Q: For some time now, everything seems to have been falling apart. My father left when I was four and my mother remarried a few years later to my stepfather. My stepfather had an alcohol problem: every time he drank, he verbally and physically abused my mother, even after my mother became pregnant with his [...]

Q: I haven’t had a close personal relationship since I was around 25. I stopped because I kept seeing a pattern in my relationships I did not like — specifically me and my actions. The issue was that I was not consistent and I could see the hurt this was causing. I ‘blew hot and [...]

Q: My boyfriend and I have been together for 16 months, and I love him more than anything. (We are both only 17.) I have never told him a lie that would hurt him, not like the one he told me. He was in Mexico this past summer for two months and he had a [...]

Q: I was living with an alcoholic for three years. Life was very bad — from one crisis to the next. I supported him through various rehabs and psychologists, but he never made a serious attempt at recovery so eventually I had to leave. We did have a reconciliation a few months later but that [...]

Q: My son is now 29 years old and still living with me. He recently graduated from a trade school but seems to have no interest in finding a job in that field. I supported him through school, as he claimed he couldn’t find a job in the area. He has had addiction problems in [...]

Q: My husband is usually a very calm and quiet guy. He has gotten drunk lately and gets violent toward himself: he repeatedly punches himself in the face and punches the concrete. He sobs and has also said a few times that “it would be better if just killed myself”. He comes from a good [...]

Q: I’m a 19-year-old college student who has OCD and anxiety disorder. After a night of binge drinking on a Thursday night (about five days ago), I woke up and felt more anxious than I’ve ever felt before. I constantly felt like I was on the verge of a panic attack for that entire day [...]