DEAR ABBY: I’ve been the stepfather of two girls for 18 years. They are 22 and 24 now. My wife and her ex-husband adopted them at birth. When they were 2 and 4, he had an affair and left them for a woman who had two children. Why do these two girls look at HIM […]

DEAR ABBY: I was an alcoholic. I have been sober since 1994. I live with my elderly aunt and assist her while working in ministry. Her son lives with us and is, basically, a hopeless alcoholic. He drinks all day and lies on the couch. I know that if this continues, it will be fatal. […]

DEAR ABBY: When my boyfriend found out I have the money to do it, he asked me to pay off his car. Now, because I said no, he won’t answer the phone or talk to me. I have helped him in the past, but he continues to ask me for money. I think he’s using […]

DEAR ABBY: I survived 17 years of abuse. I’m slowly healing and now in a healthy relationship I enjoy. My ex did what most abusers do in these situations: He isolated me from my family. He would force me to say mean things to my sisters and parents to keep them away and make them […]

DEAR ABBY: My dad, who is nearing 80, has been married to my stepmom, “Ruth,” for nearly 35 years. She has always been temperamental and controlling to a degree, but during the last few years it has become abundantly clear that she’s emotionally abusive to my dad. Twenty years ago, I moved to another coast, […]

DEAR ABBY: A couple of months ago, I moved from my mother’s into an apartment with a friend I had rekindled a high school friendship with a few years back. The first month in, I noticed she had eaten a few of my freezer meals, so I confronted her about it. She started crying and […]

DEAR ABBY: I come from a nice family. My siblings are thoughtful and kind, but one of my brothers is a conversational narcissist. He drones on for hours (if we let him) without asking a single question to engage another person. He sees nothing wrong with talking endlessly about his work and his acquisitions, which […]

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I are retired. A short while ago, a young couple moved in across the street. A few months later, my husband, who does yardwork for neighbors for extra money, started working in theirs. He never charged them for it, and even after they had the equipment to care for their […]

DEAR ABBY: In my junior year of high school, my girlfriend got pregnant. We married and had a son. Although our marriage was very rocky, two years later we had a daughter. I knew from the beginning she was not my biological child because of her blood type, but I loved her all the same. […]

DEAR ABBY: “Dana” has been my best friend since 1995. We did so many things together, until she had gastric bypass surgery three years ago. Mind you, Dana was never fat. She may have been overweight, but she was never morbidly obese. She never participated in any of the fun sports I did, such as […]