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Should I Spend Two Years Dateless?
DR. WALLACE: I'm 17, and the guy that I love is 19 and is in the military service. I love him with all of my heart and soul, and he says that he feels the same way about me. We constantly talk about getting married when he gets discharged in three …Read more.
The High Cost of Prom Dresses
TEENS: It's prom time, and millions of teens are preparing to attend the grandest of all school-sponsored events. As a senior at Emerson High School in Gary, Ind., the only money I needed to have a wonderful experience was about $75. I already owned …Read more.
You Could Be Behind Bars
DR. WALLACE: I'm 18 and so is Lori, my so-called girlfriend. We had been going steady for a year, but we broke up two days before we graduated. Our first nine months were super, but we had lots of problems the last three. The last straw was when she …Read more.
Congratulations on Your Grade-Point Average
DR. WALLACE: I will be graduating from high school in less than a month. I'm a very good student and have been accepted at Yale University. I will be attending Yale in September.
But I feel very disappointed that I was not selected as the …Read more.
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'Sniffing' Can Be FatalDR. WALLACE: I'm 15, and my boyfriend is 16, and I love him a lot. Jeff doesn't smoke or do drugs, but he does get high by sniffing fumes from hair spray and cooking sprays. He sprays the stuff into a towel and sniffs the fumes. He says that he read somewhere that "sniffing" is safe and does not cause any harm to the body. Can you tell me if this is really true? I really need to know because I don't want Jeff to hurt himself. Besides being my boyfriend, he is also my very best friend. —Nameless, Flint, Mich. NAMELESS: Sniffing is not safe, and I urge you to do everything you possibly can to get your boyfriend to stop. This practice causes any number of physical maladies and sometimes leads to death. Fatalities can occur in a variety of ways. Some spray inhalants, for instance, coat the lungs so that oxygen cannot penetrate the sticky film, causing the inhaler to suffocate. And some users, in order to get more inhalant into their bodies more quickly, place a plastic bag over their head to cover the nose and mouth. This can cause loss of consciousness, with the bag still on the person's head. Once again, the sniffer suffocates. Sniffers lucky enough to avoid the worst, nevertheless, often suffer from such ailments as loss of coordination, loss of appetite, temporary loss of consciousness, drowsiness, sores on nose or mouth, loss of balance, double vision, eye pain, headaches, irregular heartbeat, shortness of breath, partial paralysis, numbness, insomnia, dizziness, nausea, chest pains, increased salivation and weakness. Sniffing is a dangerous but cheap way to get high.
Do all you can to encourage your boyfriend to enjoy his life free of "sniffing." If he can't do that, end the relationship. It might be difficult, but it is 100 percent necessary. This will cause him to choose between sniffing or continuing to enjoy your company. PREGNANT GIRL HAS AN OPTION DR. WALLACE: Please inform your teenage reading audience that adoption is an alternative available to them when confronted with an unwanted pregnancy. After reading a letter from a pregnant teen who felt her only choices were to have an abortion or become an unwed mother, I decided that I must write to you. Adoption has changed greatly over the years. Today, there are many groups and organizations available to help a teen faced with unwanted pregnancy to find loving adoptive parents for her child. She then becomes a giver of the greatest gift a person can give — a life — to a loving couple who cannot create life. As an adoptive mom, I am so happy and thankful to our teen birthmother for giving my husband and me a chance to be parents. —Mom, Michigan City, Ind. MOM: Thanks for reminding pregnant girls who are struggling to make the best choice at a difficult time in their lives that adoption to loving adoptive parents is a choice they should consider. Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@galesburg.net. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2013 CREATORS.COM 
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