A couple of weeks ago I found out that my two housemates in my three-bedroom shared house have been having sex for the past six months. Now their relationship has deteriorated. Two days ago they had a very emotional confrontation in our living room while I was watching TV. The insults and yelling caused me to lose the plot; I later had to watch the episode again. It has now got to the point where I have had to purchase my own toaster, so that I can cook sandwiches in my room, because the atmosphere in the kitchen is too tense for me to handle.
The arguments sometimes happen across the house and my room is in the middle. I can do nothing but listen to loud music on my headphones and hope that they will quickly calm down. I don’t know how much longer I can take of this – but the housing market where I live is not favourable to moving.
• When leaving a message on this page, please be sensitive to the fact that you are responding to a real person in the grip of a real-life dilemma, who wrote to Private Lives asking for help, and may well view your comments here. Please consider especially how your words or the tone of your message could be perceived by someone in this situation, and be aware that comments that appear to be disruptive or disrespectful to the individual concerned will be removed.
• If you would like fellow readers to respond to a dilemma of yours, send us an outline of the situation of about 150 words. For advice from Pamela Stephenson Connolly on sexual matters, send us a brief description of your concerns.
• All correspondence should reach us by Wednesday morning. Email: private.lives@theguardian.com (please don’t send attachments).
