Author: Abby Nardo

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Memory submitted by Jane Taylor

Where did you meet him?
1boringoldman

Memory of Mickey
I feel so sad ….. it was through my email contact with Mickey Nardo (at the very beginning of ‘my journey’ about psych drug harms) after a 1BOM blog came up in my google search on Seroquel, that I learnt about the existence of David Healy back here in UK and both 1BOM and DH’s blogs really were a life saver for me, because otherwise I may well still be following ‘doctors orders’ which were that I would need medication for life and thus would have faced, no doubt, a premature death.

(I was diagnosed with bi-polar 2 when it is so clear to me, knowing what I know now, that I suffered iatrogenic SSRI induced Akathisia which led to being prescribed even nastier antipsychotics)

So I feel I owe Mickey an awful lot and will be eternally grateful to him for signposting me to a whole new world of TRUTH about the horrific, corrupt story around prescribed meds.

I am now very well, meds free, happy and SO very grateful to Mickey, for letting the truth be known and for his very kind response to my email back in May 2015.

God Bless, Mickey and many condolences to his family …

PS. I can’t wait for the book based on 1boringoldman that Abby is promising

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Memory submitted by Elise

When did you meet Mickey?
2005

Where did you meet him?
I met Mickey in North Carolina after I became friends with Abby

Memory of Mickey
My story about Mickey isn’t about Mickey exactly. It’s how I first came to know Mickey. Listening to Abby talk about her dad. Abby’s love and respect for her father was clear through the stories and proud moments she shared about her father’s passions and life. That says a lot about the kind of man he was.

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Memory submitted by Anna Nardo

When did you meet Mickey?
1947

Where did you meet him?
I am Mickey’s younger sister. He was 5 years and 4 months old when I was born.

Memory of Mickey
All but a few of you knew Mickey as an adult, and you may not know much about his early life. So I want to share two memories from my youth that evidence the empathy and ability to read people that made Mickey a great therapist.

During summer vacations from U.T., he found a job selling suits, ties, and shirts at an exclusive men’s store called The Gentry Limited. The owner was a Jewish tailor with a German accent whose wife had escaped the Holocaust. There weren’t many Jews in Chattanooga, so the family was pretty isolated. Since the store was doing well, the German tailor decided to buy his wife a new house. But when moving day arrived, she completely freaked out. The tailor had no idea what to do, so Mickey simply took over, escorted her away from the chaotic scene where strange men were entering her house to haul off her belongings, and stayed with her until the move was completed. Although as yet untrained, Mickey intuitively recognized that the wife was experiencing a psychotic break because the confusion of moving had revived traumatic memories from the war years.

Thinking back, I see a second sign of Mickey’s future career success in his efforts to teach me to water ski. We always had a boat for Dad’s fishing excursions, and on summer weekends we sometimes joined him for trips to Chickamauga Lake. All the cool kids could water ski, and I wanted to be one of them. The way the process is supposed to work is that you get in the water, put on the skis, crouch with your knees pulled up to your chest, hold onto the rope, and let the force of the boat pull you upright. But the process didn’t work for me. While Dad drove the boat, Mickey stood in the stern, watching me fall over every time Dad gunned the motor. I was mortified and in tears, then he yelled to me, “Stop trying!” I had been trying to pull myself up instead of letting the boat’s force pull me upright. His advice worked like a charm, and I experienced the exhilaration of zooming across The lake with the other cool kids. In his early twenties, Mickey had intuited one of the major psychological cruxes of my life. When I get myself tied in knots, I try to remember that it once worked to “Stop trying!”

Goodnight, Mickey.

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Memory submitted by Barbara Dennis

When did you meet Mickey?
2004

Where did you meet him?
I knew him through Abby.

Memory of Mickey
There was a time when Abby was at Indiana University working on her doctorate. She was temporarily staying at my house. She was going through a challenging time. During this time, as I got to know Abby better, I also got to know about her parents and eventually also got introduced to them face to face.

During this time, Abby was writing down all the wise things her dad would say to her in conversation. She would often recant these wise insights with me and my children. It was wonderful to not only experience his engagement with her life and how close they were, but also to hear his perspectives. Wise. Centered. Thoughtful.

One day, I was experiencing a weird thing – blood was coming out of my ear. Gruesome , I know. Abby mentioned this to her dad. he had some concerns about it. She put him on the phone with me. This was the first time I had actually heard his voice. He was very helpful in terms of the immediate ear problem, but what really stayed with me was how powerful it was to hear the actual voice of the person whose “sayings” and “writings” and “insight” I was coming to love.

His voice harbored a resonance in my ear that was at once powerful and inviting.

I did not get to know Mickey except through Abby and very episodic moments during that brief time, but it was enough to respect him and appreciate that our paths crossed.

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Memory submitted by Renee Dooley

When did you meet Mickey?
1980

Where did you meet him?
He’s Abby’s Dad!

Memory of Mickey
I’ve known Abby since 4th grade. During elementary school we were pretty good friends and spent a lot of time at each other’s houses. So I spent a fair amount of time with her parents over the course of the years. Mickey was always “Dr. Nardo” to me. Whenever I was over, he mostly seemed to be doing something intellectual and “computer-y”. But he always had time to indulge whatever shenanigans Abby and I would get into as kids. I remember several times where Abby and I would concoct these strange “recipes” out of all kinds of various mysterious kitchen ingredients. Even if we made a mess, Dr. Nardo would never mind. He was always good-natured about it and would be our taste tester, which he probably regretted at some point. And one time he helped us make homemade pasta. We had noodles that went all the way down the hallway! At least that is how my 10 year old brain remembers it. Always a good time at the Nardos’.

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Memory submitted by Kathe Hall

When did you meet Mickey?
2004

Where did you meet him?
Art Center

Memory of Mickey
His wisdom, his genuine caring spirit was always felt regardless of a professional opinion or a personal one. Mickey made me laugh especially when he was with Andy and Al – The Three Amigo’s. Mostly I always knew he had a deep love for Sharon. Often seeing him and Al and Andy in the Hummer as they drove across Main Street. I could picture a movie with those three. You know there are so many times that my path crossed with Mickey’s, and every time was always a pleasant one. He will always be remembered. His richness touched my life!

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Memory submitted by Paul Pierce, MD

When did you meet Mickey?
2016

Where did you meet him?
only through his website

Memory of Mickey
I knew Mickey only through his writings on 1boringoldman. I don’t even recall how I stumbled onto the site, but it has been a regular go-to for me over the past two years, and Mickey’s writings have been profoundly influential about how I think about my profession and how I fit into the world as a psychiatrist.

I rarely contributed to comments, in fact only once. I don’t consider myself a dumb guy, but always had the same sort of anxiety about contributing to the conversation that a kid has approaching the grown up table. I occasionally thought about putting in a comment just to express how grateful I was for his work and sharing his insights so freely. I never did, so I must resign myself to writing here.

It saddens me that his leg of the race is done, but clearly he was a major player in pushing back against some real rot in our profession, and I will remain grateful for that.

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Memory submitted by Mary Kay Flick

When did you meet Mickey?
2012

Where did you meet him?
He’s Abby’s dad

Memory of Mickey
Mostly he’s my dear friend Abby’s daddy. Without him, Abby wouldn’t be who she is. And I really like how she is. Aside from that, we bonded over coloring. I love to color and do it pretty much every day. On various holidays, I liked to bring a stash (albeit only a small part of my overall stash) to Abby’s to sit on the porch and color with Mickey, and whoever else was around, enjoy a coffee and conversation. He was much more vibrant with his use of color than I am – he liked the neons. Regardless, I love that this man of science validated that coloring was a good thing. I intend to do more coloring on Abby’s porch, and when we do, we’re going to raise our coffee cups and think of Mickey.

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Memory submitted by Beau

When did you meet Mickey?
1975

Where did you meet him?
Morningside Egg Hunts

Memory of Mickey
I got to grow up around Mickey; in the seventies, he was one of the oddball grownups at the Lipscombs parties. In the eighties, he was one of the oddball grownups at the Flint Hill egg hunts, where I also grew up, and raised my own kids. I got to watch Mickey become one of the brilliant sages of the Pig Roasts, the Egg Hunts, and whatever else went on that drew together the tribes of Morningside, Ansley Park and Flint Hill.

Favorite memories vary from the weekend that he trashed his brand new jeep, down at Andy’s farm, giving everybody rides through the woods until he broke an axel or two, on up to the various times he helped show me how to slow down and just be there with my kids.

Oh, and he also, through one of his first websites, taught me about the zen of javascript, which was a good thing since I’d taken a job doing lots of that.

He was one of those, like Andy and Al, who were supposed to always be there; they were just fixtures in my life that I regret now too often taking for granted.

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Memory submitted by Barbara Larsen

When did you meet Mickey?
1989

Where did you meet him?
I met Mickey through Sharon. She was a new and dear friend from the start. Getting to know Mickey over the years was an added bonus.

Memory of Mickey
Over the years of my friendship with Sharon, I found Mickey to always be a welcoming and loving presence. I enjoyed his kindness and his mind in every encounter.

I was also fortunate to benefit by his teaching continuing education courses in my work as an addiction counselor. In this, he challenged and stimulated.

Always enjoying visiting Jasper to join Sharon in her lapidary adventures, dining at the Nardo Family table was always a body full-filling, mind stimulating, spirit inspiring, and heart warming experience.