Marriage is one of the key pillars of our society and one of life’s most enviable milestones for many single people.
However, marriage has lately been falling out of favor around the globe. Divorce and separation rates are at an all-time high. More and more partners are feeling uncontented with their partners. And most importantly, 60 percent of couples feel unhappy in their relationships, while an alarming 40 percent have pondered leaving their partners.
While a lot has been done to uncover the factors that are leading to this unfortunate state, very little has been done to create awareness about the psychological effects that an unhappy marriage can have on you.
If you are struggling in your marriage but aren’t sure how it affects your mental health, here are five ways a failing or unhappy marriage can significantly affect your mental health.
Unhappy marriages are linked to stress and depression
Happy marriages have been found to reduce the risk of stress and depression.
However, unhappy marriages do just the opposite. The mental strain exerted by unhappy marriages often causes stress on their victims in the long run. When left untreated for some time, the stress quickly escalates into depression, and by then, the victim can barely function in their day-to-day activities.
Solving marriage issues as they arise instead of leaving them alone and staying unhappy should be your first priority if you want to maintain balance in your marriage and your personal life. If you need help resolving your marital issues, consider taking marriage counseling ASAP to prevent further damage to your relationship.
Failed marriages can cause low self-esteem
For a long time, the dilemma of whether to leave a failing marriage or whether to try and solve its problem has affected so many couples.
However, regardless of whether the unhappy marriages end or not, their effects on the self-esteem of the partners cannot be understated. Social scientists have consistently found that low-quality and unhappy marriages have detrimental effects on self-image. All of the lost arguments, constant fights, and harsh words received can affect how you perceive yourself, causing low self-esteem and feelings of low self-worth.
Increased risk of harmful behavior and substance abuse
People who have experienced stressful and unhappy marriages have a tendency to indulge in habits that are bad for their health and overall well-being.
This is usually their attempt at trying to forget the emotional pain that they have been harboring. Some of the common negative habits that victims of unhappy marriages pick up include gambling, smoking, and drug abuse.
These behaviors can be detrimental to your health if you let them develop into addictions. Also, in the long run, they may end up causing irreparable damage to your already unstable relationship.
Heightened trust issues.
Trust issues often occur in people who perceive themselves as victims in a bad marriage.
This could be victims of abuse (verbal, physical, or psychological abuse), unfaithful partners, or manipulative spouses. Once you learn not to trust your partner, it is very easy to let the same treatment pass to other people in your life, too.
Trust issues can create distance within friendships, parent-child relationships, and coworker relationships. The worst-case scenario is that you start losing friends, and your relationships with those closest to you start becoming sour. To prevent this, the best course of action is to start solving your marriage problems and seek marriage counseling to make the process easier and more efficient.
Adverse psychological effects on your children
Sour marriages often find a way to spill their effects on the children.
When both parents can barely stand each other, it is the children who suffer the most. And the effects on their psychological well-being can have long-term effects that define them even when they are adults. The children may develop self-esteem issues, stress, depression, anxiety, drug abuse, poor academic performance, and poor interpersonal skills.
The best way to spare these innocent young ones from the damaging effects of unhappy marriages is to seek marriage counseling.
Featured Image by Victoria from Pixabay
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