Skip Navigation Link

Northern Wyoming Mental Health Center Inc.

Looking for Help?
Click Here for the Office Location Nearest You

Introduction to Family and Relationship Issues

Mark Dombeck, Ph.D.

image by woodleywonderworks (lic)

Welcome to our Family and Relationship Issues topic center. Whoever we are, we are all very much shaped by those who raised us, our parents and/or caregivers. We are the product of human relationships, and most of us spend our days within the context of relationships with other people. We need other people to be close to us in our lives, or we tend to get sick. Who we are is very much a function of where we have come from, and who we surround ourselves with.

Despite their vital importance in our lives, relationships can be very difficult to manage. We expect our intimate partners to provide for many of our needs, but often find that differing expectations, frustration, and a need to be right create conditions for conflict and erosion of intimacy. Angels though they may be, our children test us for weaknesses and we don't always pass. Our adult parents grow older and require care, placing a burden on our other responsibilities. A diverse set of communication and relationship skills is required if one is to successfully meet the challenges of family life.

Primarily, we learn how to be in successful relationships by experiencing them directly; by watching our parents manage conflict successfully and stay true to their loving union. Similarly, we do our best learning on how to become a good parent while being parented ourselves. Problems experienced in our early relationships are often expressed in our own behavior towards others (child abusers were often themselves abused). And vital though they are, relationship skills are seldom taught in school or other institutional settings. All of this adds up to the fact that many people end up making a mess of their relationships, in part because they never learned how to do them properly.

In this topic center, we've gathered resources to help you learn about relationship problems, and what is known about how to solve those problems. We offer information on common basic relationship issues, including marital and intimate relationship problems and parenting problems. We hope that you find these resources to be valuable.

 

Share This

Resources

  • Articles

  • Questions and Answers

    • Personality Disorder or Just a Horrible Person
    • Husband Jealous of my Friends and Family
    • Is it Just a Name?!
    • She's Lied About Everything
    • My Family is Ruining my Relationship With my Boyfriend
    • What Is Wrong With Me ?
    • My Boyfriend's Children Won't Accept Me....
    • Does my Boyfriend Have Feelings For His Ex Wife?
    • I Have Bulimia
    • Arranged Marriage
    • 225 more
      • When is Enough, Enough?
      • Breaking Up
      • Soon to be 15 Year Old Step Daughter Who is Physically Abusive to Family Members
      • I Have Everything I Ever Wanted. Why am I so Miserable?
      • Should I Stay or Should I Go?
      • Wife's Behavior
      • Step-Daughter is Deliberately Abusive
      • Is my Sister a Pathological Liar?
      • Lost in Limbo
      • 19 Year Old Daughter
      • Need Help in Building the Bridges
      • Lack of Affection and Intimacy
      • Is He Seeing Someone?
      • Marriage Question
      • Respect + Anger Managment
      • My Husband With Daughter......
      • Resentment-Controlling Wife/Passive-Agressive Husband
      • Getting Married, Stepsons With Awful Tempers
      • Adult Son Interferes with Our Relationship
      • Co-Dependent Mother
      • Can My Marriage Be Saved?
      • On and Off Relationship For Almost 10yrs
      • I Am Tired of Marriage
      • I'm His 2nd Wife. Am I Destined to Play Second Fiddle to His daughter Forever?
      • How do I Get my Husband to the Psychiatrist?
      • Is it Inappropriate to Call my Daughter...
      • Trying to Save 37 Years of Marriage With My Bipolar Husband
      • Alcoholism and Family
      • Bipolar Obsessive Thoughts and False Memories
      • Crazy Mother In Law Ruining Our Mental Health and Relationship
      • Caught In The Middle Caring For Elderly Parent
      • I am a Newlywed and Need Help
      • Husband's Relationship With His Children
      • Substance Abuse
      • Chronically Ill Non-Compliant 19 Year Old
      • Child With Possible Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
      • Obsession or Excuse
      • The Marriage Corner: How Can I Move Past This?
      • The Marriage Corner: Do You Think my Marriage Can be Repaired?
      • I am Only 26 Years Old
      • My Boyfriend Saved a Picture of a Girl he Slept With in Case we Split up?
      • Adoptive Mother of 3 Children - SunFlower
      • How to Handle my Mothers State of Mind?
      • Joyless
      • Should I Fight For My Marriage?
      • Homesick and Feeling Stuck.
      • Why Does My Wife's Old Boyfriend Bother Me?
      • How do We Get Her to Accept Us as Part of The Family?
      • Another Woman
      • Boyfriends Daughter
      • How do I Cope With a Parent Who is Trying to Ruin me?
      • Worried About 4-year-old with Depression
      • Same Views On So Much, but Can't Get Along As A Couple
      • It's Me or It's My Mother?
      • Considering Divorce After Several Deaths in The Family
      • Schizophrenia
      • Schizophrenic Relapse !
      • Please Help Me..
      • My 19 Year Old Daughter is Out of Control
      • My 19 Year Old Son
      • I Desperately Want to Make This Work
      • Help!!!
      • Marraige Life of my Parents
      • Is This Abuse and What Should I Do?
      • My Girlfriend's Family Is Ruining Our Relationship
      • I Feel Like I Have Failed - - May 20th 2010
      • Relationship With My Bipolar and ADHD Girlfriend
      • Huge Disapointment With My Husband
      • I Don't Really Care About Anything. What Should I Do?
      • What Should I do?
      • My Father, The Sociopath...
      • What is Wrong?
      • What Should I do With my 19 Year-Old Daughter's Anger Issue?
      • Dominating Mother
      • How to Help Our College Age Son with Depression and Addiction
      • Can My Marriage be Saved?
      • Personal Hygiene
      • Help Me Please. What is Going On With Me?
      • Parenting a Bipolar Child, Not Quite a Child, Not Quite an Adult
      • Am I Being Used?
      • Is This Jealous Behaviour Normal In a Child?
      • Grandson Behavior
      • Husband's Addiction
      • Help or Do Nothing?
      • Pregnant Again
      • Concerned
      • Are my past sexual fantasies dangerous and unusual?
      • It is finally an emergency. We need help. Please.
      • Trauma and Drama: Why are friends and family rejecting me?
      • Why is my mom following me around to take over my life?
      • Does my husband have bipolar although the doctors said he doesn't?
      • Fear of death and dying
      • how to ask if the pics are her?
      • Unhappy Marriage
      • Did I push them too much?
      • How do you turn your back on your 19 year old daughter?
      • What To Do With a Dysfunctional Past
      • SHOULD GRANDPARENTS INSIST ON SEEING A GRANDCHILD
      • My husband wants to leave me
      • My husband no longer believes
      • My Son's Problem
      • Why do I beat myself up over what they think?
      • Bipolar sister, Narcissist boyfriend
      • Understanding my son
      • Worried about my son
      • Child jealous of moms relationship with her new husband
      • This guy I bully
      • Is There Help Out There? Lonely Mother of Three
      • Am I Depressed?
      • Should I Give Up On This Marriage?
      • dealing with demanding mother
      • can you give me some advice please?
      • 17 year old running the house
      • Out of control 24 year old sister
      • My needy son hates my boyfriend. How can I avoid choosing one over the other?
      • voice in my head
      • two intelligent adults who feel they don\'t have friends
      • 19 Year Old Daugter--Out of control
      • 17 yr old refuses help with bi-polar disorder
      • Teen in Full Retreat
      • out of control 16 year old nephew
      • Depression? Bi-Polar? Personality Disorder?
      • i need help with my sister
      • Get Supported
      • Forgotten or just ignored?
      • Dealing with a family member's complete personality change
      • Mother showering & sleeping in same bed with 5 year old
      • Disbelief
      • Zoloft - good or bad
      • my little sister
      • Unattractive regardless, why bother?
      • Coping with Narcissistic Behavior
      • How to Deal with the Loss of Family
      • husband\'s anger
      • Did I Love my husband and still abuse him emotionally
      • I have a hard time making friends with other guys
      • How to communicate to a \'feeler\'
      • homesick
      • how can i control morbid jealousy
      • How can I open up and become my old self again?
      • Advice for my unhappily married friend
      • How can I tell the difference?
      • Cannot support old friend in her affair
      • Is Something Wrong With Her?
      • Need to find a reason for the abuse
      • Mom's Unlisted Number
      • How to help a Womanizing friend?
      • 'Extremely controling' wife and passive husband
      • A Habitual Liar's Lament
      • the way out is through the door
      • Drug Addict Son
      • Angry At Ex-Boyfriend
      • Violent Sister
      • When Will My Boyfriend Grow Up?
      • A Marriage Outside The Caste
      • Angry Mom
      • Seeing A Married Man
      • Disordered Family Member Behavior
      • My Roommate
      • A Mean, Verbally Abusive Woman
      • Stepson With Personality Disorder
      • Mom's Protector
      • Busted By A 5-Year-Old
      • Getting Along With Narcissistic Relatives
      • Possibly Molested Daughter
      • Dirty Niece
      • Helping My Sister
      • Congenital Laziness
      • Blossoming Paranoia?
      • Is Anxiety A Hereditary Factor?
      • Enmeshed With Mum
      • Hypochondriac Daughter
      • Abusive Father
      • Going Crazy
      • Self-Abusive Step-Daughter
      • (Wo)man In The Middle
      • Paranoid Depression
      • Withdrawn Brother
      • Dysfunctional Family
      • Paranoia
      • My Mother Is Ruining My Life
      • Cowardly Stepdad
      • Daughter's Violent Marriage
      • My Father Dislikes Him
      • Histrionic Sister-in-Law
      • Long-Distance Support
      • Personality Disordered Grandmother
      • Do I Tell My Children I'm Depressed?
      • Father In Romania
      • Mom's Venting
      • Unhappy In An Arranged Marriage
      • Toxic Parents
      • A Situation For Tough Love?
      • Avoiding Her Parents
      • Boarding School Blues
      • Depression Affects The Entire Family
      • Internet Relationship
      • I Want To Leave, But For The Children ...
      • Public Menace
      • Somatization and Hypochondrias
      • Self-Injuring Sister
      • Family Boundaries
      • Dealing with Divorce
      • Trashed House
      • Relationship Triangulation
      • What To Treat First?
      • Love Triangle
      • Problematic Parents
      • His Mother is Ruining Our Relationship
      • Managing Priorities
      • Time to Cut the Apron Strings
      • Mommy's New Boyfriend
      • Busy and Wanting
      • Over-Protective Mother
      • He's Not Himself
      • Jealous of My Fiance's Family
      • Young Love
      • Different Religions
      • My Husband's Daughter...
      • My Dad the Dictator
      • My Children Aren't Speaking..
      • Dogs Instead of Children?
      • My Wife is Depressed
      • Falling Apart
      • Problems with My Daughter
  • Book & Media Reviews

    • 12 and Holding
    • A Lethal Inheritance
    • A Parent's Guide to Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism
    • A Stir of Bones
    • Alone Together
    • Always On Call
    • Angels
    • Artemis Fowl
    • Bad Girls Club
    • Becoming Anna
    • 105 more
      • Being the Other One
      • Bowen Theory's Secrets
      • Boys Will Put You on a Pedestal (So They Can Look Up Your Skirt)
      • Breaking Point
      • Caring for a Child with Autism
      • Caring in Remembered Ways
      • Claws
      • Closer
      • Crispin
      • Daughter of the Queen of Sheba
      • Dirty Details
      • Divorce Poison
      • Empress of the World
      • Epileptic
      • Every Visible Thing
      • Family First
      • Family Therapy
      • Four Corners
      • Friction
      • Gandhi's Way
      • Georgia Under Water
      • Getting over Getting Mad
      • Getting the Love You Want
      • Getting the Love You Want Audio Companion
      • Happiness Sold Separately
      • Hope's Boy
      • How Families Still Matter
      • How to Keep Your Teenager Out of Trouble and What to Do If You Can't
      • I Don't Know How She Does It
      • I Only Say This Because I Love You
      • Imagining Robert
      • Inside the American Couple
      • It's Love We Don't Understand
      • Jakarta Missing
      • Jumping the Scratch
      • Last Chance Saloon
      • Life's Work
      • Live Through This
      • Love Sick
      • Loving Someone With Bipolar Disorder
      • Mad House
      • Making Babies, Making Families
      • Making Sense of Suicide
      • Making the Run
      • Making the Run
      • Mom's OK, She Just Forgets
      • My Heartbeat
      • Necessary Noise
      • Notes on a Scandal
      • Nothing to Hide
      • Orgasms
      • Out of the Dust
      • Planet Janet
      • Pop & Me
      • Raising America
      • Ray's a Laugh
      • Relationship Rescue
      • Reviving Ophelia
      • Rick Sings
      • Running with Scissors
      • Secrets of a Passionate Marriage
      • Sex, Family, and the Culture Wars
      • Someone Like You
      • Song for Eloise
      • Special Siblings
      • Staying Connected to Your Teenager
      • Staying Sane When Your Family Comes to Visit
      • The Arctic Incident
      • The Art of Misdiagnosis
      • The Awakening
      • The Bastard on the Couch CD
      • The Burden of Sympathy
      • The Corrections
      • The Corrections
      • The Dream Bearer
      • The Dulcimer Boy
      • The Einstein Syndrome
      • The Emotional Revolution
      • The Eternity Cube
      • The Hostile Hospital
      • The Inside Story on Teen Girls
      • The Little Friend
      • The New I Do
      • The Normal One
      • The OASIS Guide to Asperger Syndrome
      • The Rules of Survival
      • The Same Stuff as Stars
      • The Steps
      • The Twits
      • The Vile Village
      • The Virgin Blue
      • The Visitation Handbook
      • The Years of Silence are Past
      • Twisted
      • Ultimate Judgement
      • Understanding Marriage
      • Understanding the Borderline Mother
      • Unhappy Teenagers
      • Wasteland
      • What Goes Up
      • What It Means to Love You
      • What Our Children Teach Us
      • When a Parent is Depressed
      • Will You, Won't You?
      • Zazoo
  • Videos

  • More Information

    • An Interview with Dave Herz and Leslie Potter of Vive!