The Importance of Recovering from Divorce

Divorce is difficult to recover from, yet critically important for your own physical and emotional health and that of your children for you to make a full recovery.

Considered akin to the death of a marriage, divorce ranks among the most powerful stressors in adult life because it creates uncertainty in every important aspect of life that was once stable, i.e. work, finances, children, etc. Relationships with friends and family are often affected—and you may wonder about future relationships and if you will ever find love again.

Divorce also greatly impacts how you feel about yourself. Failure is a common theme, regardless of whether you’re the one initiating the divorce or not.

Add all of these factors together in addition to conflict, acrimony, and costly legal processes, and divorce is a recipe for a crippling situation that takes an enormous emotional toll.

While you are in the midst of a divorce, your life is in a state of transition. You are in between ‘what was’ and ‘what will be’ and there is a significant amount of disruption and uncertainty in your life. In the book Crazy Time, by Abigail Trafford, the period during a divorce process is described as a roller coaster—you can feel exhilarated, relieved, exhausted, fearful, etc. You run the gamut of emotions. It is not uncommon to feel clinically depressed and anxious and notice changes in energy, sleep, appetite, and the ability to concentrate. Studies have shown that during divorce people have more physical problems and attend more doctor’s visits. In addition, more automobile accidents occur during this time, often due to being more distracted. Poor decisions and bad judgment can also increase.

With all of this said, it becomes clear that support is necessary. Moreover, an active approach to healing will help the recovery process. It’s important to be mindful of the need to consciously work on recovery and give yourself permission and space to grieve until you reach a place of acceptance and stability.

Our Divorce Recovery workshop at Kripalu this fall provided the space for holistic healing, activating the mind and body on the road to recovery after divorce. Our workshop participants have written to us about being released from places where they were stuck and moving forward in their individual journeys to recovery as a result of their time with us. We look forward to continuing to share our gained insights in future blogs.

My Divorce Recovery

Jeffrey Zimmerman, Ph.D., ABPP
JeffZimmermanPhD@MyDivorceRecovery.com
212-485-0033

Lauren Behrman, Ph.D.
LaurenBehrmanPhD@MyDivorceRecovery.com
212-799-7921