Developing a nurturing and happy marriage can be challenging, even in the best economic times.
It can be challenging to keep one’s marriage together when money is tight, and when economic times turn bad, when one or both spouses face the prospect of losing a job or have to live under the risk of an impending foreclosure, then keeping the marriage together can seem like an impossible task.
Financial Trouble And Broken Marriages
While many couples manage to survive financial challenges and can pull themselves out of debt, other couples have a much more challenging time.
The major mistake most married couples make is allowing financial trouble to become the centerpiece of their marriage. Yet this is precisely what happens when the weight of financial trouble enters the picture.
Debt and Depression
Reaching a breaking point
Debt and depression can spell trouble, especially if you hope to keep your marriage. Add aggressive debt-collection tactics to the mix, and your life can feel like it has turned upside down.
Collection Agencies
Harassment and manipulation
These days, it is common practice for collection agencies to harass and manipulate people into paying more on their credit cards by inferring that you broke the law or have acted dishonestly. The embarrassment of receiving such calls can and does take an emotional toll on a couple.
Impact on Physical and Emotional Health
Money trouble can also affect a couple’s physical and nutritional health depending on how well or poorly they have managed their stress. It is common to see a stressed-out partner engage in obsessive behavior that results in a bulimic or anorexic eating condition.
Spouses with a history of emotional illness or drug dependency are more inclined to return to these behaviors.
Debt and Suicide
Recent research on financial stress has shown that people who experience high levels of stress from growing debt are 20 times more likely to attempt suicide than those who do not experience this type of stress.
According to the American Journal of Epidemiology, financial strain accumulates from different and multiple sources of debt (see below) caused by unemployment, illness, and economic instability.
According to the research, people suffering from significant debt resulting in high-stress levels should be considered for medical assessment, management, and suicide prevention.
Common sources of stress-inducing debt include:
- Car loans
- Credit card debt
- Debt on mortgages and leases
- Personal loans
- Student loan debt
Keeping Your Marriage Strong In Troubled Times
Helpful Suggestions
- First, consider attending marriage counseling. An experienced family and marriage counselor can help you focus on strengthening the marriage while you and your spouse tackle ways of getting out of financial trouble.
- Try to stay calm and keep communicating with your spouse. It is easy to take your anger and frustrations out on each other. Instead, take that energy and focus it on creating an action plan that’s workable for both of you.
- Never retreat into yourself; stay active, positive, and engaged in your relationship.
- In troubled times, regular exercise is the first activity couples typically stop doing. Don’t make that mistake. This is when you and your spouse must let out the most stress.
- Try to encourage your partner to exercise along with you. Doing yoga is an excellent way of working out the stress and anxiety caused by unrelenting financial pressure.
- Finally, remember to be thankful for what you have in your married life. It is so easy to focus only on the negative.
Experts in mental health have demonstrated that how we look at our lives is how we live them. In short, we live what we expect to experience. So try to keep a positive and healthy outlook on your marriage, finances, and life.
