boyfriend's stuff looking for signs of betrayal. In addition, hallucinations and paranoia were the most significant symptoms till she had the first seizure episode. Second, there were no significant findings of all the investigations and examinations. Specifically, CT scan, MRI, basic neurological exam, blood test, and EEG came back normal. Third, as there was no clear diagnosis, the treatment based on lifestyle change and relieving the symptoms. In particular, the gynecologist asked Susannah to stay off birth control while the neurologist instructed her to stop drinking alcohol and to take a rest from the work. Furtherm...
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...venous because of increasing the appetite, and she gained weight. Similarly, antipsychotics ,which Susannah was on, cause fatigue, drowsiness, and confusion. Second, through recovery process, she attended two evaluation sessions of rehabilitation medicine. Specifically, concentration and memory assessment to evaluate her ability of recovery. Third, Susannah met Dr. Najjar and Dr. Arslan every other week for follow up. They had gradually decreased the doses till they finally took her off all medications. In addition, she enrolled in cognitive and speech rehab.
In conclusion, according to the stage of the illness, Susannah classified her book into crazy, the clock, and in search of lost time. She used her skills as reporter to write interesting book about her illness focusing on the beginning of the illness, hospitalization, and recovery stage in three parts.
The book "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness" by Susannah Calahan is a narrative telling the life changing story of an unimaginable descent into madness, and the genius, lifesaving diagnosis that almost didn't happen. Previously healthy Susannah never would have imagined waking up in the hospital one day with no recollection of her battle with a disease that not only threatened her sanity but also her life. A team of doctors spent a month trying to pin down a medical explanation of what exactly what had gone wrong. During this time, we learn more about Susannah's family, friends, and loved ones and how each of them affect her overall wellbeing. Eventually, with the help of one special
Through John's interference he turned what was considered a minor case of a chemical imbalance into to full blown schizophrenia. During the turn of the century, which is when this story took place, what scientists knew of the human mind wouldn't fill the inside of a matchbook. This was for certain the case when it was a woman who was the patient. If there was any deviation in the accepted behavior of a woman as deemed by society, the woman was considered hysterical. When dealing with these patients, instead of seriously considering the consequences of their actions, they went along with obscenely stupid notions on how to deal with problems of the mind.
Madness: A History, a film by the Films Media Group, is the final installment of a five part series, Kill or Cure: A History of Medical Treatment. It presents a history of the medical science community and it’s relationship with those who suffer from mental illness. The program uses original manuscripts, photos, testimonials, and video footage from medical archives, detailing the historical progression of doctors and scientists’ understanding and treatment of mental illness. The film compares and contrasts the techniques utilized today, with the methods of the past. The film offers an often grim and disturbing recounting of the road we’ve taken from madness to illness.
What symptoms classify a person to be diagnosed as sick? A cough, a sore throat, or maybe a fever. Often times when individuals refer to the word ‘sick’, they neglect to mention a common disorder, one which takes a tremendous amount of personal determination, courage and strength in order to overcome. Mental illness took the author, Joanne Greenberg, down a path complete with obstacles, forcing her to battle against schizophrenia, a chronic brain disorder resulting in delusions, hallucinations, trouble with thinking and concentration as well as a lack of motivation. This complex piece of literature was originally composed to fight against the prejudice accusations associated with mental illness, while providing the semi-autobiographical novelist
Although she got medical help as soon as she noticed things becoming abnormal, an accurate diagnosis was hard to come by. Susannah’s friends and family began so see her become a different person, all her mental and emotional ailments were matched by physical ones, she motor-control became unpredictable, her speech was slurred, and she was plagued by seizures. Although all her medical exams came back as normal and showing no reason for worry, Susannah’s health only declined. Seeking advice and help from her friends, Susannah decided to see to get further medical help after being released from the Emergency Room from her first seizure. From this point on, Susannah began to lose more and more of herself to the disease, becoming somebody else entirely until
Considering that the author of this book has the knowledge of no medical information, one question her about her knowledge. How does Patricia Cornwell know numerous facts about the human brain? How much time did she take to learn and where did she learn about medical information? A reader can assume that she has had past experience with the medical field or family members know information on the human brain. One can predict this because previous novels
In Doctor Oliver Sacks’ book, “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales,” the reader follows Sacks’ recounting of odd mental health mysteries that he had encountered in his career and how he responded to them. Sorted into a great number of short-story-style recitations of abnormal maladies that Doctor Sacks’ patients were afflicted with, this novel explores a numerous amount of different cerebral sicknesses. These sicknesses vary massively from patient to patient in the symptoms and in how they manifest themselves. Throughout all of these, however, runs a strain of similarity: these are either unprecedented or very uncommon maladies that perplex the treatment teams helping the clients in the book, making it difficult
Benson was in a car accident, which caused him to develop an acute disinhibitory lesion (ADL) and have blackouts, which lasted for a few minutes to several hours. During these blackout, he would become violent. The stage three procedure was designed to cure Benson’s seizures by placing electrodes inside his brain. Benson’s ADL caused a portion of the brain to become damaged and scar tissue formed on his brain. The brain injury created unusual electrical discharges. These electrical discharges caused seizures. Part of the debate between the physicians was did the seizures make Benson violent or did his psychosis make him violent.
Susan starts her first person account with stating her educational background and job at the time. She had been teaching at a high school and decided that she wanted to return to school as a graduate student and assistant at a West Coast college. She describes how she enjoyed this life and was very happy, until later that year she would experience the onset of delusions. Susan is very descriptive in her account of her delusions. They started off as nightmares for her, each getting more and more gruesomely violent until she had awoken from her sleep thinking that her unconscious had been influenced by some sort of evil dictator. She describes the nightmares in very bloody and morbid detail, explaining how she had interpreted this as a sign that this evil dictator was attempting to convert her into a serial killer. She felt that there was a g...
Brain on Fire is a memoir detailing Susannah Cahalan’s descent into madness as a result of a mysterious disease. Susannah, who was a witty and intelligent reporter for the New York Post, began having extreme paranoia, hallucinations, and seizures – all of which were chocked up to the stress of life as a journalist in New York City. After severe mental and physical deterioration, a brain biopsy, and the intervention of world-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Souhel Naijar, she was miraculously diagnosed with anti-NMDA-receptor encephalitis; this disease was so difficult to diagnose because it presents as an inundation of degenerative symptoms which aren’t consistent throughout those who contract the disease. Susannah’s recovery and retelling of her harrowing journey through the depths of her mind helped raise
However, due to Sara’s persisting and treatment-resistant psychosis, and for the purpose of this paper, the conditions that will be discussed are the two, separate and comorbid diagnoses. The diagnostic criteria for Sara’s substance use disorder will be covered first, then the psychosis caused by her stimulant
People in this world have many different struggles. Some deal with chronic pain, others with poverty and some even with the consequences of their bad choices. Numerous individuals also struggle with mental illness also known as various disorders that affect mood, personality, cognition and other areas of functioning. Mental illness is unique to the individual and can be experienced in a variety of ways. Three people that have experienced mental illness and all that it entails are Susanna Kaysen the author of the memoir Girl, Interrupted, John Nash-a mathematician whose life was the basis of the film A Beautiful Mind and a woman named Theresa Lozowski who is a medical professional. All three struggle with a mental illness and the way they view their illnesses and the aspects of it are similar in several ways as well as different. These similarities and differences are witnessed in how they view their symptoms, their diagnoses, how they view the cause of their mental illness as well as how they view mental illness in general. There were also similarities and differences in their views on taking medication as well as the treatment of psychotherapy.
Psychoanalysis began with the discovery that HYSTERIA, an illness with physical symptoms that occurred in a completely healthy physical body--such as a numbness or paralysis of a limb or a loss of voice or a blindness--could be caused by unconscious wishes or forgotten memories. (Hysteria is now commonly referred to as conversion disorder.) The French neurologist Jean Martin CHARCOT tried to rid the mind of undesirable thoughts through hypnotic suggestion, but without lasting success. Josef Breuer, a Viennese physician, achieved better results by letting Anna O., a young woman patient, try to empty her mind by just
There is a major concern with Ms. Nelson taking all these medications, which may contribute to the increase hallucinations as well as the memory loss. Ms. Nelson currently having some family issues, which caused some of her medications to be increased. The assessor observed Ms. Nelson appeared to be very open during the assessment answering all questions to be best of her ability. However, she appeared to been experiencing some anxiety during the reassessment due to her constantly moving her hands, feet and picking up her
Deborah’s delusions are characteristically somatic in nature. She continues to feel physical pain from the removed tumor. Deborah’s delusions can also be describes as bizarre because she believes she is contaminated; capable of poisoning others with her emanations, however this could also be considered somatic. The delusions are also referential in nature because Deborah perceives normal happenings as pivotal changes that reflect and predict her death. Deborah has both visual and auditory hallucinations of her alternate reality and the characters within. Deborah frequently uses neologisms she believes is the language of her alternate reality. This can be considered incoherent speech and because of loose associations and losing topic, her thought process can be considered disorganized. Deborah describes herself as exceptionally clumsy and as losing the ability to see, hear and speak during a distressful episode, which can all be considered abnormal motor behavior. Because many persons diagnosed with schizophrenia do not meet the criterion of avolition many professions make a distinguishes, labeling them Type I and a Type II Schizophrenia where in Type II, loss of volition is not a criterion (Comer,