7 Totally Acceptable Reasons to Get a Divorce
According to the CDC, there are about 700,000 divorces each year in the United States.
If you’ve been in an unhappy marriage, you may be considering getting a divorce. Since divorce isn’t something to take lightly, you may feel at ease knowing that there are perfectly acceptable reasons to get a divorce.
Keep reading to find out what a few of them are!
1. Problematic Mental Disorder
Many people have a mental disorder, but if your partner has a mental disorder that they don’t want to treat, this could be an issue.
If their mental illness is causing them to be abusive or harmful to you and they still refuse to seek help, you could have the right to divorce them.
You may not decide to divorce them the first time that something like this happens, but if it’s a continuing problem, it could be an issue. You may want to separate first, and if things don’t get better, consider divorce as the next step.
2. Affairs
One of the most common valid reasons for divorce is your partner having affairs.
Unless agreed upon otherwise, marriage requires both partners to be loyal to each other. If you find out that they are having an extramarital affair, you’ll feel hurt that they broke that promise.
Depending on your relationship, finding this out doesn’t always have to mean an end to the marriage. You could work through the issues together. However, if you can’t work through them, it’s perfectly okay to file for divorce especially if they keep having affairs.
3. Money Problems
When you’re married, you’ll need to learn how to manage your money together. It’s important to know how they handle money before you marry them, but it could be too late for that now.
There are all kinds of money issues that could cause divorce like someone spending or stealing money even if the partner has asked them not to. If a partner is creating endless holes of debt that also affect you, you may need to have a talk with them.
Sit down and talk to each other about what your financial goals are for the long term. If they don’t align, you’ll have this problem throughout the rest of the marriage.
Money can also cause issues in a marriage if you don’t have much of it. Being stressed about where the next paycheck is going to come from can really take a toll on you and your marriage, causing you to last out at each other.
If you still can’t come to an agreement when it comes to your shared financials, it may be time to split ways.
4. Abuse
Abuse is a serious issue, whether you are being hurt emotionally or physically. Some people justify the emotional abuse because they aren’t hurt physically, or they say that “they could have it worse.”
However, emotional abuse can be just as damaging to your psyche as physical abuse.
Many people who are stuck in a toxic, abusive relationship find it hard to leave. They may be scared of what their partner will do or they’re worried they won’t be able to provide for themselves.
However, if you don’t feel safe in your relationship, you need to leave as soon as possible. If there are kids in the equation, you need to ensure their safety as well. There are shelters, communities, and support groups that can help you through this rough transition once you make the decision to leave your abusive partner.
5. Addiction
Addiction can also cause serious problems in a marriage. Maybe your partner is addicted to drugs, alcohol, or even gambling.
If the addiction gets out of control and they don’t want to seek recovery, divorce may be the next option. With some addictions, they can also get violent or take all of your money that you two share together. Try and get a divorce if you feel like your marriage is heading down that road.
6. Incompatible Parenting Styles
If you have kids in the equation, you may have discovered that you and your partner have wildly different parenting styles.
You may be more relaxed when it comes to raising the kids, but your partner might want more rules and strictness. After a while, the clashing parenting styles can really drive a wedge into the middle of your marriage.
It can also be difficult for the children as well because to them, it seems like their parents are never in agreeance.
Divorcing with kids will never be easy, especially when it comes to deciding who will get custody of them. However, sometimes it’s better for them to have one consistent parenting style.
7. No Communication
A marriage can’t work without healthy communication. All of the reasons above will boil down to a bigger problem of not communicating.
Communication works both ways, so ask yourself if you’re doing your part to open communications as well. If you are, and they’re still not participating, you have no other option than to get divorced.
You could try going to a marriage counselor to try to open that road, but that isn’t always guaranteed to work.
Discover More Reasons to Get a Divorce
If you feel hurt, lied to, or are in physical danger in the marriage, these are all great reasons to get a divorce. Also just being unhappy with how everything is could be reason enough.
Managing a long-term relationship can be difficult, but we offer plenty of tips that can help you save your marriage.
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