I recently received a Facebook message from Abnoos Moslehi, a translator in Iran who has read Bipolar Disorder For Dummies, which I co-authored with Dr. Candida Fink. Abnoos wants to translate the book into Farsi. Following is her letter of introduction, posted with her permission:

Dear Mr. Kraynak,

I was once diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder II, in Iran, my home country, where there was and is no information resource on this disorder.

I am not sure where I first saw your book , but it was the first real/complete thing I read about my condition and it has been helping me a lot.

Due to lack of information in this field I have been thinking of translating this book into Farsi and somehow hopefully get it published in Iran. It is a huge task and being a BP, I can’t tell you whether it’s one of those highs or not!

Iran doesn’t follow the Copy Right law and basically it is OK to translate anything from anyone and publish it without their permission. However I’d like to make sure that this is OK for you, it really does matter to me that if I get it on the market, it should be decent by all means.

Thank you for your time,

Abnoos

Abnoos found me on Facebook via the Bipolar Disorder For Dummies Facebook Page I set up and co-host with Dr. Fink.

I am currently working on putting Abnoos in touch with the Wiley’s associate manager of international rights who has informed me that Wiley has a For Dummies partner in Persia that might be helpful in making the Farsi translation possible.

I also told her about my Slovenian friend Darja Budja, the translator for the Slovene edition of Bipolar Disorder For Dummies, who rallied a bipolar support group in her country that teamed up with the publisher and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to help finance her efforts in translating the book and getting it published and distributed.

I find it intriguing how the Internet, including Facebook, helps to facilitate global connections and make things happen. Of course, ultimately the driving force is comprised of the individuals who make it happen, but technology often provides the introductions and infrastructure necessary get people connected and support their collaborative efforts.

I’m hoping this all comes together and I’ll see Abnoos’ Farsi edition of the book next year.

Just the other morning, I was staring at a dead bug – a wicked looking red and black insect with wings and stingers and pincers. At least I thought it was dead. I moved my face closer and closer to get a better look at it. When I was only a few inches from it, it started buzzing, and I recoiled and yelled, “Holy….” which instantly woke my wife who was sleeping right next to me.

Yeah, it was all a dream, as starkly vivid as anything I could experience in reality, maybe even a little more real. Sure, it was merely an illusion, something my brain cooked up, but how could it seem so real and how could I accept it as being real? Isn’t that what psychosis is – seeing and hearing things that aren’t there? What was asleep in my brain that prevented me from questioning what I was seeing? What was working overtime in my brain to make me “see” such a nasty looking creature?

I’ll leave all those questions to brain and dream researchers to sort out, but the experience made me realize that we might all be a little psychotic. At least we know from our dreams that we have the capacity for psychosis. When we dream, we become delusional. We hallucinate. We see things that aren’t there and hear sounds in the midst of silence. We have no trouble accepting these dreams as normal parts of our lives.

Yet, when we encounter someone who’s experiencing psychosis, it completely baffles us. We can’t wrap our brain around the notion that while people are awake, they can see things that aren’t there and hear voices when nobody’s speaking. We can’t imagine ever experiencing such a thing even though we experience it every night when we fall asleep.