People in Alaska get divorced for many different reasons, but there are a lot of commonalities as well. In fact, there are five major reasons that lead to many divorces.
Incompatibility
One of the reasons marriages break up is incompatibility. Two people may simply reach an impasse about a major life issue such as politics or whether to live in the city or country. This can happen early in a marriage when you suddenly realize that you don’t know your spouse as well as you thought you did. However, these types of divorces are also common when parents face the empty nest as their children grow up and leave home. After all those years, they may find that they have grown apart and want different things.
Money
Financial issues are another common reason for divorce. It could be because you and your spouse have different ideas about how to manage money, but even more commonly, financial difficulties cause stress in a marriage. However, it is not always lack of money that is the problem. Research has found that some marriages become strained when women start making more money than their husbands.
Infidelity
Unfortunately, infidelity occurs more often than many spouses wish to believe, and it’s a common cause of divorce. Some marriages can go on and heal, but many can’t.
Addiction
Our culture has a great deal of stress, and some of the ways people try to cope with it aren’t very healthy. Even when two people love each other, the serious addiction of one of them to drugs or alcohol can end a marriage.
Life-changing circumstances
When most people ponder the cause of divorce, they tend to think of one of the reasons mentioned above. There’s another sad and terribly significant reason, however. When a major experience permanently alters the lives of two people, it sometimes ends their marriage. Circumstances such as a prolonged and debilitating illness or the death of a child can put so much pressure on the marriage that it doesn’t survive.
The reason for a divorce often affects the process of the divorce itself. For example, if you are divorcing after a long marriage because of incompatibility, you might have a relatively amicable divorce in which you are able to negotiate an agreement for property division. On the other hand, if substance abuse is an issue, negotiation may not be possible, and litigation may be necessary instead. Working with an attorney could help you prepare for either of these approaches.