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.

On August 22nd, everything changed. I always went home with my sister and her friends, but that day I didn’t show up or answer their calls. Everyone was furious. At dinner, it was clear something was wrong. First, I started tapping my spoon nonstop on the table. I couldn’t form a sentence. Then my body went numb, my eyes rolled back, and my mother called 911.

When the initial tests came back negative, the ER doctors said it was psychological. They told my mother to take me home and call a psychiatrist if it happened again. My mother, who is a physical therapist, said, “I know my daughter, and I know she’s not okay. I am not leaving until I know what

is wrong.” The doctors agreed to admit me, but the MRIs and CT scans were negative. A family friend, who knew someone with encephalitis, suggested my mother ask about brain inflammation. After a spinal tap tested positive, I received a diagnosis of NMDAR-antibody encephalitis, which primarily

affects young people. Some 40 percent of cases occur in people under 18, the majority of whom are........

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