Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness

Part medical mystery, part fear-and-loathing-in-Las-Vegas. Susannah Cahalan tells the story of how she went from a completely normal 24 year old to someone afflicted with paranoia, psychosis and finally catatonia within just a few weeks/months. She has epileptic seizures, hears voices, partially loses her abilities of speech and movement all the while a variety of doctors try to figure out what is attacking her brain. She pieces together the story of her month of madness - of which she herself has no recollection - with the help of her family and friends, hospital surveillance tapes and diagnosis reports.

This is scary - how some brain condition suddenly could out of nowhere completely change who you are - and touching - in her parents and friends devotion to her, and in hearing how her story has helped other patients to be correctly diagnosed.