In the height of wedding season I thought it was poignant to share this recent article from the week siting a study on the effects of bad marriages on our health. Read on:
A new study suggests that marrying the wrong person can dramatically increase your risk of major depression.
By The Week Staff | May 16, 2013
People
who are married, research has long shown, tend to be healthier than
singles—especially if they’re men. But a new study suggests that
marrying the wrong person can dramatically increase your risk of major
depression, NPR.org reports. Researchers asked more than 4,500
people between the ages of 20 and 80 to rate how supportive,
understanding, or critical their spouses were of them and then followed
up a decade later. Study subjects answered questions such as, “How much
does your spouse or partner really understand the way you feel about
things?’’ and “How much can you rely on him or her for help if you have a
serious problem?’’ Other questions included, “How often does he or she
criticize you?’’ People with the most negative relationships, the study
found, were more than twice as likely to become severely depressed than
people with the most positive unions. Not being married had no impact on
a person’s likelihood to become depressed.
The lesson of this recent study-- think before you leap into marriage. Ask yourself the questions listed above. Make sure you feel better around the one you love, not worse. Each of us deserves to feel valued and appreciated. Bad marriages are bad for our mental and physical health. We all deserve to be in a healthy relationship!
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