Guides

Feeling trapped in a relationship has several causes and each needs something different. How to work out which walls you face and find the first door.

You left and now the pull is back. Why wanting to go back is the usual course rather than a failure, and what has to be true before it is safe to consider.

You love them and you are lonely in the same room. How to tell a mismatch between two decent people from unhappiness with a cause, or that is mostly yours.

Written for the person worried about their own behaviour. How to look squarely at what you do, what real change looks like from the inside, and where help is.

You have decided to leave more than once and the fear keeps undoing it. How to name which fear this is, and how people leave with a plan, not an announcement.

The mortgage is the reason you have not left. What a joint mortgage binds you to, how the law treats the home when a couple separates, and who to talk to first.

No spare room, no deposit, nowhere safe to stay. What UK law gives you if you are leaving because of abuse, how refuges work and who to ask first.

You feel flat about your partner and about everything else. How to tell exhaustion from a relationship that has run out, and a four-week way to find out.

Leaving a partner who controls the money, when you cannot see the accounts or picture paying a deposit. What it tends to mean, what to gather and where help is.

The house is quiet and not in a good way. Why couples stop talking, how to tell silence that has drifted from silence that is enforced, and what repair needs.

A partner who controls what you wear and who you see began with opinions that became rules. Why these come first, what UK law says and what it has cost you.

Living with a partner who is always low wears you down. How to separate their wellbeing from how they treat you, what you can carry, and what the NHS offers.

A partner jealous of your friends, your phone, your past and your family. Where insecurity ends and jealousy starts to run your life, and how you have changed.

Your partner says you are the problem and every row ends there. Sometimes they have a point. For the person being blamed and the person who may be hurting them.

When a partner threatens to hurt themselves if you leave, the threat may be real, a lever, or both. What you are responsible for and what to do if risk is near.

Everyone else sees charm. You see the version that comes home. Why a public face and a private one is a pattern, and where the people who will believe you are.

Your partner drinks and the promises hold until Friday. What the drinking is costing you, what real change would look like and where UK help is for you.

Every argument ends with you apologising and you are not sure how. Where defensiveness stops and something more deliberate begins, with a look at your own side.

Should I leave my boyfriend, when nothing on paper holds you and you cannot decide. How to tell a rough patch from a preview, and the question that counts.

Should I leave my girlfriend, written for anyone asking it, including women asking about a woman. How to tell a mismatch from a pattern and find your leaning.

Should I leave my husband, after years, a house, a pension and grown children. Why length changes the maths, not the answer, and how to find your own leaning.

Should I leave my wife, searched at night. Why men ask this later and more quietly, what the helplines do, and how to find your leaning.

Should I stay for the children, when you have counted the years. What children notice, what the evidence says harms them, and what is underneath.

You can tell their mood from how the key turns in the door. What walking on eggshells means when said about a partner, where to look first and where help is.

You have both said it, or one of you has. What children take from a home where the adults have stopped, and why fear changes the answer.