Dear Amy: I have a very difficult and stressful relationship with my mother, and I don’t know what to do about it. I am now 19 years old. My mother is an addict and an alcoholic, and she missed out on much of my early childhood years because of it. When I was around eight, she finally sobered up, but she still has a multitude of psychological problems, most likely stemming from years of substance abuse, and she never really grew up. She only thought about herself.