This summer, the freshman class read the book “Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness”by Susannah Cahalan.

The novel is a memoir about a journalist who slowly starts to lose her mind. In the book she mentions that she stops remembering what is going on around her for a month, so she used doctors’ notes, security camera videos, her parents’ notebooks and her friends’ recollections to piece back the puzzle from her month away from her own mind.

For a long section of the book, no one knows what is wrong with Cahalan or how to properly take care of her. This helps make the book more exciting and aggravating at the same time. Since the author is telling the story, though, it is obvious that in the end she does become better.

Eventually, they find out that Cahalan suffered from a rare disease known as anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. This caused her immune system to attack the NMDA, a receptor found in the brain.

Cahalan mentions that the disease is extremely hard to spot, and it is becoming more and more common for people to get it. Because people with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis often go undiagnosed, Cahalan stated that she wrote the book to get more awareness out about the disease, since even doctors are still struggling to figure out what the disease is.

The story is powerful and easy to read, until you get to the middle of the book. At this point, no one understands what is happening to her. She’s getting worse and worse and slowly becoming unstable in a hospital.

While there is high tension, which makes it interesting, Cahalan lists different types of biological effects and the reader has to try and figure out what it all means even though it sounds like all her information came straight from a biology textbook.  

This makes the story extremely scientific, which can turn off some readers, but the subject of this rare condition continues to grasp people’s attention and terrify them at the same time.

Because the book focuses so much on mental illness, St. Edward’s decided to choose it for the summer reading.

“We chose ‘Brain on Fire’ as our text because it’s so vivid in its description of what it feels like to think you’re losing your mind,” said Program Director Alexandra Barron. 

Mental Health and Wellness was chosen as the common theme for this year’s freshman class since many people have either struggled with some form of mental illness themselves or known someone who has.

“Our hope is that by focusing on the theme we can take away some of the stigma around mental illness. And we also hope we can help people focus on being well and getting help when they need it,” Barron said.

“Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness” is a great book that stresses the importance of understanding mental illness.

It’s terrifying yet exciting at the same time, and is very interesting, especially if science or mental illness interests you in any way.

“Brain on Fire” will be released in 2016 as a movie starring Dakota Fanning.

Also make sure to see the author herself, Susannah Cahalan, at the RCC on campus on Oct. 8 for a discussion about mental illness and a book signing.

Follow Amanda on Twitter @amarkoepolo