Firestormm
Senior Member
- Messages
- 5,055
- Location
- Cornwall England
Driven insane by your own immune system: One woman's terrifying story reveals how rogue particles in your brain may trigger mental illness
29 April 2013
The first inkling of trouble was when Liz Oldershaw became uncharacteristically scatty. ‘I arrived at the gym one day with nothing in my kit bag,’ says the 24-year-old. ‘At work, assisting my Dad, who is a company accountant, I would be in the middle of a spreadsheet and suddenly forget what I was doing. One day, I didn’t even recognise the cleaner we’ve had for 15 years.’Over the next few weeks, Liz experienced more of these incidents, then she suddenly descended into such a severe psychotic state she had to be put into an artificial coma to stop her tearing her own eyes out.Her devastating mental disintegration left doctors baffled. Fortunately, experts at Oxford University were able to diagnose the cause from a simple blood test. The bright and ambitious psychology graduate from South Brent, Devon, was not cracking up — her body’s immune system was attacking her brain.
For rest of the article see here.