The Autobiography, Over My Head, By Claudia Osborn

In order to earn her degree in creative writing she needed to complete a novel or set of short stories. She intended to write her memoir but ran into some issues. The emotions about what had happened were still too raw and reliving her memories was too much for her to handle at that time. Instead, she wrote an autobiographical novel. The events that happened in the book all happened to her, but the presence of a fictional character to represent her helped create tolerable distance between her and her experiences. This novel prepared her to write her memoir. Writing her memoir allowed her confront her past in a new way. It required her to revisit her memories as a writer rather than as herself with all her entangled emotions. Examining her life through a different lens allowed her to heal.

I screamed. I yelled... I heard two blows”(ChicagoTribune,1990) There was a division amongst psychologists and psychiatrists. Some believed that there was no physical evidence to show that Eileen’s recovered memory was true.

Soon, a nurse came to escort me to an isolated room, so that she could assess the severity of my concussion. She went through the routine questions, asking my name, age, and the date, assessing not the content of the answers, but the speed of my recall. When she came to ask about the cause of my concussion, my answer had surprised her so much that she actually laughed out of the office.

Her neuropsychological function were not able to process information as a typical person would. Other issue that Andrea faced at time was frustration due to not get proper help and support for her mental health issues. Given, the time period view on mental health, and the religious and societal views on what a mother should be we could see why Andrea engaged in her criminal behavior. She struggled thought it a lot, and regrettably ended up killing her children while in state where she lacked empathy. Although, now Andrea lives a left one could assume full of regret, she continues to speak out for mothers with postpartum depression. She and her husband have started a nonprofit to bring awareness to the issues, and Andrea sells homemade items from her mental health facility to help support the non -profit. Although, this was tragic Andrea is trying to raise awareness and prevent this type of thing from occurring again. Although, Andrea’s crime was horrible, and tragic one must look at the factors that impact her choice to participate in this activity. It’s unfortunate, that our mental health system wasn’t as supportive as it should have been. This crime thought made society take meatal health more seriously and the awareness of how to combat these

155). There are many types of tests and approaches to cognitive assessments depending on the age of the person and symptoms currently experienced (Cordell et al. 147). These assessments are combined to ensure that there is a clear reason for concern, however, in the film, simply memory testing is done. During sessions with a neurologist, it is important if an informant, someone who has witnessed the change in cognition, is present during the diagnostic process (Cordell et al. 147). After informing Alice of this, she, alongside her husband, is tested through the repetition of sentences and ability to memorize a name and address. Alice’s neurologist merely tests her memory, while excluding other important examinable areas. If the cognitive assessments cause further concerns, a full dementia evaluation is conducted (Cordell et al. 147).

If one learns about the issues that cause one mental or physical injury, one can prevent much misery in life and nurture vitality. For example when Deborah discovers that she does not have cancer it comes as an enormous relief to her; ‘Now you tell me after all these years!’ Deborah yelled. ‘Thank God, cause I was wonderin!’ (265).

The memoir Brain on Fire, written by author Susannah Cahalan, describes the journey she lived through with an undiagnosed disease. Susannah goes from being a New York Times journalist to being a person who couldn’t control herself and had to be strapped down to the hospital bed, in other words she was becoming psychotic. She did not choose to become the person she was in the hospital, someone who had no control over her body, someone who was lost. This got to a the point to where nurses no longer wanted to treat her and lost their patience because she was not being cooperative and was becoming more violent.The reason as to why she became this person was due to the misdiagnosing, doctors not taking time to do further test and family not thinking her symptoms were serious enough to have an actual disease. The signs were there but no one thought anything about it, as they thought she was over exaggerating. It wasn’t until she had her first seizure and the fact that she was hospitalized that her family, friends and even the doctors finally realized there was something wrong.

The book Brain on Fire, written by Susannah Cahalan, accurately portrays how an event, a conversation, or just one day, can change someone’s life. Susannah led a prosaic life, until she ended up in the hospital with an unknown diagnosis. In that hospital, she was labeled violent, psychotic and a flight risk, as well as spent several weeks in the hospital, meeting many different doctors hoping to find a cure to her unidentified disease.The critical moments in Susannah Cahalan’s life changed her physically, mentally, and taught her to appreciate family.

Summary: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks is a collection of cases and studies of patients with bizarre neurological disorders. The neurological disorders discussed include examples of deficits, excesses, reminiscence, and the "world of the simple". Neurologist Oliver Sacks discusses the stories of his patients and patients of other neurologists while appealing to logos, ethos, and pathos. Throughout the text there is a fair balance between logos, ethos, and pathos.

Several books, movies, plays, or even music lure people into escaping the monotonous nature of reality. In spite of these attention sucking media, Susannah Cahalan’s book Brain on Fire was an extravgant, advetourous, horrifying adventure through her life and how she filled in the gaps as she went along through out her journey. We all lose track through our daily lives and do not always realize that others have it worse than we all do, especially dealing with our health on a day to day basis. Cahalan had no clue on what she had endured until she was cured and use books that her family wrote to fill in the details on what she does not remember. I thought, overall, her book was very truthful, but to what extent do we believe what her book says

"If my men are too scared to return without Hannah Curtis, I will happily let Miss Curtis kill them. There is no room for cowardice in these ranks, boys. I, however, am no coward and an honorable warrior will let me go free back to my Queen." The Commander sounds disgusted as he raises his voice to address me, assuming I'm somewhere near him. Which is true, obviously, yet he can't be sure.

As four shiny staples were secured into my forehead after my suspicion of a concussion was confirmed by a medical professional, I felt as if I had hit rock bottom rather than the sharp edge of a fireplace mantel. I was certainly apprehensive about my ability to recuperate from this fall amidst the chaos of junior year, as a I found that I was unable to neatly fit a traumatic brain injury into my color coordinated planner. Yet, I was well aware that this was far from the last unexpected setback I would face. Despite the inconvenience of this injury, it pushed me to be driven by curiosity rather than fear of error by making the inevitability of failure profoundly apparent. By acknowledging the meaningful opportunities for growth that setbacks provide, my inclination to try new things has intensified and allowed me to develop a newfound freedom to explore the realm around me. In turn, my coordination, or lack thereof, has given me a unique type of confidence that pushes me to fearlessly take risks in order to pursue my goals. For instance, I plan to enter the male dominated field of finance. The statistics that provide evidence of the sizable pay gap between men and women in this profession is just one challenge I am prepared to face beyond high

Her loss of memory was quite peculiar. She remembered aspects of the world, but faces became a blur and names faded out. It was like a journal, but ever few pages were ripped out making it incomprehensible.

“The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat and Other Clinical Tales ” by Oliver Sacks is a very interesting an intriguing book that covers stories and case studies on some of Sack’s patients. This book is excellent because the stories and examples of Sack’s patients allow the reader to realize how lucky people with healthy minds really are. The point of the book that really touched me was when Sack’s asked his patient, Jimmie, “Not about his memory, or past, but about the simplest and most elemental feelings of all: ‘How do you feel?’ ‘How do I feel,’ he repeated, and scratched his head. ‘I cannot say I feel ill.

The book presented some excellent case studies and had made us aware we have severely underestimated the brain’s capacity ( to function) to recover from injury or develop in the face of hereditary misfortunes. However, his book may not be as unique as we think. All the examples are based on case studies, and very few indicate any evidence of follow-up after some years later; Case studies can fail and cannot be used for the general population. For instance, the text tells us that the longer Cheryl wore the hat, the longer she could keep her balance after she took it off and over the course of a year, Cheryl built her residual effect for four months and now does not use the device at all. She has been cured by her brain with the help of the machine, but it did not tell us a follow up was made after some years, and Cheryl is still functioning well without the use of the instrument.