Relationships
Keeping your cool when your other half is pushing your buttons may be aggravating. But it’s key to learning to communicate with your spouse better. Be honest. There’s nothing like a heated adrenaline rush to make you feel liberated and justified when you’re angry. All those pent-up aggravations you’ve been stuffing behind a smile? All…
Everyone hates to be criticized. Yet, for some reason, couples often feel licensed to belittle, berate, badger, and blame each other in ways they’d never do with friends. Criticism in marriage relationships is so common it makes the adage “intimacy breeds contempt” unshakeably rock solid. Why do couples default to critical behavior despite knowing deep…
Everyone hates to be criticized. Yet, for some reason, couples often feel licensed to belittle, berate, badger, and blame each other in ways they’d never do with friends. Criticism in marriage relationships is so common it makes the adage “intimacy breeds contempt” unshakeably rock solid. Why do couples default to critical behavior despite knowing deep…
People stay in unhappy marriages for a lot of reasons. You may be in one yourself. But when an unhappy marriage leads to infidelity, it’s time to lift the veil of denial and take a good hard look at what’s going on. And what you’ll probably see first is fear. Fear can cause people to…
The shock of discovering an affair is a big deal. Your world turns upside down; you feel shaken to the core. Strong emotions flood you and you might feel overwhelmed and afraid you’ll never feel like yourself again. Be assured that you will get through it, but it’ll take time, a support network, and large doses of self-care to get you through.
Infidelity changes you. It just does. The betrayed, the betrayer, the marriage — everything morphs. Surviving long-term infidelity, however, is particularly exacting. From admission or discovery to atonement to acceptance, the long-term affair is an inevitable call to action. As if a “moment of indiscretion” or “lapse in judgment” isn’t bad enough, long-term infidelity is…
Depression affects 1 in 6 people at some point in their lives. And it affects every aspect of their lives. If an unhappy marriage leads to depression in one spouse, the marriage itself is considered depressed. In an indirect way, depression is actually contagious. Because depression in marriage can be caused by emotional distancing, avoidance,…
Marriage is supposed to be that one sacred place where you can be yourself and speak freely. But when you’re afraid to communicate with your spouse, your relationship and home life can feel more like a prison. It’s not uncommon for one or both spouses in a marriage to have difficulty being assertive in their…