You got married because you fell in love and had a dream of living happily ever after. But somewhere along the way, marital bliss turned to marital blah... or worse.
You might occasionally toy with the idea of calling it quits or half-heartedly attempt to work on your marriage. Instead of making any significant changes, what you end up doing is staying. You stick it out because the thought of doing anything different is too big to deal with.
It might seem like this is the path of least resistance, but did you know the consequences of staying in an unhappy marriage are greater, a lot greater than feeling meh about your spouse? The stress of an unhappy marriage affects you physically, mentally, and emotionally.
RELATED: 5 Unsexy Ways To Save Your Marriage When You're No Longer Happy
Here are 21 ways staying in an unhappy marriage affects your body, mind, and emotions.
11 purely-physical consequences of staying where you're miserable:
1. Weakens your immune system
2. Wounds are slower to heal
3. Increases your blood pressure
4. Increases your cholesterol
5. Makes you gain weight
6. Puts you at an increased risk for heart disease, cancer, arthritis, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and arterial calcification
7. Causes digestive disorders
8. Causes hormone imbalance
9. Causes poor sleep
10. Shrinks your brain
11. Kills brain cells and halts new brain cell growth
Although these risks apply to both men and women, they don’t apply equally. Around the age of 40, the impact of marital stress on a woman’s body is much greater than on a man’s.
5 ways unhappy marriage affects you mentally:
- Decreases your attention span
- Causes memory problems
- Puts you at greater risk for mental illnesses of all kinds
- Makes it hard for you to think and make decisions
- Increases your risk for dementia and Alzheimer’s
5 ways unhappy marriage affects you emotionally.
- Greater risk for depression
- More feelings of anger
- General feelings of anxiety
- Mood swings
- Impatience with yourself and others
Sublimation & escapism wreak havoc on the body
One of the biggest challenges everyone in an unhappy marriage faces is dealing with the problem.
People often choose self-soothing activities like smoking, drinking alcohol, drug use, gambling, impulse buying, obsessive technology use and over (or under) eating to help them cope. The problem is these behaviors exacerbate the risk factors the stress of your unhappy marriage created in the first place.
The impact of an unhappy marriage on an individual can be pretty scary, and it can be easy to say you'll stay in it for everyone else. But, your unhappiness impacts more than just you. It affects your spouse and your kids.
Hopefully, all this information is impactful enough for you to want to change the situation. But don’t jump to the conclusion that the only way to fix things is to divorce. Divorce is much more stressful than an unhappy marriage.
The place to start changing things is to get honest with yourself about what is and what isn’t working in your marriage.
Once you’re clear about this, you’ll also want to consider what you’re willing to do to change things.
After you know what you want (or at least have a better idea than you do now) and what you’re willing to do, it’s time to have an open, compassionate conversation with your spouse.
The goal of the discussion is to develop a plan so your family can stop suffering from the mental, physical, and emotional pain of an unhappy marriage.
Latest Stories
-
Power challenges persist due to government’s mismanagement of revenues – Okudzeto Ablakwa
38 mins -
Jordan Ayew injury not as bad as feared – Leicester City boss
47 mins -
Stonebwoy heads to North America for UP & RUNNIN6 tour
48 mins -
FDA explains extension of best-before date for ‘expired’ rice
53 mins -
Rebecca Akufo-Addo, Mahama storm Akuapem North as NPP NDC slugs it out
55 mins -
Fatawu’s injury a big blow for us – Leicester City manager
1 hour -
No MC has influenced pop culture in 2024 more than me – Portfolio
1 hour -
Kpando NCCE holds dialogue for Parliamentary Candidates
1 hour -
Bawumia solicits support of CSOs to tackle ‘entrenched interests’ in corruption fight
1 hour -
I’m looking forward to working with CSOs, research institutions; they have a lot to offer – Bawumia
1 hour -
The former illegal miner who became valedictorian: Eliasu Yahaya Bansi’s KNUST journey
2 hours -
Prof Opoku-Agyemang slams gov’t over supply of ‘expired’ rice to Senior High Schools
2 hours -
‘Expired’ rice: Lamens Investments GH¢100k fine was for regulatory violations – FDA clarifies
2 hours -
No student has been served unwholesome meals – Nana Boakye
2 hours -
Galamsey has left our river deities powerless – Fetish Priest laments
2 hours