Dear Sibyl, My father was abusive to me growing up. Not very frequently was the abuse physical (the verbal variety dominated), but it was enough to instill a fear of him into me that I’ve never been able to shake. When he got angry, he took it out on me, I assume because I was [...]
Dear Sibyl, I’m going wedding dress shopping with my mother tomorrow. I didn’t really want to go and still feel ambivalent about it. My mother can be a loving, generous, supportive person. However, her insecurities can easily and unexpectedly be triggered, turning her into the Witch of the West. She can be mean and offensive [...]
The last few weeks, my Sibyl inbox has been empty. I was tempted to conclude, “My work here is done. Everyone is fixed.” Then, I encountered a whole bunch of pretty flawed and twitchy humans who could use a good Sibylizing. Therefore, I’m going to provide you all with a little encouragement to write in [...]
Dear Sibyl, I’m in my late thirties and my parents have been divorced since I was 5 years old. Growing up I never wanted my parents to get back together because I knew they didn’t get along well. They did a great job of never trash talking each other to us kids, but the awkwardness [...]
Dear Sibyl, My husband and I met our senior year of college and got married a few years later. We’ve now been together for almost a decade and I still feel lucky that we happened to meet and that circumstances allowed us to grow as people and build a life together. Our families, both immediate [...]
Dear Sibyl, I seem to have a penchant for attracting friends who are very ambivalent about me. Or friendship. I am not sure, but they are so difficult to be friends with, because they pursue me mightily, but then reschedule our date several times, and say any number of passive aggressive things to me when [...]
Dear Sibyl, I have a wonderful husband of 10 years and we have a good sex life. Often, I need a little help to get me in the mood, my choice is romance novels. Is this normal? Should my husband take offense? He’s never complained, but I just hope I’m not hurting his feelings. Thank [...]
Dear Sybil, What is twisting my gut is what is also twisting the gut of the nation. My issue is that I am so very, very sensitive to human-caused tragedies, so much so that even a headline can send me toward panic-attack-ville. I’ve dealt with this by avoiding the news in general (my husband keeps [...]
