I was imprisoned on false charges and tortured by the United States government. A precedent-setting appeal freed me, but not before I spent a long time in solitary confinement, much of that on a hunger strike.

Solitary confinement causes brain damage so severe it is visible on a CT scan. The area that it damages is the hippocampus, which is key of in the perception of time and spatial memory. I can still perceive time on an immediate basis, in terms of music and speech, but a year goes by in a haze. Short seconds, like walking into another room, seem to pass slowly against the rapid progress of my thoughts which are now unanchored to the immediate physical realm and I forget what I went to the other room for if there's not a persistent reminder such as hunger or the need to use the toilet to remind me. I write what I plan to do into a notes app before I move anywhere, even one room over in my own house. Living a normal life has become impossible.