Q: I’ve been dating a guy for seven weeks and I thought things were going well. We are both 27, so past being an adolescent (I would hope). He just spent a week at the beach with his family, and since then has been very short and unresponsive in his texts. I have called him a few times, and he has not answered. We were planning to go to a barbecue, and he’s not responding about plans. I’m worried that maybe he’s going through something, and I don’t know how to approach it.

A: I am sorry. This doesn’t look good. And no, he’s not laid up in a body cast from skimboarding gone awry – he’s purposely distancing himself from you. He is likely taking the coward’s way out and fading out of your relationship, which makes me hope you can come to understand that you deserve better.

It’s true that something could be going on independent of you that is throwing him for a loop, temporarily silencing him. But if he can’t bring himself to talk to you about it, or doesn’t respect you enough to clue you in on what’s happening, that seems a pretty bad prognosis as well.

Q: My 18-year-old gave birth four months ago and moved in with her boyfriend. He is isolating and reclusive, and we never see the baby on weekends. The day of the birth, he told my daughter he didn’t want anyone in there but him. We are outraged he has so much control over her. She has no friends. She wants to go to nursing school in August, and I have a sick feeling he is going to be possessive and jealous and ruin it for her.

A: Your concern is well-founded, as your daughter’s boyfriend’s desire to isolate her and the baby is a classic alarm bell of controlling behavior.

The fact that she doesn’t have other friends is probably the most ominous sign of all. Be there, at all costs, for your daughter. Build a relationship with her child, and persist in showing your love and support in any way you can. Be the consistent reminder of her worth and potential and her ties to those who love her. But don’t attack him to her, which could drive her away further – be the positive, unwavering alternative to him and show, don’t tell. And if things get ugly, check out thehotline.org for more support.

Andrea Bonior, a Washington-area clinical psychologist, writes a weekly relationships advice column in The Washington Post’s Express daily tabloid and is author of The Friendship Fix. For more information, see www.drandreabonior.com. You can also follow her on Twitter: @drandreabonior.