If you are worried that the decision to file for divorce will be the hardest thing you ever do, new research suggests you may be wrong. According to the findings, those who are separated from their spouses go through more difficult times than divorced people.
Surveying 131,159 adults within the United States, Gallup researchers determined that separated individuals experienced “significantly more daily stress” than married or divorced persons. Around 51 percent of separated Americans said they were stressed a day before the study, while close to 39 percent of married Americans and approximately 44 percent of divorcees claimed to feel similarly.
In a report from Huffington Post, Dan Witters, the author of the study, said the discrepancy could be because separated people are stuck in the middle.
“At least when you get divorced, there’s closure,” Witters said. “You can both move on with your lives, and you can start digging yourself out of that well-being hole that you found yourself in during the during the separation process.”
Of the people who reported the biggest impact, women took the nod. “They were more stressed than married women by 16 percentage points — separated men, on the other hand, were only more stressed than married men by 10.5 percentage points,” HuffPo noted.
If you’re feeling standoffish about filing divorce papers, just know that it does get better once you’ve moved past the divorce. The uncertainty and waiting are likely your biggest enemies and the core of your stress.
In order to de-stress, we recommend the following:
It may not feel like it now, but once your divorce is final, you’ll find that life improves exponentially. Good luck as you move forward with life!