DEAR ABBY: I am a 17-year-old girl who has been in a relationship for a year and a half with “Richard.” I love him with everything in me, but he is mentally and physically abusive. He is also addicted to cough medicine. I knew I should have stopped talking to him before we started dating, […]

DEAR ABBY: I am thinking about planning a “surprise” wedding for me and my fiance. We have been together for eight years and have lived together for seven. We put off the wedding for many reasons, chiefly the cost because those things are expensive. We do not want to just elope. The idea of having […]

DEAR ABBY: At what point is a relationship with a member of the opposite sex considered “cheating”? I have recently discovered that my husband was having a more-than-friendly relationship with a co-worker. He set up a post office box for her so she could write to him while she was away for an extended period. […]

DEAR ABBY: I was bullied from second grade all through school. In junior high the abuse was both emotional and physical, and it happened on a daily basis. My parents’ response was that maybe I was the problem — and if I wasn’t, people would stop picking on me. (That’s a letter for another day.) […]

DEAR ABBY: I’m 14 and for as long as I can remember, my family has never really been “together.” We exist with each other physically, but have never connected in a loving way. I can’t remember my father ever smiling at my mom or being happy. There seems to be an undercurrent of hostility or […]

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I are the proud parents of beautiful 4-year-old twins. After years of infertility, we found out that my husband has a low sperm count. Additionally, I have very few eggs. Ultimately, we conceived our miracles with IVF and the help of a sperm donor. We do not want to keep […]

DEAR ABBY: My wife and I have been married 14 years. During that time her mother has called every single day. Initially, I was OK with it because we were living in Florida and she was in Iowa. However, since we moved back to Iowa to be near her (we live three miles apart), she […]

DEAR ABBY: My brother-in-law, “Dave,” has twice kissed me passionately when my sister was not around. I made light of it and pushed him away. The third time it happened was when he came to my house to do a little repair job for me. That time he also grabbed my breast. I exploded and […]

DEAR ABBY: I’ll bet you’ve gotten a ton of mail about “Mike in Missouri” (March 15), who was worried about his wife’s declining sex drive. While your point about hormone levels is a good one, it could be something simpler than that. I am a wife who would love to have sex more often, but […]

DEAR ABBY: My problem is my mother-in-law and her abundant use of perfume. The last time she visited, it was so bad we had to open our windows to air out the rooms. (This was in January in Minnesota.) My husband addressed the problem with her when I was pregnant, but now that the baby […]