To the joy and horror of authors everywhere, it’s never been easier for readers to reach us. And given the value so many publishers now place on platform, celebrity and branding, very few authors can afford to be reclusive. So we do the professionally responsible thing. We make ourselves available to our readers — through websites, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and the list goes on.
Read MoreBookRiot: A Useful List of Books about Depression... (List by Josh Hanagarne) →
And at last, something lively and irreverent.
From the Amazon page: With candor and humor, a manic-depressive Iranian-American Muslim woman chronicles her experiences with both clinical and cultural bipolarity.
As a friend of Melody’s, I can say that this description is insufficient.
She’s even more complicated than that blurb makes it sound like she is, and there’s no way to convey how intelligent she is outside of actually conversing with her. But this book is a great start.
The Boston Globe: Haldol and Hyacinths Review (Review by Kate Tuttle) →
Mental illness is serious business — “bipolar disorder is a legitimate and lethal illness that has nearly killed me on several occasions,” author Melody Moezzi writes. Yet the dominant tone in Moezzi’s memoir of battling the disease, including manic episodes that took her over that “fine line between eccentric exuberance and madness,” is an infectious, freewheeling humor. The whipsmart but whimsical daughter of Iranian immigrant doctors, Moezzi details a series of maladies that befell her even before mania set in: First among them was the cultural dislocation of “enduring the seventh grade as the staggeringly skinny, flat-chested brown girl in Ohio, with a budding unibrow and a faint mustache.”
Read MoreThe Huffington Post: A Better Way to Remember Robin Williams →
While many have speculated that Robin Williams struggled with bipolar disorder, the Oscar-winning actor and comedian who lost his life to suicide on Monday never publicly stated as much. In fact, he outright refuted it in a characteristically quick-witted interview with Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross in 2006. In response to being “branded” a manic-depressive after volunteering to be on the cover of an issue ofNewsweek about medication, Mr. Williams said, “‘Um, that’s clinical. I’m not that.’ Do I perform sometimes in a manic style? Yes. Am I manic all the time? No. Do I get sad? Oh yeah. Does it hit me hard? Oh yeah.”
Read MoreNAMI: Facing a Double Stigma (Interview by Hanem Ali) →
Mental Illness stigma is universal, although it may appear differently across countries, communities and religious groups. The pervasiveness of mental illness stigma is often higher in ethnic minority and religious communities. This is mainly because of the stereotypical views about mental illness in general, the double stigma that these communities already face because of their group affiliation and the cultural tendencies that associate shame with seeking mental health services.
Read MoreWFDD: Melody Moezzi's "Haldol and Hyacinths" →
Melody Moezzi is an Iranian-American lawyer, activist, and award-winning author. Her latest book is titled Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life. The memoir chronicles Melody's road to a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. In it she talks about an early battle with pancreatitis, she addresses psychotic breaks and manic episodes, details the project of writing her first book, War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims, and comments on the stigma associated with mental illness. Melody brings out the humor and humanity in it all. This month, Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, the book was released in paperback.
Read MoreThe Huffington Post: Why Forcibly Medicating the Mentally Ill Is Dangerous →
In a 9-2 vote on Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved Laura’s Law, which allows judges to order involuntary outpatient treatment, including forced medication, for certain patients with a history of psychiatric illness. While adopted in 2002, Laura’s Law requires authorization by local jurisdictions, so this vote made San Francisco the third jurisdiction and first major city in California to approve it. Los Angeles County is slated to decide on full implementation in the coming week.
Read MoreIranian Alliances Across Borders: Dialogue with Melody Moezzi (By Dina Ajalli)
The energized campers then attended an Emory auditorium for a Skype call with Melody Moezzi, an activist, lawyer, and the author of Haldol and Hyacinths. A thoughtful and eye-opening Q&A followed before campers praised Moezzi with a well-deserved standing ovation. Campers left with a sense of understanding and awareness about mental health in the Iranian community.
Read MoreCNN: Why is Texas GOP backing gay conversion therapy? →
Apparently working under the impression that they understand the science of sexuality better than the World Health Organization or the American Medical or Psychological or Psychiatric associations, Texas Republicans made a bold statement last weekend.
Read MoreThe Huffington Post: Stop Misappropriating Tragedy →
Why? It’s the first thing people want to know when tragedy strikes. Why us? Why here? Why now? Why this?
Read MoreThe Huffington Post: 4 Tips From an Ethnically Ambiguous Stranger →
I’m used to people asking me where I’m from. Sometimes it’s other brown people wanting to know if we share a heritage, and sometimes it’s white people wanting to know...well, I’m not sure what.
Read MoreDisability Intersections: A Conversation with Melody Moezzi (Interview by Brendan McHugh) →
Human rights activist, attorney, writer, Iranian American, and Muslim American feminist: Melody Moezzi is all of these. She is the award-winning author of War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims and published her memoir Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life last September. She also blogs for the Huffington Post, Ms., and BP Magazine and has provided commentary for CNN, NPR, and BBC, among others. Her memoir is a frank account of her journey with bipolar disorder, her times in and out of mental health care facilities, as well as her life as an Iranian-American woman in Middle America and the South. Written with grace and often hilarious, Moezzi’s book fills a gap in mental illness memoirs, in that is told from her perspective as a Muslim American feminist activist and attorney.
Read MoreThe Huffington Post: The Case for Produce →
High prices, geographic disparities in availability and the misguided demonization of all sugars (including the natural ones found in fruits) have deprived many Americans of some of the most delicious and curative foods on the planet.
Read MoreEmory Public Health: Melody's Story (Interview by Pam Auchmutey) →
The Dairy Queen in Canada, just over the border from Glacier National Park in Montana, has special significance for Melody Moezzi 06L/06MPH. She visited there several times a week while working at the park during summer break from college in 1999. Each time, she ordered a large chocolate M&M Blizzard but ate just a few bites.
Read MoreThe Huffington Post: How News Can Make You Happy →
I hear it all the time, from doctors, teachers, lawyers, hairdressers, accountants, you name it: “I don’t follow the news. It’s too depressing.” While I understand the sentiment, I find its consequences far more depressing than even the gloomiest of newscasts.
Read MoreThe Huffington Post: Girls’ Night Out? Count Me Out →
While I’ve enjoyed plenty of evenings out with female friends, I’ve never especially appreciated any outing billed specifically as a “girls’ night out” (GNO). The whole concept — including its male counterpart, the “guys’ night out” — just seems strange to me. Perhaps it’s because self-segregation has always struck me as silly, or perhaps it’s because being an Iranian-American Muslim bipolar feminist rarely affords me the luxury of fully self-segregating anywhere. Whatever the reason, I’ve grown to hate these gatherings and avoid them whenever possible.
Read MoreThe Huffington Post: U No Read, Me No Write →
As disheartening as it is to admit, I know that many “readers” don’t actually read, at least online. Still, until recently, no editor ever encouraged me to write for the skimming, scanning, browsing, not-actually-reading “reader.”
Read MoreChai: Haldol and Hyacinths - An Inspirational and Powerful Memoir (Review by Mehwish Qureshi) →
“Courageous” is the word that came to my mind when I read Melody Moezzi’s novel. On January 26, 2014, CHAI, co-sponsored by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), held its quarterly book club meeting at the East Columbia Branch Library, to discuss “Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life” by Melody Moezzi. For this specific book club meeting, we had the luxury of having the author Skyping in to meet us and talk about the book.
Read MoreThe Huffington Post: Mental Health Ought to Matter More Than Uniforms →
As part of its bid to become the least productive United States legislature ever, the current 113th Congress is managing to hold up yet another worthy piece of bipartisan legislation. Senate Bill 162, introduced by Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) as the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Act, would authorize grants to “improve the treatment of mentally ill individuals in the criminal justice system” within state, local and tribal governments.
Read MoreNew York Journal of Books: Haldol and Hyacinths Review (Review by Christopher Doran) →
Intelligent, accurate, entertaining, culturally relevant, and a little sassy are words not usually put together in one sentence to describe a book about mental health. They do, however, nail Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life by Melody Moezzi.
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