Author Archives: maiszink

Next to Normal: A play about illness and its consequences

I saw a production of Next to Normal this weekend at Theaterworks Hartford. This play examines the life of a woman with post-partem bipolar disorder and how her illness affects every person in her suburban family. Winner of three 2009 Tony Awards, including Best Musical Score and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize, Next to Normal wasContinue reading “Next to Normal: A play about illness and its consequences”

Life after Disclosure: One Woman’s Decision to Fight

When Kathy Flaherty dropped her biochemistry thesis at Wellesley College due to anxiety and depression, her life took a new trajectory. After graduation, she applied and was accepted to Harvard Law School. But it was not long into her tenure at Harvard, when her manic symptoms surfaced and she was hospitalized and given the properContinue reading “Life after Disclosure: One Woman’s Decision to Fight”

Toivo Center Brings Mind/Body Practices for Mental Health to Connecticut

  There’s a place nestled within Hartford’s south end where holistic health meets mental health. Toivo, meaning hope in Finnish, exists as open space inside a store front where healing magic begins. No one is turned away because of race, age, religion, culture, sexual orientation and income level. Mental health diagnosis labels do not matterContinue reading “Toivo Center Brings Mind/Body Practices for Mental Health to Connecticut”

The Obsessions of My Compulsions

There’s something lucky about air tracing certain numbers over and over on the exact day they appear on the calendar. There’s something not cool about being seen on video at a town meeting you’re reporting on for a newspaper fingering your eyebrows as if their static gives you a cosmic high, an infinite orgasm. You’veContinue reading “The Obsessions of My Compulsions”

Author Melody Moezzi Talks about Mental Health and Muslims

First ran on the International Bipolar Foundation’s blog I interviewed Melody Moezzi, an Iranian-American bipolar Muslim feminist activist, an attorney, a writer and author of the award-winning books War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims and Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life. She blogs for BP Magazine as well as the Huffington Post and Ms.Continue reading “Author Melody Moezzi Talks about Mental Health and Muslims”

Bipolar Disorder & Focussing

Tips to Get You Focussed: Breakdown each task into smaller tasks. Do the smallest part of a task first, then move to the next part. Keep a planner. Plan your day the night before or even every Sunday plan your week. Write your appointments, exercise time, projects to be done in this place. Avoid caffeine.Continue reading “Bipolar Disorder & Focussing”

R.I.P. Carrie Fisher, a Champion for Mental Health

  I’m not a big Star Wars fan but I do have quite a few Yoda quotes pinned to my fridge. I first saw Carrie Fisher live in her one woman show Wishful Drinking at the Hartford Stage. I was well into my journey with bipolar disorder and thrilled to see someone so vocal aboutContinue reading “R.I.P. Carrie Fisher, a Champion for Mental Health”

Nineteenth Year Crack Up

This is a poem I wrote during graduate school for Writing. It is a fictionalized account based on what I went through in college. Twelve years have passed since my days in Boston Days when I sat under archways thinking, scribbling poetry, howling sins;
the moon listened by fracturing the sky. I read Shakespeare, Kafka, Plath,Continue reading “Nineteenth Year Crack Up”