Divorce is Unhealthy

A new study suggests that divorce hurts ones health, even if one remarries:

Divorce hurts health even after remarriage

Study: Finding a new partner isn’t enough to reverse physical, mental toll

MSNBC

Live Science – July 27, 2009

Divorce can wreak havoc on a person’s health, even after remarriage, a new study finds.

Scientists have known that marriage can boost a man’s health and augment a women’s purse. The new study shows that divorce or losing a spouse to death can exact an immediate and long-lasting toll on those mental and physical gains.

“That period during the time that this event is taking place is extremely stressful,” said study researcher Linda Waite, a sociologist and director of the Center on Aging at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. “People ignore their health; they’re stressed, which is itself a health risk; they’re less likely to go to the doctor; they’re less likely to exercise; they’re sleeping poorly.”

It turns out, once you have tarnished your health, it’s hard to snap back, even if you tie the knot again…

Finding that divorce and spousal death had similar impacts on a person’s health suggests divorce operates like a traumatic event in one’s life, according to Waite.

Mark Hayward of the University of Texas at Austin, who was not invovled in the study, agreed.

“The acuteness of stress surrounding a divorce could operate a lot like a trauma as opposed to years and years of low-grade stress,” said Hayward, who is also the director of the university’s Population Research Center.

The new study “suggests much of health can be altered by these major turning points in one’s life, like divorce, from which one doesn’t recover,” Hayward said.

Divorce prognosis

Waite and Mary Elizabeth Hughes of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland analyzed data collected from nearly 9,000 adults ages 51 to 61 who took part in the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study.

Overall, about 20 percent of the participants were remarried, meaning they had previously been divorced or widowed, the researchers will report in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. And nearly 22 percent had previously been married but hadn’t remarried. Less than 4 percent were never married.

Results showed that those who had been divorced or widowed suffered from 20 percent more chronic health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer, compared with individuals who were currently married.

Other findings included:

People who never married reported 12 percent more mobility limitations, such as trouble walking or climbing stairs, than married individuals.

People who never married were 13 percent more likely to show signs of depression than their married counterparts.

Individuals who remarried reported an average of 12 percent more chronic conditions and 19 percent more physical limitations compared with the continuously married. No difference in depression was found between these two groups.

“Some health situations, like depression, seem to respond both quickly and strongly to changes in current conditions,” Waite said. “In contrast, conditions such as diabetes and heart disease develop slowly over a substantial period and show the impact of past experiences, which is why health is undermined by divorce or widowhood, even when a person remarries.”

What’s a couple to do?

The results don’t mean spouses should stick together even when the going gets really tough. But during a divorce or after the death of a spouse, people need to make sure to focus on their health, Waite said. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32174614/ns/health-more_health_news/

Jesus condemned divorce and divorce is only biblically-acceptable in very few circumstances.

First notice some of what the Old Testament prophet Malachi was inspired to write about it:

14 Yet you say, “For what reason?”
Because the LORD has been witness
Between you and the wife of your youth,
With whom you have dealt treacherously;
Yet she is your companion
And your wife by covenant.
15 But did He not make them one,
Having a remnant of the Spirit?
And why one?
He seeks godly offspring.
Therefore take heed to your spirit,
And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.

16 “For the LORD God of Israel says
That He hates divorce,
For it covers one’s garment with violence,”
Says the LORD of hosts.
“Therefore take heed to your spirit,
That you do not deal treacherously.” (Malachi 2:14-16)

Jesus taught:

31 Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 “But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery (Matthew 5:31-32).

Notice an incident from the New Testament:

3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” 4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” 7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” 8 He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.” 10 His disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”

11 But He said to them, “All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given: 12 For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.” (Matthew 19:3-12).

The Bible takes a very dim view of divorce.

A few articles of slightly related interest may include:

The Ten Commandments Reflect Love, Breaking them is Evil Some feel that the ten commandments are a burden. Is that what Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, and John taught?
Was the Commandment to Love the Only Command? Some have stated that John’s writings teach this, but is that what the Bible really says?
The Ten Commandments and the Early Church Did Jesus and the Early Church keep the ten commandments? What order were they in? Here are quotes from the Bible and early writings.
Women and the New Testament Church Were women important in the New Testament Church? Which women and how were they involved?
Successful Parenting: God’s Way This is a new booklet by Dr. J. Fall.