Our Digital Archive from 2000 – 2016
Dear Dr. Norquist: My life is in a rut and I’m not sure what to do to change it. I’m bored with my life. I’m stuck at a job that pays my bills, but provides little satisfaction. My friendships are shallow – mostly friendships that revolve around going drinking on the weekends. I have my …
Dear Dr. Norquist: I have become I think overly concerned about how others see me, like am I pretty, smart enough, witty, competent? This was really almost paralyzing when I was in high school. Now I’ve graduated from college and am at a new job in a large corporation – and I’m up late at …
Dear Dr. Norquist: I am writing to you because I am full of parental sadness and guilt and remorse. I had my daughter when I was young (19 years old), and was struggling in my relationship with her father, who never did marry me. I was always working trying to support both of us. Now …
Dear Dr. Norquist: I have a simple probably very common problem – insomnia. I just can’t seem to fall asleep easily. My mind races for a long time after I’d like to be sleeping. It’s not unusual for it to take me an hour or more to fall asleep at night, then it’s so hard …
Dear Dr. Norquist: I am writing to you with a heavy heart. My husband and I have been married for almost 40 years. We’ve raised three children together and made it through the hard times and good times. We’ve had our differences, but we’ve always supported each other when the need arose. I’m struggling now …
Dear Dr. Norquist: I am in a relationship that is bad for me, and I can’t seem to leave it. I’m embarrassed to say it, but my boyfriend puts me down and yells at me every day, yet when I think of leaving, I’m too frightened to do anything. The thing is, I lost …
Dear Dr. Norquist: I have a neighbor who talks about me to the other people in our condominium. I know this because one of them reports to me about it. This neighbor makes up stories about me to put me down. She and I used to be friends, but when I saw the way she …
(Dr. Norquist is on vacation this holiday week. We are re-running a letter that was published earlier in this column.) Dear Dr. Norquist: My life is going OK. I don’t have any big problems to deal with. I’m settled in my job and marriage. I have a home, and pretty good health. I’m not really …
Dear Dr. Norquist: I don’t feel like I belong in my family. It’s very painful and has been this way for my whole life. I was adopted as a baby. Then, three years later, my parents were able to get pregnant and they had my brother. I guess it’s natural that they would like him …
Dear Dr. Norquist: Even though I’ve been taught that in a relationship, the man is the head of the household, I’ve always felt that there should be a balance of power between the husband and wife, that there should be an equal sharing, a give and take of work and responsibilities, along with equal support …