When I first read this a couple of days ago (without knowing who wrote it) my first reaction was that it was heavily influenced by 'Unrest'. The line "My brain itself wasn’t functioning so well either. It felt swollen, as if it were trying to push out my eyeballs" is almost exactly what Jen said when she collapsed in tears and pain when they got back from the Princeton celebrations. I expect that there will be quite a few re-iterations of lines from the film in the near future.
"Thinking hurt, so mostly I didn’t do it, retreating into a twilight zone, alive but not living." Yes. I live like this for hours each day. For days each month. Beyond the pain, the sheer bloody mindless boredom. She captures it well.
If they were both experience the same symptom, it isn't terribly surprising that they would describe it in the same way.