Mental health is just as important as the financial and legal aspects of a divorce. When you’re going through a divorce, it’s important to maintain a careful balance and adopt a supportive approach to constructive decision-making. Divorce is stressful, regardless of the circumstances. The most important thing to remember while going through a divorce is that everyone is different, and every case is different.
The Emotional Journey
Divorce is an emotional and challenging journey with a slew of legal and financial consequences. It can turn people’s lives upside down and challenge even the strongest people to their core. People often wonder how and why things went wrong, which leads to depression, shame, and resentfulness.
Divorce often causes waves of overwhelming emotions like anxiety, depression, rage, and hopelessness for everyone involved. Divorce can bring several types of emotions to the forefront for a family, and the children involved are no different. Feelings of loss, anger, confusion, anxiety, and many others, all may come from this transition. Divorce can leave children feeling overwhelmed and emotionally sensitive. This, in turn, can affect their performance in school and their relationships with their friends, family, and adult relationships later in life.
Communal Orientation
Another issue surrounding the emotional impact of divorce involves communal orientation, or the psychological need to care for others. Communally oriented people care for the welfare and needs of others and want others to care for them in return. This becomes a significant part of a person’s identity, especially in more traditional cultures that emphasize marriage and family. As a result, going through divorce can often force people to change their very sense of self and make the divorce process especially painful.
Feelings of Guilt and Shame
Children often wonder why a divorce is happening in their family. They will look for reasons why this is happening; they may wonder why their parents no longer love each other, or if they’ve done something wrong. These feelings of guilt and shame are very common, but also can lead to many other issues. Guilt increases pressure, can lead to depression, stress, and other health problems. Providing context and counseling for a child to understand their role in a divorce can help reduce these feelings of guilt.
Moving Forward
Though it’s possible and likely for people to survive and flourish following divorce, the struggle to get there is something nobody should ever have to face alone. Along with support from friends and family, people going through divorce often need counseling to handle the emotional consequences of divorce, both in terms of short-term stress and learning how to move on afterward.
When to Seek Professional Help
It’s normal to struggle with our feelings and behavior immediately following a divorce. But, if these issues persist, seek professional help. Individual and family therapy are viable options to sort through emotions and address changes in family dynamics. Learning to deal with these issues in a positive and healthy way can be the key to leading a successful life after divorce.
Our team at Rieger LLP knows how difficult divorce can be on families. We want to help you make it through this stressful and overwhelming process as quickly and effectively as possible. Call us at (516) 280-8880 or contact us through our website to schedule a consultation.