Ask
Dr. Truth
Ask
Dr. Truth
by Hall Monitor staff psychologist Sherrie Truth
Dear Dr. Truth: Here's one I bet little Miss Know-It-All can't answer: What is the meaning of life? I mean, why even bother? --Prophet Pete
Dear Pete: Well, you got me there, honey! But you know, that's really beside the point. I don't need to know the meaning of life to know when I see someone who doesn't have one! And by the way, that's Doctor Know-It-All!
Dear Dr. Truth: During the past few years I have noticed that my relationship with my parents has been deteriorating rapidly. They live quite a ways from me and I rarely get the chance to visit, and as months go by letters and calls have become few and far between. Now with the holidays here I'm really getting depressed about it. Any advice? --Don Ask, Don Tell
Dear Don: This is a problem that comes across my desk on an almost daily basis. It can be sad to watch a divide develop between relatives as time passes, but please realize this: it doesn't have to be that way! In therapy groups I have led in the past, I have developed a process I call "retro-anger distancing." Basically, it involves spending about 30 minutes a day focusing your thoughts on all the mean, awful, and embarrassing things your parents or siblings have done to you in the past. Remember that time your Dad mortified you in front of your friends by joking about how you used to wet the bed until you were eleven? Or how about the time Mom bought you that sailor outfit because you "looked pretty" in it? Or the time Sis, in a fit of vengeance, put a tampon in your jacket pocket, which fell out as you changed for gym class? By focusing on incidents like these whenever you have the chance, you will discover that you really don't love your family as much as you thought you did. In time, not only will you not really care whether you see them, but you will actively avoid any contact with them! Give it a shot. The time and money you save in unrealized visits to your family just may amaze you!
Dear Dr. Truth: Is Truth your real last name, or is it just some cutesy thing you dreamed up to get people talking? C'mon, give us the real scoop! --Shanda in the Great White North
Dear Shanda: Believe me, Shanda, I don't need a gimmick to get people talking! For your information, Truth is my actual legal surname, though admittedly, it wasn't always that way. When my ancestors came to this country at the end of the previous century, the family name was spelled Treuthshit. As you can imagine, this caused some embarrassment, and it didn't take long for Great Grandpa to shorten the name to Treuth. Later, it was simplified again to plain old Truth.
Questions for Dr. Sheryl Truth can be sent directly to the Hall Monitor.
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