Q: I am the 55-year-old twin sister of my brother, who still lives with mum. When we were about 17 years old he began drinking, and not a week has gone by since then that he hasn’t terrorised mum, dad and me. He has insane ramblings, his abuse is awful and he causes real terror. [...]

Q: I’m 19 years old; I was 18 when this happened. I had just broken up with my first love, whom I was with for over a year, so I was completely vulnerable and didn’t want to be alone. I met a guy right away and started dating him. About a month later, we were [...]

Q: My partner’s paternal grandfather sexually abused her as a child. For years she was the only granddaughter and kept this a secret, but when her aunt had a little girl, she didn’t want it to happen to her so she told her parents. She was twelve then. After that, she was blamed for not [...]

Q: I am 18 years old. I live alone with my mother in a large, four-bedroom house just minutes away from siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles. About six years ago we moved from California to Oregon. I honestly cannot tell you the reason for this; my only assumption is that my sister got knocked up [...]

Q: If an infant is exposed to loud, screaming arguments right next to him (usually in the arms of one of the people involved in the argument) and then usually becomes completely silent for several minutes, even if previously crying before the screaming began, what effect could this be having on the infant? Thank you [...]

Q: I’m a 17-year-old guy from Brazil. I have been dealing with some issues for the past few years. During all my childhood, my father touched me inappropriately. He didn’t actually rape me but he would ‘play’ with my genitalia. I didn’t like it and I wanted to fight it but he was stronger than [...]

Q: I was wondering if being an only child raised in a single-parent household could increase the likelihood of developing avoidant personality disorder. My father died just before I was two, and my mom never remarried. She wasn’t abusive in any way intentionally, but she wasn’t able to be around for me very much either. [...]