May 20th 2016
I could not put this book down. A young journalist has created an amazing life for herself. She is living in a flat in New York, working for the New York Post and, dating a great guy when, suddenly, her life is turned upside down. Every relationship is put to the test, she can no longer do her work and, worse, she has no idea what is happening to her or how long it will last.
Susannah Cahalan walks us through her journey from illness, psychosis, hospitalization and diagnosis to healing. As she describes her behaviour, you can't help but wonder how terrifying this meltdown must have been for her. I was thinking about all the individuals who are admitted to psychiatric hospitals with the wrong diagnosis. Susannah was lucky to have parents and a boyfriend who loved her and became her advocates. When doctors refused to acknowledge that anything was wrong, when specialists labelled her with diagnosis that didn't fit all her symptoms, her parents persisted, they asked questions and requested second opinions.
At first, she thought she had bedbugs and decided to have her apartment exterminated. Then she forgot an important meeting at work where she normally shares ideas for the coming week's newspaper articles. Thirdly, she started throwing away files containing important stories she had worked on even though she is normally a hoarder. She also got a bad migraine which was a new experience for her. She continued behaving out of character when she searched her boyfriend's computer and apartment for any traces of betrayal. She became nauseous, felt tingling then numbness in her left hand which later spread all the way down the left side of her body to her toes.
Her nausea grew and she suspected she had the flu. Her first diagnosis came back as possibly having mono. Her senses amplified (the smell of people around her, the vibrations from the music, the oily taste of food). She lost her appetite and was experiencing a disconnect from the people around her, not participating in discussions and feeling indifferent to the concert she had just experienced. She was also having emotional outbursts leading to panic attacks. Her perception of space became distorted, she would reach for the handle and be way off, the walls looked tall and narrow, she couldn't follow the flow of conversation. She was experiencing insomnia for days and, finally, she had her first seizure.
This was the beginning of her life in hospital where she was studied, medicated, strapped down and misdiagnosed over and over again until Dr. Souhel Najjar recognized her symptoms as Anti-NMDAR Encephalitis, an illness where one's immune system starts attacking the brain. The treatment was "to reduce the body's inflammation with steroids. Then flush the body of the antibodies with plasmapheresis, and further reduce and neutralize the antibodies with IVIG"(p.162).
This is an excellent book because it is written by Susannah who experienced all these symptoms and is able to relate what she went through at every stage of the illness's progression as well as during every step of her long recovery. Every psychiatrist, physician, nurse or parent of an individual diagnosed with a mental illness should read this because it illustrates the problem with quick diagnosis. Many illnesses resemble others and it takes time, observation and tests to find the right match. Thank you Susannah for sharing your journey. I hope everyone who reads this will go out and buy this book. If you love learning about our complex brains, you will not be disappointed.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
No comments:
Post a Comment