Divorce is Bad for Your Health
Aug. 4th, 2009 11:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
muck_a_luckMy boss posts about divorce and health today in his journal.
I wonder about "divorce" as the causal factor.
People who eventually divorce were in a relationship that was probably under strain for long periods of time - even years. As the study points out, heart disease and diabetes are conditions developed under long periods of stress. So is the "divorce" the causal factor, or is the problem living in a negative emotional situation - one SO BAD it leads you to the socially difficult result of an actual divorce?
If humans are naturally serially monogamous (as Boss and many others believe), then being unable to move freely from one relationship to another might be quite stressful. Social restraints make us fight our natural urge to move on, resulting in an unnatural struggle first to maintain the deteriorating relationship (in many cases, this period lasts over a year, and even years), then to bring that relationship to a socially acceptable conclusion (often involving at minimum a one year separation, and then a financially expensive litigation that can drag out much longer).
What would be the health benefits if we could just freely quit the dying relationship and move to the next one?
I note the never-marrieds do not show the problems with stress-related conditions. One presumes most never-married's relationships to have been more casual, and thus probably less emotionally damaging when they deteriorate - I would suggest because it's a lot easier to get out when you aren't legally tied together.
I wonder about "divorce" as the causal factor.
People who eventually divorce were in a relationship that was probably under strain for long periods of time - even years. As the study points out, heart disease and diabetes are conditions developed under long periods of stress. So is the "divorce" the causal factor, or is the problem living in a negative emotional situation - one SO BAD it leads you to the socially difficult result of an actual divorce?
If humans are naturally serially monogamous (as Boss and many others believe), then being unable to move freely from one relationship to another might be quite stressful. Social restraints make us fight our natural urge to move on, resulting in an unnatural struggle first to maintain the deteriorating relationship (in many cases, this period lasts over a year, and even years), then to bring that relationship to a socially acceptable conclusion (often involving at minimum a one year separation, and then a financially expensive litigation that can drag out much longer).
What would be the health benefits if we could just freely quit the dying relationship and move to the next one?
I note the never-marrieds do not show the problems with stress-related conditions. One presumes most never-married's relationships to have been more casual, and thus probably less emotionally damaging when they deteriorate - I would suggest because it's a lot easier to get out when you aren't legally tied together.
