Dating Advice, Relationship Problems

When you began dating your partner whether months or years ago, you didn't anticipate that the future would be like this, he or she would ignore, make excuses to get out of doing things with you, make favorite relatives a priority, and accuse you of acting insecure or jealous.  All you wanted was a relationship with your mate and you didn't expect anything less.  However, these days it feels like you are all alone.  Your feelings don't matter, time spent together is unimportant, and when you so much as you bring up a conversation that sounds the least bit unflattering, you are deemed a trouble-maker by your selfish partner.  As long as you go along with his or her program, you are a "good" girlfriend, "great" boyfriend or spouse.  Well enough is enough! As much as you might not like to sit down and talk about your feelings, state consequences, or be critical about the way your partner is treating you, you will have to keep going to him or her about wha...

For some people it is hard to maintain friendships, because so many want to be lovers first and friends later!  If you have done this many times, you may have some personal issues that you have yet to deal with that might repeatedly move you to sleep with your so-called friends.  So what do you do to stop sleeping with your friends? 1.  Establish boundaries that let these people know, "Just friends, nothing more, nothing less!"   If you don't make up in your mind that you aren't going to sleep with every person who says they like you, then how are they supposed to respect the boundaries that you set?  For some lovers, you will have to let them go because they will do nothing more than keep tempting you especially when they can't seem to stop thinking about past episodes with you doing XYZ. 2.  Make love not war outside of the bedroom.   Simply put, you will need to deal with your disputes with friends apart from the place you la...

When Your Girlfriend Complains About Your Friends

When well-meaning family members and friends finally meet this person you have raved so much about they may be very skeptical at first. Sometimes their skepticism never leaves no matter how much you parade your new love in front of them. Some will be bold and others may be coy about how they really feel about your date. "He's no good...she is a slut!" They may tell you about what they think they know about the person and what they may have heard. Most likely, you will defend this person who has brought you so much joy. However, consider the source and why they feel the way they do. Is there any truth to their argument? I can recall a time when I was head over heels in love with a guy that I brought around my family. Everyone else seemed to like him except one person. She didn't have a man herself and she was known for being a gossip. Although she was right about him being "no good," she was also very wrong for sharing her opinion with everyone else...

Are Your Friends Hurting Your Relationship? Author: Richard Nicastro, Ph.D. You exist within a web of relationships. For instance, if your friend is going through tough times, you may find yourself feeling an emotional heaviness throughout the day, thinking and worrying about your friend. As this colors your mood, your partner may start to notice that lately you've been preoccupied and down. Since emotions are contagious, this will impact your partner in some way and her/his interactions with others may now be different as a result of what your friend shared with you. How is this relevant to your marriage or relationship? Your relationship exists within a larger social context, and your friends, coworkers, family, and even the society in which you live can directly or indirectly impact your relationship. Think of your relationship as one link on a never-ending chain of connectedness. This was evident with two couples I recently coached: A brief story of relationship isolation: Tad ...

I know why many people who beakup won't tell certain family members and friends the truth about why they broke up with their partner, in one word, FEAR. They are fearful of the "I told you so" comments, fearful of the way they will be viewed if they were responsible for the breakup, fearful that they will be told off, fearful that no one will listen, and fearful of what might be done to them for breaking up. So they develop a fantastic story, one that will make it look like it wasn't their idea to end the relationship. They will use the popular statement of, "We just couldn't see eye-to-eye, we couldn't get along..." Of course, we all know that there are two sides to every story, but let's be honest, which one will you believe? And do you really think that both people are responsible for the breakup? The truth is one usually started the "breakup ball" rolling and the other had no choice but to go along with it! Usually the one wh...