Even before the details of the temporary deal between Iran and the P5+1 group were released on Saturday, many Iranians were already celebrating. Just the idea of an agreement — any agreement — between Iran and the United States was enough to bring tears to the eyes of this Iranian-American, and I wasn’t alone. Iranians all over the world took to social media to express their elation at the first formal agreement between the U.S. and Iran in over 30 years. I received Facebook and Twitter messages from across the globe, all striking the same tone as this tweet from @PrrrsianKitten, who lists her location as “Wonderland”: “I’m so happy, I keep crying and laughing. This is such a great day/middle of the night/evening!”
Read MoreKings River Life Magazine: Haldol and Hyacinths Review (Review by Lorie Lewis Ham) →
Melody Moezzi is many things. She is an activist, lawyer, author, speaker, and an Iranian American. Unfortunately, it is her bipolar disorder that has largely defined her life.
Read MoreThe Huffington Post: America’s Mental Hospitals: Where Smoking Buys You Sunshine →
Imagine a place in the United States where most everyone smokes, where smoking is in fact encouraged, where cigarettes are used as rewards, and where at times, you may even be denied outdoors unless it’s for a smoke. I know it sounds crazy in this day and age of “no tampering with smoke detectors” in lavatories and smoke-free bars that such a place could exist, but it does. Crazier still, this smokers’ paradise exists — in fact thrives — within establishments charged with the very task of combating insanity, namely, our mental hospitals. And while we’re on the topic of insanity, it’s worth noting here that this includes correctional facilities, as prisons are now this country’s largest mental health facilities.
Read MoreWHYY's Radio Times: Interview with Melody Moezzi (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane) →
Author MELODY MOEZZI writes there aren’t high profile advocates for her medical condition, “Silence and humiliation rule our playing fields. While others down performance-enhancing drugs and play on grass or Astroturf, we down antipsychotics and play on quicksand.” Moezzi was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder after years of struggling with delusions, melancholia and hallucinations. She attempted suicide. Having a supportive community with this unpredictable condition was bad enough, but Moezzi is an Iranian-American born in 1979, the year of the revolution, and the social stigma and stereotypes made her life especially difficult. The activist and attorney’s new memoir is “Haldol and Hyacinths: a Bipolar Life.”
Read MoreThe New York Times One-Page Magazine (One Sentence Review by Tyler Cowen) →
"Iranian-American story with a feminist bipolar twist." -- Tyler Cowen
Read MoreMIND Reviews: Haldol and Hyacinths (Review by Brian Mossop) →
A fine line separates creativity and madness. Bipolar disorder teeters along that line, with patients experiencing moments of impulsive thought, which can yield bold insights or quickly descend into confusion or rage.
Read MoreBipolar [bp] Magazine: Bipolar & Sleep Disturbance: We Can’t All Be Prince →
Several months before my first psychotic break, I made a decision. At the time, I thought it was a bright idea, which wasn’t surprising given the fact that, at the time, I also thought I was incapable of anything but bright ideas.
Read MoreThe Daily Beast: One Woman’s Battle With Bipolar Disorder (Haldol and Hyacinths Excerpt) →
United by helplessness, fear, fragility and common enemies, the Cottage E residents of November 2005 weren’t much different from those in myriad other residential psychiatric facilities across the country. We were, however, quite extraordinary as compared to our “normal” counterparts on the outside. There was Compass (I never learned her real name), a middleaged schizophrenic teacher who’d stabbed herself in the jugular with, you guessed it, a compass. To her, I recommended dickies, turtlenecks and antipsychotics
Read MoreMuslimah Media Watch: An Interview with "Haldol and Hyacinths" Author Melody Moezzi (Interview by Azra Thakur) →
I recently read Melody Moezzi’s new memoir, Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life. In the book, Moezzi bravely portrays her diagnosis with bipolar disorder, focusing briefly before her mental illness is diagnosed through to a point when she receives an accurate diagnosis and treatment. While much of the book hauntingly illustrates the incredible highs and lows associated with the illness, Moezzi also depicts life outside the disorder: her relationship with her supportive family, her love for her unwavering husband, and decision to pursue writing as a career as she completed her law and public health programs.
Read MoreIndyWeek: Haldol and Hyacinths Review (Review by Chris Vitiello) →
"There are plenty of respectable reasons to kill yourself, but I've never had any." So opens Raleigh author Melody Moezzi's memoir, Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life. Raised in a vibrant Islamic-American community in Dayton, Ohio, Moezzi felt loved and supported, never more so than when a physical illness landed her in the hospital at 18 and her hospital room filled with flowers and get-well wishes. But when her bipolar disorder surfaced, leading to a suicide attempt, sanitarium visits and a stunning array of mood stabilizers and antipsychotics, Moezzi's community turned colder. By turns truth-telling and humorous, Haldol and Hyacinths recounts the ways that psychological illness is judged or disbelieved along cultural and social lines. Ultimately Moezzi finds healing and inspiration in perseverance, embracing aspects of her condition while pushing through others: "Here is the problem with madness. How do you sort out the ocelots from the creative breakthroughs, or the elephants from the nail-biting cessation? You don't."
Read MoreThe Herald Sun: Author chronicles mental illness, Iranian and American roots (Review by Cliff Bellamy)
Melody Moezzi once tried to commit suicide in a psychiatrist's office, and had hallucinations in which Joseph Stalin and her fourth-grade teacher were participants. How she struggled to understand her bipolar illness and became an advocate and spokesperson for mental illness is the subject of Moezzi's compelling memoir, "Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life."
Read MoreParade Picks: Savings, Reads, and Great TV →
In her defiantly frank memoir, Iranian-American Melody Moezzi reveals that the worst part of being bipolar wasn’t the meds or hospital stays but the stigma. Iranians, she says, “prefer to sweep [mental health issues] under our prettiest Persian rugs.”
Read MoreAJC: 'Haldol and Hyacinths' a report from the frontlines of bipolar disorder (Review by Gina Webb) →
One of Melody Moezzi's biggest gripes about being bipolar is that nobody rewards it. "If you have cancer, you get flowers, visitors and compassion. If you have a mental illness, you get plastic utensils, isolation and fear. If you survive cancer, people consider you a hero and inspiration, and they tell you so."
Read MoreThe New York Times: Lawyers of Sound Mind? →
RALEIGH, N.C. — LAST week, swarms of sun-starved, soon-to-be lawyers emerged from hiding to celebrate completing the bar exam. Passing the exam, however, won’t guarantee them admission to the bar. They also have to demonstrate that they possess the requisite fitness and moral character for the practice of law.
Read MoreWUNC's The State of Things: Breaking The Silence Of Mental Illness (interview by Frank Stasio) →
Melody Moezzi has always been outspoken. As an Iranian-American writer and attorney, she has devoted herself to discussing controversial issues like religion, politics and culture in Iran. But when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, her family and doctors encouraged silence. On this issue, they thought, you could not speak the truth. Melody would not be quiet. She decided to write a memoir of her experiences so that others with the disorder, and those who know them, could better understand. The memoir is called “Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life,” (Avery/2013). Host Frank Stasio talks to her about her experience.
Read MoreNAMI: Navigating a Bipolar Life (interview by Joni Agronin) →
As a psychology major who knows how serious mental illness can be, I never thought stories about bipolar disorder would make me laugh. While bipolar disorder itself isn’t actually funny at all, in Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life, Melody Moezzi brings humor to even the harshest realities of her disorder.
Read MorePenguin: A Conversation with Melody Moezzi →
Why did you write Haldol and Hyacinths?
Shocked to find there wasn’t another Iranian-American Muslim bipolar feminist memoir on the market, I just had to fill the void in the literature. Seriously though, I’m a human rights activist. I’ve fought for the rights of Iranians, Muslims, women, the LGBT community and other marginalized groups for years. After being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I suddenly became part of this new wildly persecuted and painfully silent minority, and for the first time in my life, I was ashamed of a piece of my identity. I was brought up to be proud of who I am and never hide my background, no matter how unpopular it might make me. But now everyone was telling me to be quiet, and while I may have been ashamed and afraid at the time, I’ve never been the quiet type—particularly where injustice is concerned. Soon enough, the activist in me came out, and I spoke up. After writing commentaries for NPR, CNN and other media outlets about my mental illness, I received hundreds of messages of support encouraging me to continue writing and speaking about the issue. I promised my readers and myself that I would, and Haldol and Hyacinths is my fulfillment of that promise. I pray this book will help chip away at the shame, fear and stigma that so many people living with mental illness face on a daily basis.
Read MoreThe Huffington Post: TSA Ramadan Alert: Expect Unduly Clean, Respectful, Teetotaling Travelers →
In honor of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the Transportation Security Administration has provided the public with some curious “travel information,” under the heading “Traveling During Ramadan.” Ever devoted to protecting the safety and civil rights of travelers, the “TSA has reminded its security workforce that traveling passengers may be observed at various areas in the airport — including security checkpoints or on aircraft — engaged in religious practices and meditations during Ramadan.”
Read MoreCNN: A plea from an exhausted Muslim woman →
I wasn’t surprised by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's recent statement about a “problem within Islam.”
Read MorePublishers Weekly: Haldol and Hyacinths Review →
“Perhaps insanity is inescapable when you separate a soul from its vessel,” muses Iranian-American activist, author, and lawyer Moezzi (War on Error) in her strangely affecting chronicle of living with bipolar disorder. She attributes her affliction to a variety of factors—cultural vertigo, post-9/11 prejudice against Muslims, a rare pancreatic disorder, overwhelming family pressure—and over the years has attempted suicide and suffered from a full-blown manic episode, as well as psychotic breaks. To recreate the gaps in her memory during these traumatic periods, she relies on recollections of friends and family, and her husband’s detailed notes. Some readers may not embrace Moezzi’s bad-girl persona—she stages rebellions in hospital wards and offers strong opinions on a range of subjects—but her vivid descriptions of being pulled against her will in a swirl of impulsivity, hallucinations, and paranoia are riveting. She also uses offbeat humor to criticize the medical profession’s handling of the mentally ill. Her often black-and-white thinking is mercifully softened by abundant gratitude for the saintly patience of her husband, the practicality of her mother, and the wisdom of her Rumi-quoting father. A poetic portrait of life on the lines of sanity and a mind on the edge of cultures.
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