You often hear people talk about the divorce rate as if it can happen to anyone at any time. They’ll say that half of all marriages end in divorce, for instance, and then glance around the room as if imagining half of the couples they see breaking up.
But the truth is that, regardless of the divorce rate, those divorce cases happen for a reason. It’s not just random. If you’re wondering about your own divorce odds, you need to know about more than just those odds. You need to know why you, specifically, may have a reason to get divorced.
Top reasons for divorce
To get a better sense of how this works, let’s take a look at some of the top reasons for divorce, courtesy of the National Library of Medine:
- Tying the knot at a relatively young age
- Finding out that one spouse or the other has had an extramarital affair
- A lack of commitment from one or both people
- Arguing too often and engaging in a high level of conflict
- Not getting enough education about marriage before getting married
- Belonging to different religions
- Not having enough support from one or both sides of the family
- Experiencing financial problems
- Experiencing health and medical problems
- Dealing with substance abuse issues and addiction issues
- Experiencing domestic violence or abuse within the home
In many cases, couples may have multiple factors that contribute to a divorce. For instance, the couple may have always had trouble making ends meet, but they were able to work together in the face of these financial hurdles. However, if one person finds out that the other has been spending their meager savings on drug addiction or an affair, that could end the marriage.
Your legal options
Do you think you’ll be getting divorced this year? No matter why you feel like things are moving in that direction, be sure you understand the legal options you have.