Excerpt from A Mind Unraveled by Kurt Eichenwald, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

We reached my sketch, and I listened as my voice broke off midsentence. A second passed, and I started my lines again, repeating two words I had just said.

As my fellow drinkers - ­who had noticed nothing amiss - continued enjoying our jokes, I felt lost in wonder. Was that it? The sudden breaks were no big deal. But what about my staring spells? Friends told me they lasted ten to fifteen seconds. Did they? Maybe it just seemed that way.

Looking back, I realize that my thoughts about these experiences were irrational. The episodes embarrassed me, but I believed they were commonplace. I had scores of questions - ­Why was I so confused afterward? Why had I picked at my clothes? Why did I think I'd walked somewhere when I hadn't? - ­but never raised them with anyone. Had I mentioned them, any doctor would have known I was experiencing seizures. To this day I believe that had I not been so deep in denial, many of my tramatic experiences in the years that followed never would have occurred.

Excerpted from A Mind Unraveled by Kurt Eichenwald. Copyright © 2018 by Kurt Eichenwald. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.