People are being forced to stick it out. And this might just be the silver lining of a bad economy. A report by the Center for Marriage and Family found that "among those who rated their marriages as very unhappy, almost eight out of 10 who avoided divorce were happily married five years later." © 2008 - Brianna Sylver - All rights reserved
The question is, how did these couples turn things around? What contributed to them becoming happier and more fulfilled by one another in the long term? Another article posted at Couples Company states that these couples were able to avoid divorce because they:
- Outlasted their conflicts rather than resolving them. Many stresses connected to children, finances, job problems, depression and even affairs just eased on their own.
- Worked on their relationship. They resolved conflicts, improved communication and found more effective ways to navigate through problematic areas.
- Found ways to improve their personal happiness through other interests and outlets that were not harmful to their marriage. This in essence lowered the partners' expectations of each other to be the only source of happiness.
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Other food for thought: I don't know if this is true for everyone or just my parents, but after 26 years of being divorced they both will say that they could have and should have worked it out. Having a family separated by divorce was more difficult and painful than they could have known prior to the divorce. Writing this also makes me wonder how many people that are divorced once also go through it again only to find the problems they are having are within themselves or some communication difficulty.
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