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Psychology Today – The Inflamed Brain (February)

How Encephalitis Changed My Life

A Personal Perspective: When the immune system erroneously attacks the brain.

By Juliana Ortiz

One minute, I couldn’t stop babbling about starting high school; the next, I was in an ambulance speeding to Miami’s Jackson Hospital, where I was eventually diagnosed with NMDAR-antibody encephalitis—a disease most people have never heard of that forever changed my life.

It started in August 2014. I was 14 and a straight-A perfectionist. But this year was different. During my first week of school, I felt overwhelmed, nervous, anxious, and foggy. I kept telling myself it was just nerves, but people said I was acting odd.

Then, I failed my first test.

Read the full blog on Psychology Today site

Page Created: 22 February 2024
Last Modified: 19 June 2024
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