Brain on Fire Monologues

A young, capable professional cannot explain her newly erratic behavior.

Have you ever been trapped? Lost in your own body, lost in your own mind, lost in time? So desperate to escape, to just… Get out.

What else had I forgotten? What else would come back, knocking me off balance and reminding me how tenuous my grip on reality was?

How many people do you think throughout history were diagnosed as Schizophrenic, psychotic, bipolar, or… maybe just plain crazy, when they had something that could've been so easily diagnosed?

I had to learn everything from scratch. How to walk again. How to talk again. Smile. How to be a daughter. To love Stephen again. How to write. I had to learn how to exist again.

This new Susannah is a lot like the old Susannah, but she's so much stronger. Because for the very first time, I feel ready to tackle the mystery of what happened to me. To find an answer. An answer that could possibly save a life.

What? What? Why won't you stop? Do it again! Say it! I didn't think so.