In her soon-to-be-released memoir, Men Have Called Her Crazy, the multimedia artist and ex-wife of comedian John Mulaney, Anna Marie Tendler, offers a raw look at her battle with mental illness.
Tendler candidly discusses her two-week stay at a psychiatric hospital and her struggles with intense suicidal thoughts, cutting, and eating disorders. The book follows her 2022 divorce from her husband, Mulaney, of six years.
In 2021, Anna Marie Tendler willingly checked herself into a mental health facility after penning a suicide note. This happened around one year after her marriage began to fall apart.
In the memoir, she describes ripping the note into tiny pieces the following day and scattering them into various garbage cans outside her apartment in New York City.
She checked herself into a mental health facility in an effort to reach a place where she could face hardship without trying to destroy herself as she battled despair.
The book describes the hospital stay unflinchingly. At the hospital, they immediately confiscate your luggage. They do this to check belongings for weapons and drugs. She describes the hospital personnel as warm, but not too warm, and says that they have become tough from years of dealing with patients who check in against their will, are furious about being there, and vent their fury.
The nurse then determines whether there is a risk of suicide. When asked how great her desire to die was, she answered, “Eleven.” Tendler says she wanted to die, but she cut herself instead. But it wasn’t meant to kill her; it was meant to punish.
The suicide letter, she admits, was filled with absurdity and self-involvement. It was mostly about how nobody appeared to be concerned about her deterioration in mental and physical health. It was full of “venom and rage,” and that she was “blinded by anger” when she wrote it.
She said that hiding underneath her vanity was a profound sense of worthlessness and worry, as well as a bottomless pit of despair.
Sources with direct knowledge who have read the forthcoming memoir said that Mulaney is never mentioned by name… either directly or indirectly,
In July 2021, Mulaney decided to dissolve his marriage to Tendler and filed for divorce. They formalized their divorce in January 2022.
The book is an honest, raw look at someone’s mental health journey to wellness and will be available on August 13.
