Apparently, they were Too Drunk to Fuck. I'm glad he was able to provide a reasonable alternative in her time of need.

Thank you! And thank you for saying that I am my first priority - in my family, saying this is frowned upon and you are not supposed to put yourself first, especially not when it comes to the parents. So, I struggle with INTENSE guilt whenever I decide to set up radical boundaries as a means to protect myself.

This is all very good and helpful advice. I do think my mum and especially my very zen stepdad will probably be supportive. Of course, my mum is kinda her own little minefield in many ways, but that's a whoooooole different story...

that's awful I am so sorry I wish I could help. I wonder if you could contact a high profile journalist and see if can fund they can start a kickstarter or something? Neither of you deserve this I hate how the courts can be so cruel.

Agreed that you should write a nice thank you card.

Scotland is very beautiful and very boring. Ha, but I do like that telling my friends and family in the US that I can see N. Ireland from my bedroom window on clear days. :)

Also, also, we're moving in July/early August at the latest. My fiance is working on his post-graduate diploma in education (to be an elementary school teacher. He's so sweet and patient <3 ) at the moment and his university is 30 minutes from here. We have a very very inexpensive living situation at the moment,…

maybe cult is the wrong word. Exclusive club?

I won't say it is done yet but we are getting there...

Haha this suggestion actually made me laugh out loud! I am working on an MSc in Information and Library Science at the moment (none of them get this. "Don't librarians just re-shelve books?") so I can just imagine their faces if I was like, "Oh yeah, I was trying to calculate page rank scores in my head. What are…

Wait. What? This comment needs an apostrophe, because at first, I was all, "Pennylane's sister is so silly, cutting off a kitten's whiskers.", like that's a totally normal kid thing to do, but at the end, where you say "...the poor dears really had to work...", well, now I'm concerned. B/c it seems insane to cut…

you could suffer it by proxy - as in, someone in your family could be intentionally making you sick to get attention.

Classic painted black sheep/painted black child. The golden child always needs a scapegoat!

This. Talk to your doctor, get peace of mind. Don't let her undermine you getting healthy. I also have a fucked, dysfunctional family that was big into invading my privacy. If you can, take a break and get some distance. Make an excuse (big assignment? Told to by your doctor? Friend needs your help so you are going to…

Thank you for writing! That was a really kind message and so glad to hear how helpful CBT has been for people. I am working on the whole therapy thing. I've had a few evaluation appointments so far and I leave obsessing about how the psychologist must think I'm so dumb and I feel guilty just sitting and talking…

Does anyone know why a cat's whiskers will break off? I'm not talking about when they shed one and it's the whole thing. My Wally has some whiskers that are totally fine, and on the other side they're all broken off to at least half their normal length. Any ideas?

That story is wild.

Kinda hate saying this but based on that story, leaving sounds like a superb idea.

So my fucking asshole of a husband. Ok. So I passively aggressively posted this picture of him on Facebook taking a nap (he takes a nap every day, and in this instance, he slept until noon, then went to nap at 4:30), and he got all pissy about it. But instead of asking me verbally to take it down, he sent me a private…

the repair guy is here right now! Fortunately, he likes us. Hub and him are both from Nova Scotia. Maritimes in Canada, bit like a cult.