Was today a bad relationship day?

If you regularly drink in the evening, water it down or choose low alcohol drinks. Or cut out drinking during the week and just drink at weekends, when you're not so likely to have had a hard day. If you think you may be out of control with alcohol then contact Alcoholics Anonymous.

Illness
If one or both of you has been ill, this can make you ratty. The classic is when first one, then the other of you, goes down with flu and thenboth are weepy and neither gets well looked after. This is disaster time.

If you can draft in help from friends and family, do it - don't be proud. If you can't, then take things easy and expect to feel tearful and low. If one or both of you are down for more than two weeks, see your GP. It could have turned into relationship-rotting depression.

Hormones
Your hormones can make you feel bad and feeling bad will affect your relationship. Whether it's PMT, pregnancy blues, postnatal depression, the menopause, or medication hormones such as the pill - you need to avoid hormonal imbalance. Get help from your GP if you feel your hormones are causing you problems. The website Womens-health.com is very useful.

Next page: Troubleshoot bad days for good.