Thank you so much for all of this advice; it means a lot to me that you'd take the time to write it, and it all sounds genuinely doable! I'll do my best to get in touch with a shrink when I get settled in my new city and ask my doctor about propranolol. And I've been working with dilators, but a graduated vibrator…

That's honestly the greatest relief I could ask for. It's graduation season, which means I'm seeing a lot of friends head off to amazing-sounding jobs and vacations and first days of the rest of their lives. And I'm so, so guilty of measuring my life against other people's and then catastrophizing from there. (If…

Oh, gosh. I haven't played DA:O in years, but in the first year or so after it came out, I completed at least one playthrough with every origin — and I think two with the human noble and alienage elf.

Apparently that bit is one of Miyazaki's biggest regrets in the entire series.

For me, the problem with those two areas is that they're mandatory in every playthrough, but there aren't any decisions to make within them, so the experience is the same every time. And they're long. It can just become kind of a chore to play through them again so you finally get to the point where you get to make a…

The Deep Roads and the Fade from Dragon Age: Origins are both terrible, terrible slogs.

Happy birthday! Even if you hate it, I hope you had at least a couple of nice moments.

Will do! I did know that was a side effect, but it's not one I'd ever experienced before; usually, I just get insomnia and lose my appetite. I guess that, even after all these years, Lexapro still knows how to keep things spicy.

I’ve been ricocheting between crawl-up-the-walls panic and lay-on-the-couch-watching-old-horror-movies-for-15-hours depression over my future for the last couple of days. Some of it is about sex and relationships; some of it isn’t. My gynecologist appointment went really badly, even though the doctor was very…

Of course they won't be in Kansas City until after I've moved. :(

And I thought I was the only person who took a first date to that one!

What movies or games do you guys use to feel better when you feel truly awful? I've been kind of careening back into unwanted thoughts of suicide/self-harm and it's not a fun time, but I can't distract myself.

At the very least it's got to be the most jellicle.

My parents were very religious when I was younger, which meant that my sister and I weren't really allowed to listen to music because mom and dad were afraid N'Sync would poison us against Jesus.

For sure! I've been able to do the job by myself since I was like? 19? But after a while your fingers start to hurt and my handful of experiences with another person never got me anywhere in the neighborhood, so I'm very open to technological assistance.

Ten Thousand Thinkpieces About the Vampire

I'm really glad that he and Ryan Reynolds have managed to get gigs that let them lean into their innate goofiness instead of pretending to be stoic Hollywood hunks. That's really been a career and image game-changer for both of them.

Which bone isn't a sexy one?

Oh my god. Tampons are another recent addition to my universe and, again, life-changing. It's milestones like that that make the vajourney worth going on.

As I understand it, Sir Ian McKellen doesn't take vagina-related requests of any kind.