Pain + Sacrifice = Marital Bliss

Adversity makes couples' bond stronger, experts say
By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 8, 2009 4:35 PM CDT
Pain + Sacrifice = Marital Bliss
Adversity can be the key to marital happiness, say experts, who point to sacrifice as an essential ingredient in marriage.   (Shutterstock)

Marital bliss? Toss it out the window, and get down to pain and anguish ASAP, experts say. While many studies find that stress can exacerbate a marriage—turning a short-tempered husband into an abusive one, for example—some experts say adversity is the key to marital success. "It’s protective, helping solidify their commitment into an unshakeable us-vs.-the world resolve,” Tiffany Sharples writes in Time.

Even the economic downturn can help, says one marriage researcher who found that strong families in the Great Depression “banded together as a team and really became more cohesive in dealing with the economic crisis.” Misfortune, however, only benefits couples built on mutual support and willingness to sacrifice: “If your partner has a really big opportunity to sacrifice because of some crisis in your life, and they don't, that's pretty bad," says one expert.
(More marriage stories.)

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