Dear Dr. Gottlieb: My daughter is 19, and I have been a single mother for 10 years. My ex-husband has struggled with substance abuse for most of his life and recently left several treatment facilities before completing their programs. He is now on track. My daughter was very involved with her father throughout his treatment. […]

Ever since I became familiar with the story of John Nash, in some ways I identified with him. As a quadriplegic, I felt many parallels between his brain and my body. Because I have no sensation below my chest, I must be extra attentive to the needs of my body; I cannot take it for […]

Once again there is war in the holy land. Listen to the language, the words infused with hate. There is an old Jewish saying: “People plan and God laughs.” Perhaps there is a similar saying in Islam. The message is that we can never assume we know the outcome of something. But the phrase God […]

No one really knows the roots of April Fools’ Day, so I can offer a theory without too much fear of rebuttal. Almost every culture has a holiday in which people dress up, wear masks, and be fools. Notice I didn’t say act like fools. The masks give us permission to be the fools we […]

Every parent has heard a child say, “That’s not fair.” It is as though children monitor their world to ensure that it is just. Of course, most parents have responded to their children’s complaints with the words, “The world is not fair.” But we behave as if we don’t really believe what we say. Whenever […]

Nancy Fraim’s vow to do whatever it took to conquer cancer seemed to reassure son Mike, who was then 7, she recalls. When Jackie Block was 15, she got in her mother’s car one day after school and immediately knew something was very wrong. “I knew she had an irregular mammogram, but I didn’t think […]

Four years ago, when the doctor told me my father had congestive heart failure, I began to write his eulogy in my mind. It started this way: “The nicest man I ever met . . .” The problem was, I could never think of anything beyond those words. When my sister was diagnosed with a […]

Dear Dr. Dan: I recently lost my father to spinal cancer. I turned to God for help. I begged, pleaded and cried on bended knee for a miracle, but there was none. I am at a point in my life now where I am very bitter and angry. I feel betrayed by a God who […]