In Parallel

I got hold of Brain On Fire, a memoir concerning a sort of psychotic episode affecting Susannah Cahalan, a journalist at the New York Post, a few days back. It was passed to me by Stacey, a colleague in Boarding School from ACS (International), who has had some experience in counselling kids, after I'd given a bit of a summary of my own breakdown to some of the staff here. One or two of the things I'd said reminded her of details given by Ms Cahalan in her account of what her subtitle calls her Month of Madness and so she kindly passed it on, wondering if it might afford me some insight into my own basically undiagnosed condition. Initially I thought I'd put the memoir to one side for a while, but I have found it quite an easy read and gripping in its way.

However, I don't think I've found it quite as remarkable and shocking and memorable as the reviews quoted on the back cover, simply because I've gone through something reasonably similar. Rather I've been noticing the marked differences in our experiences. For example, the opening section of the memoir focuses on the writer's gradual descent into her madness, over a period of weeks. Mine was very abrupt, taking rather less than twenty-four hours, after which I don't remember anything of what went on after being warded or, indeed, actually being taken to hospital.

So as I move into the second half of the account I'm not expecting stunning insights, though I remain very interested indeed in what happened to Ms Cahalan. One thing's for sure though - I have no intention of subjecting anyone anywhere to a full-length account of what happened to me. She has genuine talent in this direction; I, happily, haven't, and I don't think I'm quite so self-absorbed. (I know that sounds a little bit unkind, but I don't mean it as such. I'm just keeping it real, as they say.)