Sarah Fay did not have one misdiagnosis...she had 6. She tells her story, written in her best-selling book Pathological, in this episode. It makes you realize that we have to be proactive about our mental health and also that limitations may be self-imposed when we receive a label. Please share this episode with anyone who has a mental illness or is struggling with a loved one who has one.
Sarah Fay is an award-winning author, creative writing teacher, and keynote speaker. Her journalistic memoir Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses (HarperCollins) was an Apple Best Books pick, hailed in The New York Times as a “fiery manifesto of a memoir,” and named by Parade Magazine as one of the sixteen best mental health memoirs to read.
Her new memoir Cured, the sequel to Pathological, is being serialized on Substack through 2023: curedthememoir.com
Her work has been featured on NPR, Oprah Daily, Salon, Forbes, The Los Angeles Times, and more. She writes for many publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and The Paris Review, where she was an advisory editor.
Her essays have been chosen as a Notable Mention in Best American Essays and nominated for Pushcart Prizes. She’s the recipient of the Hopwood Award for Literature, as well as grants and fellowships from Yaddo, the Mellon Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony, among others.
She’s currently on the creative writing faculty at Northwestern University.