Below are two questions written to Harriette Cole (pictured enormously, above), the advice columnist for the New York Daily News. Later today I'll post the answers she gave. If anyone wants to try their hand at giving an answer in the meantime, I'll post your answer first. I'll bet you can do better than Harriette did.

DEAR HARRIETTE: My best friend is bipolar. Two years ago, he told me he was going into a depression and not to contact him until he contacted me. I waited a year and a half for him. All that time, I sent him cards and e-mails saying we were still friends.

Out of the blue, he contacted me six months ago. He is on a newly introduced medication. He says it feels better than what he took before. He is nothing like the man I used to adore. I don't know if this has to do with his being bipolar or if he's just a bad friend now. I resent that I waited a year and a half, only for him to become this selfish, self-centered person. Do you think this new medication has cured him, and his true personality is a selfish one? Alternatively, do you just think he is a bad friend?

Camille, Oakland, Calif.

DEAR HARRIETTE: I'm 13 and in a deep depression. I have felt this way for months and haven't admitted it before. I have feelings of hate toward myself. I have trouble sleeping. I eat about one meal a day. I have the overwhelming feeling of being alone. I feel like an empty shell of myself.

I need professional help, but my mother won't listen. She writes it off as me being "dramatic." She tells me I'm a normal 13-year-old and tries to make jokes about it, by pretending to cry and saying, "Boo-hoo." I need her to see that my problem is serious and need to see someone.

Brenda, Queens