A Personal Perspective: The experience of autoimmune encephalitis. With determination and support, it's possible to overcome the challenges of encephalitis.
The lucky, unlucky one. That is what my mom always calls me. The chances of developing autoimmune encephalitis, inflammation of the brain caused by the immune system in error, were thought at the time to be roughly the same as winning the lotto—except I didn't win the lotto, and I certainly did not feel lucky. As more time passes since my battle with autoimmune encephalitis, I have started to realise what my mom really meant.
Unfortunately, due to my condition presenting mainly psychiatrically, I was misdiagnosed countless times with mental health conditions such as severeand schizophrenia. I finally received a diagnosis of AE in June 2016. Once I received this news, there was a huge sigh of relief for both me and my family. What I failed to realise at the time was that, although I had won that battle, I had yet to win the war.
It’s hard to know what path exactly I would be on had it not been for developing AE but I imagine it vastly different. As a child, I had a passion for business, more specifically money. My parents always thought I would pursue a career in this field and so did I. If you had told 13-year-old Laura that she would be currently pursuing a career in healthcare and life sciences she would have never believed you.
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