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Three years ago I sought out-of-state treatment for alcoholism. While my family supported my recovery, they didn’t want much to do with me afterward, and, with no money after treatment, I couldn’t afford rent in my hometown. But their lives improved so greatly without me around, not to mention their relationships with each other, that I was happy being alone. So I threw myself into my work and began making a decent living through self-employment. After two years, I was finally making enough to move back to my home state. Then everything fell apart. See, while my brother has always been the responsible one, he’s arguably been as entitled as I. When…

Generally, my boyfriend, “Greg” and I have a great relationship that is heading in a serious direction – we love each other, get along great, have talked about marriage in the future, and are planning to move in together, but an issue has come up that I need advice on. He has a large group of friends from high school that hang out together a lot (mostly guys and then their spouses). This is a fun group of interesting people that I’ve also gotten to know pretty well through the course of our relationship, and I now consider several of them to be my close friends as well. A good chunk of…

My girlfriend and I have split up after three years. We have a 1-1/2 year old son. We split up because I am emotionally detached and she is an extremely emotional person. The breakup was 75% my fault and I accept that. I know what’s wrong with me and I have been seeking help. It’s been about two months since we split, and she is seeing someone new who has been in and out of the court system and is a known alcoholic and drug user and uses women and chucks them, so to speak. She hasn’t let him around my son or my stepdaughter yet, which is good, but after two…

My boyfriend and I have been together almost three years, with a few breakups in between. The only thing I wanted for Christmas was a key to his apartment. I felt like the key would show he trusts me and is committed and also has faith that we are starting fresh and not going to be breaking up again this time. He got me a ton of nice expensive gifts last night, but did not give me the key because he felt there is too much emphasis on the key. It really hurt me because he has never said he loved me and this key was the one thing giving me hope…

My fiancé has an ex whom he met after she had just given birth to her second born. They dated for two years, broke up, and then she got into another relationship and gave birth to her third-born son (all her kids are from different men and she is currently a single mom). My fiancé has continued taking care of the kids to date. The mother of the kids has, on various occasions, asked my fiancé to cut off the relationship between him and the kids, but he is reluctant to do that. He says the kids call him “Dad,” because he has been in their lives since they were young and…

I’ve met a really great woman online, and, before meeting face-to-face, she had sent me pictures of herself — both taken a few years ago as well as recent ones. I am VERY attracted to how she looked when she was younger. She did tell me that she gained about 40 lbs. when she caring for her ill mother and wishes she was skinny like she used to be. We have amazing conversation, spending hours on the phone talking, and I really like who she is as a person. She seems to possess qualities of exactly what I would want in a partner; however, I am not sure if I can get…

My four-years-younger, 27-year-old boyfriend of one year ended our relationship six months ago because he felt he was invested in our relationship and I was not. I was not completely blindsided by his decision as we had discussed on two separate occasions my inability to be more accepting of his love and to allow myself to be more vulnerable, but I was still shocked and deeply devastated by his decision. It appeared at that time, with his display of physical emotions, that he was also devastated. During our relationship he was the most amazing person I have ever been with. He is everything I could ever dream of, but I was silently…

I’m 21 and my boyfriend of six years is 24 and we have had A LOT of issues the past years but I always forgive him because I love him. Now I’m ready to move out of my parents’ home and have my own space and it seems like he doesn’t have his money together to move in with me. He lives at home and I just don’t understand how he’s always “broke.” I even tried helping him by showing him how to save and keep track of his bills, but he’s still broke, so I’m moving alone and he’s staying at home. My question is: Do I let him spend the…