If you are living with an abusive spouse or domestic partner, you may feel very alone, afraid, and powerless. You may feel responsible or ashamed about what’s happening, concerned or convinced that your partner’s behavior is somehow your fault. You may be overwhelmed or even unsure whether what you’re experiencing is abuse. Here are…
From the wicked stepmother and cruel stepsisters in Cinderella to the Pollyanna portrayal of The Brady Bunch, to images we see on social media of exes who appear to be BFFs with each other’s new spouses (i.e., Katy Perry and Miranda Kerr)—cultural lore surrounds blended families. Some of it may be unhelpful or even downright…
The course of true love never did run smooth, as Shakespeare said. No relationship is perfect. Every marriage has ups and downs, bumps in the road, sticky points, issues, and conflicts that rear their ugly heads from time to time. No matter how much you love and enjoy each other, there are built-in challenges…
When you got married, you meant it to be forever. It wasn’t just a fairytale idea—you committed to it in good faith. And when it became clear that, despite your best efforts, you couldn’t salvage the marriage, the thing you never wanted to contemplate became unavoidable: you took the tough step of moving toward…
Every troubled marriage has its own unique set of factors that make splitting up painful and complicated. But if you’re considering divorcing a spouse who is suffering from chronic illness, there are additional layers—from practical, logistical, legal, and financial concerns to thorny emotional matters. There’s no question that chronic illness can take a heavy…
Maybe you’re going through a rough patch in your marriage. Maybe you’re already contemplating divorce. Perhaps, lately, you feel like you’re just going through the motions. You find yourself wondering: Is this all there is? Are these feelings normal? What is a “good marriage” anyway? Marriage — merging lives with another human being “for…
If you’re in a struggling marriage, the holidays may feel more fraught than festive. Nobody wants to spend the “most wonderful time of the year” worrying over whether it’s time to end their marriage or deal with the details of an impending divorce. Parents don’t want to spoil their kids’ joy by announcing a…
According to recent data from Evite, in 2023, invitations to divorce parties reached an “all-time high.” We tend to associate divorce with profound sorrow and loss, devastation, sometimes even guilt or shame—but that’s not always the case. For some people, getting out of an unhealthy, destructive marriage or leaving a toxic spouse who treated…
It’s college application season, and many parents of high schoolers are having a lot of feelings right now—mixed feelings: There’s immense pride in their almost-grown children—everything they’ve accomplished in school, sports, arts, and other activities; landing that first job; the deep friendships they’ve formed, the fine young adults their kids are growing into. There’s…
Even under the best of circumstances—when both spouses are physically and mentally healthy, financially stable, and on the same page about the split—divorce is a painful and grueling process, full of outsized emotions and overwhelming logistics. When one of the partners is suffering from mental illness, there are extra layers of complexity and special—often…
