Will Your Marriage Survive Tough Times?

We all face difficult times. When the storms of life hit, how will they affect your marriage? What can you do to make sure your marriage will survive tough times?

11 years ago, Laura faced the loss of both of her parents.  Talk about surviving tough times!! Losing Laura’s parents within 9 months of each other was especially hard on her and our marriage.  She would just sit around the house every day, hardly saying a word, not motivated at all.  She quit her job, and continuously complained about everything from the kids to the house.  If I suggested she start grief counseling, or that she even try sending out some resumes, she would take that as criticism and storm out the door.  Eventually she found work, which helped our finances. But still there was distance between us that wasn’t there years ago.

How would your marriage fare in facing such traumatic times? Would it survive?

For Better or For Worse

Sooner or later most couples face a test of their marriage vows: a serious automobile accident, the loss of a job, a diagnosis of cancer in the family, a house fire, the death of a loved one. Going through tough times can leave a husband and wife feeling closer and more committed to each other than ever before, or it can sever their relationship.

The key to helping your marriage survive tough times is to make sure your relationship is built on a strong foundation before hard times strike.

Some couples come through a crisis and feel that it strengthened the bond between them because they conquered the problem together, but in most cases, unfortunately, tragedies tend to drive husbands and wives apart.

You see, it’s during tough times that couples often do the things that tend to undermine their marriage, just when they need each other the most. When couples are under a lot of stress, they tend to only do the necessary things for day-to-day survival, and their relationship fades into the background. They focus all their time and energy into the crisis and don’t have any energy left for their marriage. Eventually they may get worn down to the point where they feel isolated from one another.

If you let a stressful situation dominate your life, that’s when it’s easy to start thinking your mate is not doing his or her share of the couple’s responsibilities and begin keeping score.

Who’s Counting?

Keeping score is one of the worst things you can do, because marriage partners rarely keep score fairly.  You usually see everything you do that’s positive in the relationship, but only a fraction of what your partner does. If you start keeping score, even if you’re totally accurate, you’re going to end up resenting your partner before too long.

Along with score-keeping often comes blame-placing. Pointing the finger is the symbol of a couple who’s under a lot of stress. It’s easy for couples facing a difficult situation to start thinking each other is not pulling their weight, that one’s doing more, being more responsible or working harder than the other. But all that does is create a sense of divisiveness. It ends up me vs. you and you’re not doing enough.

Marriage partners blame each other for problems, in an ill-advised attempt to try to gain some control over a situation. Oftentimes when terrible events happen in life, what makes you feel the worst is the fact that you have no control over what happened.  Blaming can be a way of gaining some control.  If you can at least point the finger at your partner, then that makes some sense of the situation rather than it just being a random, uncontrollable event.

It doesn’t have to be a negative experience such as the loss of a job, health problems or a natural disaster to create marriage stress. Even predictable, life-in-progress events such as the birth of a first child, job promotion or retirement can strain a relationship.  Any kind of change that requires the individual and the family to reorganize is going to mean a certain amount of stress.

Every married couple is going to have its share of stressful situations. Obviously, you want to use tough times to draw closer to your mate and build a stronger marriage, rather than let a tragedy create a wedge between you and your spouse. The crucial factor is the degree to which you and your mate can handle stress and how well you work as a team.

Here are some ways we put together to help strengthen your relationship and keep your marriage intact when the going gets rough:

Work Together

Talk matters out.

Be willing to share your concerns, fears and hopes without criticizing or judging.  For a couple to work as a team, they must know what each other is thinking.  The longer you wait to talk to your spouse, the greater the chance of your feelings being buried under the rug and never being addressed.

Ask each other for ideas to improve the situation. Think in terms of presenting a united front against the problem, rather than allowing the problem to divide the two of you. Talk about out how you can work together to ease the stress.

Accept each other’s differences.

When you talk to your spouse about the situation, you may be surprised at how differently he or she sees things. “It’s a big mistake to think your mate sees everything the same way you do.  The same event may make one person angry or frightened, while the other is hurt or depressed.  Each person has his own perspective. Learn to respect your spouse’s opinion, even when he or she sees things from a different point of view.

Avoid finger-pointing.

Fight the urge to keep score, cast blame or say I told you so. Stop and think about the advantages and disadvantages of blaming.

There are some temporary advantages that can make you feel better about your own role in the situation.   The disadvantage is that if you blame, you’re probably going to get blamed back, and you’re going to feel like adversaries instead of teammates.

Rather than point a finger, you should protect each other from self-reproach and criticism. Reassure your mate by telling him or her: “I know you did all you could do,” or “This could have happened to anyone.”

Worst-Case Scenario

Keep the tragedy in perspective.

Distinguish your fears of the worst-case scenario from what is likely to happen. People tend to think in terms of catastrophes when they’re under stress.  This tends to either freeze them into helplessness or have them rushing around in hysteria, which doesn’t accomplish anything.

Ask yourself, “What is the worst thing that actually could happen?” When you think things through and look at the evidence, often you’ll realize the situation isn’t as bad as you thought.

Be flexible.

Routine tasks and responsibilities may need to be rethought or reshuffled in an emergency. For instance, she goes grocery shopping once a week as part of her routine. When he loses his job and she goes back to work to help with the family finances, she asks him to help out by going to the market. If he ignores her request, this seemingly small matter can blow up into an argument.

Inflexibility often produces more problems than the stressful event itself.  Couples who survive best in a tragedy are those flexible enough to accept new roles gracefully.” Learn to view these new tasks as a challenge rather than a burden.

Seek help from others.

Make sure you get enough support from family and friends outside your marriage so that you’re not overly dependent on your mate for support. Don’t be shy about accepting offers of help from other people. A neighbor who brings over a casserole, offers to baby-sit or runs some of your errands may be giving you just the break you need.

Talk to other couples who have lived through similar situations. It’s usually encouraging to hear from others who have been through the same kind of tragedy and survived. One of the worst things you can do is isolate yourself and suffer alone. You need the support and encouragement of others.

Keep yourself active.

Don’t let the tragedy or negative thoughts dominate in your lives. Schedule activities to get your mind on something positive. Get together with friends and relatives. Do something fun with your kids. Plan a dinner party. Get involved with a new hobby. Take an exercise class. The key is “not to wallow in self-pity.” Take control of the situation before it takes control of you.

Make the Time

Plan for couple time.

Block out some time in your schedule, several times a week, to be alone with your mate and get away from whatever is causing you stress. Walk around the block. Go to dinner at a quiet restaurant. Share a pot of tea after the kids are in bed.

No matter how terrible the stress is, you should give yourselves a respite now and then. You need time to talk with each other, without the tragedy facing you, so that you can regroup your thoughts and say to your mate, ‘Yes, I’m tired,’ or I need a hug.’ When couples are under a lot of stress, they often have so much to say to each other but no time to say it.

Show your affection.

Make it a point to tell each other “I love you,” and say it often.  When you are in the middle of something awful, that is the worst time to just assume your mate knows how you feel.   It’s during the tough times that your partner needs the reassurance of your love even more.

Express your devotion through small acts of kindness. Put a note in his/her briefcase to say how much you appreciate them. Take the baby’s 4 a.m. feeding so she can get some extra sleep. Tell him you know things will work out and that you’re behind him 100 percent.  Acknowledge that she has had a rough day and offer to finish her chores. Small gestures like these can go a long way when times get rough.

Don’t wait for a crisis to build relationship skills.

Of course, you shouldn’t wait until times get tough to learn how to work as a team.   Look for opportunities when you’re not under stress to solve problems together so that when something terrible does happen you’re not suddenly trying to invent skills you don’t have.  Even when you’re trying to decide something as simple as what movie to go to, these are the same skills you are going to use when you must figure out what to do after your house burns down.

You need communication and problem-solving abilities such as openness, acceptance, understanding, flexibility, cooperation and kindness—in good times and bad. Use the carefree times in your life to build these skills so that you can draw on them when you need them most.   

Need to talk with a professional relationship coach? Contact Marriage Means Moore for a FREE Consultation!