Around the turn of the century, Dr. Roth designed a web page and invited readers to ask questions. Over the next several years hundreds of email letters arrived. She gave advice and information to people who did not know where to turn for the resources to solve their problems. Much of that advice and information could be helpful to others, so Dr. Roth compiled the letters and her responses into this book. The letters are unchanged except to clarify their message and safeguard confidentiality. Names, geographic locations, and other details that might identify the writer have been changed. Although many of the letters may seem incredible to the reading public, Dr. Roth believes she has eliminated any frankly bogus letters. Truthfulness has a certain "ring" to it, which is missing from letters written in jest. Every entry is from a legitimate email message that she received. Dr. Roth hopes her readers find some value in it.
About the Author: Lorraine Sharon Roth, M. D., received her Medical Degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. She completed her residency in Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and a Fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina. After serving as Director of the Alcohol Treatment Center in Durham, N. C., Dr. Roth practiced in the tri-county mental health agency based in Chapel Hill, N.C., before moving to the Chicago area with her family. She has been on the staff of the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in North Chicago from 1989 to the present, spending 1989-91 assigned to the Naval Hospital-Great Lakes. Dr. Roth served as Acting Head of the Department of Psychiatry at NHGL during the last six months before transferring to the VA Medical Center in North Chicago in 1991. She served as Acting Chief of the Department of Psychiatry at the North Chicago VA Medical Center from 2001-2003. She has consulted at various times for the Illinois Department of Corrections facilities for adult women in Dwight, Ill.; adolescent girls in Warrenton, Ill.; and adolescent boys in St. Charles, Ill. Currently, Dr. Roth consults at the Cornell Contacts Interventions School for addictions rehabilitation of adolescent girls. Dr. Roth has published more than two dozen articles, letters, and book reviews. She is a Department Editor for the psychiatric journal Current Psychiatry, and is also a reviewer for the "Books" section of the Chicago Sun-Times. In addition, she has illustrated the books written by her husband, Henry J. Roth, Ph. D., including Climbing Jacob's Ladder: Teaching and Counseling Orthodox Students and Tales from Time-Out.