UCLA Addiction Psychiatrist Larissa Mooney

Oprah Winfrey Was My Childhood Hero

Dr. Larissa Mooney is an addiction psychiatrist and associate clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA, where she directs the UCLA Addiction Medicine Clinic. Before participating in the Zócalo/UCLA panel “Can Anything Stop America’s Opioid Addiction?”, she revealed in the Zócalo green room her own addiction, the ugliest piece of furniture in her possession, and the weirdest thing hiding in her medicine cabinet.

Q:

What’s the weirdest thing in your medicine cabinet?


A:

A nasal aspirator for babies. I’ve never used it, even on my babies. They’re 4 and 7 now.


Q:

What’s your specialty in the kitchen?


A:

Salmon. I bake it with olive oil and honey and a little butter and some capers.


Q:

If you had one more hour in the day, what would you do with it?


A:

Exercise.


Q:

What was the most important year of your life?


A:

Probably the year I moved to Los Angeles to begin my addiction psychiatry fellowship. It was the start of a new chapter in my whole life, and the start of my family.


Q:

What’s the last great party you attended?


A:

It was a benefits dinner for a disability rights legal firm, so it was a party with some meaning.


Q:

What’s your healthiest addiction?


A:

I’m so not addictive, which is so funny … Dark chocolate. I have it every day.


Q:

What’s the ugliest piece of furniture you own?


A:

It’s now been moved to the garage, but it was a pretty awful looking lamp. We called it the DNA lamp; it kind of had a double helix metal base. We got rid of that one as soon as we had a better replacement.


Q:

Who was your childhood hero?


A:

Oprah Winfrey.


Q:

Hot, medium, or mild?


A:

Hot.


*Photo by Aaron Salcido.