I hope your niece is okay, Robin. Not being able to do anything in situations like this is especially frustrating.

{{{Robin's niece}}} I hope you find the right words to say to the right people.

There are places where you feel like all the things that happened there should have left some sort of psychic imprint--places like the Tower of London or concentration camps. I felt kind of a shudder at Dachau, but it's hard to know whether that was just because of what I knew. I felt a somewhat different shudder at the sign that said "Dachau McDonald's." I suppose you couldn't ask them to change the name of the town.

If she's under 18, CAN she refuse the blood test? If she's using, the weight loss points to coke or meth...but the rest sounds like pot (although not the weight loss) and IMO teenagerhood, sulleness and pot go hand-in-hand.

Maybe it's not drugs as all, but an eating disorder?

I dunno.

Ugh, Robin I'm sorry. The classes and job thing probably make it worse because she's got something to, in her mind, prove she doesn't have a problem. I hope they can find a way to get her the help she needs.

Anne, that sounds like a good plan.

Robin, at least the therapist knows. That is worrisome. I hope the situation improves quickly.

Oh Robin. Hoping all the best for your niece. At least the family is aware of the problems and the probabilities and she's already getting help.

I hope the therapist can help, Robin. I really do think that it's a lot harder to be a teenager today than it was when I was young.

I think I've mentioned before I have a- I don't want to say bad reaction- but a reaction to really old things. I get vertigo if I'm alone in museums. My favorite bar in NO is hundreds of years old and I get dizzy and queazy walking down the stairs. It's overwhelming to me to think that hundreds or thousands of years ago, someone just like me or someone I know walked down those stairs or played with that doll in the case or walked past that frieze. There's some sort of connection with the rest of the human race, past and present, that gives me the spins.

I expected to be overwhelmed like that when I went to the Tower of London, particularly the spot in the courtyard between the Chapel and the Tower Green where Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, and Jane Grey were beheaded.

But I wasn't. I hate it when big significant things don't touch me.

But I wasn't. I hate it when big significant things don't touch me.

Me too. It's like not being blown away by that overhyped movie that everyone loves.

And on that note, I'm off to see Sideways.