DEAR HARRIETTE: I have never been someone to have bad breath -- at least as far as I know -- but the other day I was participating in a meeting with a small group of people, and I noticed that whenever I was speaking, they would hold their hands up to their noses. They tried to be discreet about it, but I figured it out after a while.

To be honest, my mouth didn’t taste fresh. I should have brushed my teeth again since my mouth didn’t seem clean, but I was rushing to get to this meeting, so I didn’t. I was mortified when I realized that they were covering their noses because of me. After that, I angled my mouth down and turned away while talking just so I wouldn’t disgust them. When I had a chance I went to the bathroom and rinsed my mouth. Should I have done anything else? I was so embarrassed. -- Bad Breath

DEAR BAD BREATH: You probably consumed something the night before that didn’t move through your body efficiently. You should pay close attention in the coming days to see if halitosis affects you again. If so, you may want to get a medical checkup just to make sure that nothing more serious is going on. Bad breath can be an indicator of a medical condition.

Since you believe you didn’t brush your teeth well, make sure you are more conscientious about brushing, flossing and using an antiseptic mouthwash in the future. As far as what you should do if faced with offensive bad breath in the future, pay attention to how others in close proximity react to you. You were wise to angle your mouth away from them so that you weren’t unwittingly directing your breath toward them. You might want to keep mints or antiseptic breath strips handy. They can help neutralize bad breath in the moment.

DEAR HARRIETTE: I just learned that my co-worker had a heart attack. He is in his mid-50s and way fitter than I am. I was shocked. When I asked him a few questions, I learned that he comes from a family of people with heart disease, and most of the people in his immediate family died before they were his age or close to his age.

My co-worker seems to be taking this seriously, but he also admitted that he has worked two jobs for most of his life and he feels like he needs to keep doing that in order to take care of his family. He says he knows this could cost him his life, but he doesn’t know how to slow down. What can I do to help him make a different decision? He is married with young kids. I can’t imagine him dying. -- Saving My Friend

DEAR SAVING MY FRIEND: You can encourage him to think about the big picture. It might be tough to have fewer dollars to spread around, but if he is gone, his family will not just be without him, but also without any of his income. Encourage him to think about them and do whatever the doctor says to stay as healthy as possible. Retiring from one of his two jobs is something for him to consider.

(Harriette Cole is a lifestylist and founder of DREAMLEAPERS, an initiative to help people access and activate their dreams. You can send questions to askharriette@harriettecole.com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)

DEAR HARRIETTE: For the first time in eight years, I did not enroll my son in any type of summer camp or organized summer activity. He was tired from his first year in high school and did not want to go back to camp. He has had a few long weekends with his friends and two mini-vacations with our family, but mostly he sleeps and does little to nothing. He has to read a bit before school starts, and I’m having a hard time getting him motivated to do that. Clearly, I made a mistake giving him a break this summer. How can I get him energized before school starts again? -- Lazy Summer

DEAR LAZY SUMMER: Create an agenda from now until the end of the summer. Include daily reading for a specific period of time. Enforce bedtimes and awake times. Make your son get up, and give him a list of chores that he must do each day.

If you have the flexibility, take him places in your city where you can explore the local culture as tourists. Have him help you pick the venues so he is actively involved.

If he balks at first, point out that you realize it wasn’t smart for him to have the whole summer off, so you want to work with him now to discover meaningful ways to fill his remaining time off. Make it clear that there are no options, so he should jump in and help to make it fun. Look online for local activities that you can consider.

DEAR HARRIETTE: I am horrified to admit this, but I feel like a lost teenager. I am a middle-aged woman, and I am totally addicted to video games. I have at least three different games going at any one time, and in order to advance, I have to pay little bits of cash along the way. I tell myself I am not going to spend another dollar only to find myself clicking “yes” to another $10 here or $20 there. It’s crazy! But I am at my wits’ end about it. I pick up my tablet or phone whenever I have a few extra minutes and get absorbed into one game or another. Now I know why teens seem entranced by these games. I am, too. How can I curb my seemingly uncontrolled video game habit? -- Addicted to Gaming

DEAR ADDICTED TO GAMING: The marketers of video games are so smart that they have figured out how to suck people in and keep them there for as long as possible. You are right that it feels like an addiction. For many people, it is just that.

How can you take back control of your time and money? Put time limits on when you can handle your devices. Since you need your phone for talking, take the video games off it so that your temptation is removed. Keep them on your tablet only. Then keep the tablet in a central area of your home or workplace that is just out of reach. Give yourself windows of time when you can engage in your games. Set an alarm so that you know when your time is up. Force yourself to stop.

This is mind over matter. You can do it, but you need to make it hard to access the applications or else it will be extremely difficult to win this battle.

(Harriette Cole is a lifestylist and founder of DREAMLEAPERS, an initiative to help people access and activate their dreams. You can send questions to askharriette@harriettecole.com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)

DEAR HARRIETTE: I was raised in a conservative family and now work at a progressive media company where I create content that my parents do not approve of. I do not think we will be able to reconcile our ideological differences, and I’m worried that our relationship has been strained as a result. How can I maintain a good relationship with my parents when we fundamentally disagree on a topic that my entire career is based on? -- Creative Son

DEAR CREATIVE SON: Sometimes you have to agree to disagree. You can remind your parents that you love them and appreciate all that they did for you to bring you to adulthood. You also need to have the difficult conversation that explains that as an adult you have to make your own decisions. Make it clear that you understand that your choice of employment runs counter to their beliefs. You need to own your choice and be unequivocal about why you have made it. Tell them that hurting or embarrassing them is not your intention. At the same time, you need to live your life.

You can offer a truce, in the sense that you will live your life, promise to be the best person you can be and not flaunt your ideological differences in their faces. You can agree not to talk about your work but simply to enjoy one another when you are together or when you communicate.

As difficult as this seems, know that many parents and adult children do not agree on important issues. Your job is to help your parents love you in spite of your choices as you love them in spite of their judgment.

DEAR HARRIETTE: My boyfriend is French, and while I am fluent in French, I cannot understand him unless he is making an effort to speak clearly. When he is talking with his friends, my lack of understanding becomes an issue for me. When this happens, I feel really awful, but I do not know if I should tell my boyfriend’s friends this. Am I just being overly self-conscious? How should I confront them about this without deprecating myself? -- Not French

DEAR NOT FRENCH: You are an equal party in this relationship. It is fine for you to speak up. Next time your boyfriend and his friends are together with you and they start speaking so fast that you don’t understand, insert yourself and ask them if they would slow down a bit. State the obvious -- that, yes, you speak French, but it’s hard for you to keep up. Ask them if they would try to remember that you are part of the conversation and slow down just a bit so that you can participate more fully.

You can follow up by asking them to repeat themselves at certain points in the conversation if you believe you missed a salient point.

Privately ask your boyfriend to be more mindful of the fact that you sometimes have a hard time keeping up with the conversation when he and his friends speak fast. Ask him to help you.

(Harriette Cole is a lifestylist and founder of DREAMLEAPERS, an initiative to help people access and activate their dreams. You can send questions to askharriette@harriettecole.com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)