Are you constantly worrying over where your partner is at 10 p.m. at night? Does he or she continue to grapple with drug or alcohol problems despite the fact they've pledged time and time again to quit and seek treatment? Have they done something to suggest they're not capable of being trusted, like cheating on or stealing from you? Do they constantly pick fights for no apparent reason? If this sounds like your relationship -- one with the flair for the dramatic -- then something isn't right. A romantic relationship shouldn't keep you on edge all of the time. You should not have to fear your partner's next move given their penchant for chaos and unpredictability. Now, no one's perfect, of course. We all make mistakes. We all let the other person down from time to time. But it certainly should not be an everyday occurrence. In fact, a partner is the one we often go to for comfort; they, of all people, bring a sense of stability to our lives (at...

Apologies don't mean anything if you continue to do what you claim to be sorry for . Saying "sorry" rings hollow if you persist in your unsavory behavior -- whether it's cheating on your spouse, furtively stealing money from your employer, or drug/alcohol abuse. I firmly believe that some people apologize as a quick way out; in reality, they have no intention of following through. Deep down, they're really not sorry. And your support can only go so far when the person can't help but fall off the wagon time and time again. Eventually, you reach a point where nothing short of counseling is in order. I only wish the word "sorry" weren't used so loosely. It's kind of like those who go around telling people they love them after dating them just a few weeks. Say what you mean and mean what you say. As I've stressed in earlier posts, words mean nothing unless you back them up with concrete actions. For example, if you say you'...

Ironic that I would create a post about this on Thanksgiving of all days, isn't it? But I find it a germane topic in light of the fact that many of us won't be happy when we step on the scale tomorrow morning. In fact, studies show that many people decide to go on diets the day after Thanksgiving as a way of mitigating the damage. Whether they keep the diet when Christmas and New Year's come rolling around is a different story. Here's my trick to losing weight: The best way to exercise self-control is to ask yourself how many calories eating that scrumptious slice of pizza would set you back. The key is to mull this over before you even put the food on your plate. If you do it the other way around, you'll feel as though you've committed to eating it ("it's on my plate already -- might as well eat it) and will feel bad putting the slice back in the box. Now, that doesn't mean you can never "cheat" once in a while. After all, experts...

My wife and I went to a family get together at her parents' house last night, where one of her brothers and two of her sisters-in-law got completely wasted. Her family knows full well that neither my wife nor I drink. It's not as if I've never tried. I've tasted a slew of drinks and have found all of them, with exception to the fruity daiquiri, to be almost intolerable. I simply lack the taste buds for alcohol. As for my wife, she likes only a couple of drinks, but for the most part refrains from drinking as well. As you can expect, this doesn't exactly sit well with them. For years now, they've made every attempt to get us to take a few sips at every gathering. The pressure to drink last night was more palpable than usual, ostensibly in light of the fact that my wife and I are now married and I am "part of the family." I fret at the pressure society puts on people to conform to what everyone else in the group does. When it comes to drinking, I t...