Stress occurs when a psychological, physical, and/or emotional strain pushes a person beyond their baseline. A little bit of stress leads to growth.
Chronic stress can cause pain, lower immunity, and increase the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke. The impacts of living in this state affect those around the individual as well.
How does this impact a relationship? Keep reading to learn how stressful life events can bring a couple together.
Why Stressful Life Events Strain Relationships
When big things happen in life, it can put a lot of strain on the relationship. This can happen for a number of reasons.
When it affects both partners, they may each cope with stress differently. These different coping mechanisms may clash.
The effects of stress on a relationship can also become detrimental when they create triggers for one or both partners that the other partner sets off. Even when the partner does everything right, those triggers may make the other feel unsafe. This holds especially true when the other partner is the trigger.
Stressful events can also put people into survival mode. This may cause a person to unintentionally act selfishly and not think about their partner. Situations like this often destroy a relationship, wherein the couple starts contemplating the last resort, which is divorce.
Most couples often go through the route of limited divorce (check out What is limited divorce? here, if you are unaware) as it allows them to remain legally married while they are living apart and resolving issues related to child custody, alimony, and the division of assets. It happens to be a good option for couples who do not want to go through the full process of divorce but need to resolve some of the matters related to it.
And this is exactly where counseling comes in. Counseling can help couples see the positive side of being together and rekindle the bond.
Strengthening Bonds Through Therapy
The effects of stress on a relationship do not always break it apart though. When a couple takes a healthy approach toward healing together, it can actually bring them together.
Couples who seek therapy together may still face the problems that cause strain. But with a professional, they can learn each other’s triggers and coping mechanisms.
Your therapist can help you communicate your feelings and needs to one another. This awareness can help you assess whether or not you are meeting them if you default into survival mode.
Learning about each other in this way will forge a stronger bond. You will take care of yourself and each other in ways that will last.
Grieving Together
Grief can hit like a ton of bricks and whip you through a confusing cycle. This can make you feel isolated from the rest of the world.
The tools you will learn in therapy will help you two grieve with one another. Opening up to such a raw emotion together makes you completely vulnerable with one another.
Vulnerability reveals the true self that we often keep hidden. Allowing another person to see you build intimacy and trust.
Rebuilding
Stress in romantic relationships can sometimes shatter everything. This does not always mean that the relationship is over.
Sometimes we build relationships on unhealthy foundations because of past trauma. When a big life event shatters everything in your world together, it can present an opportunity to rebuild from the ground up.
With the guidance of a therapist, you can create a strong foundation for your relationship. Through this rebuilding process, you can create something healthy for both of you.
Schedule Your First Session
Love cannot always hold a couple together when the relationship is missing other key elements like communication, understanding, and trust. Let stressful life events create an opportunity for you to build and strengthen these things with your partner.
Take care of each other in your time of need. Together you can build something better than you imagined before.
We work to make individuals healthy so that relationships may thrive. Contact us to schedule your first session.