Going through divorce? This is what you need to do to recover

A new research has a clear cut answer

Writing a diary while or after going through a divorce could improve one’s cardiac health and their ability to adapt to new situations, a study reveals.

Researchers found the benefits of keeping a journal were seen amongst those who expressed their feelings by writing the story of their relationship, reported The Daily Mail. “To be able to create a story in a structured way - not just to re-experience your emotions but make meaning out of them - allows you to process them in a more physiologically adaptive way. Explicit instructions to create a narrative may provide a scaffolding for people who are going through this tough time,” said study author Kyle Bourassa of the University of Arizona. “This structure can help people gain an understanding of their experience that allows them to move forward, rather than simply spinning and re-experiencing the same negative emotions over and over.”

For the study, researchers split 109 men or women who separated or divorced their partners on average three months ago into three groups. The first group involved participants writing deep feelings about their experience. The second group was asked to tell the story of their relationship by expressing their emotions in a narrative framework with a beginning, middle and end.

The third group non-emotionally described their daily activities. All participants wrote in their assigned styles for 20 minutes for three consecutive days.

The researchers then assessed their physical and psychological health before the study and at two follow-up visits.

Around eight months later, the second group - who expressed the story of their relationship - had a lower heart rate than the other two. They also had higher heart rate variability, which reflects the body's ability to adapt to its environment. A lower heart rate and a greater beat variability are both associated with improved cardiac health.

The findings, to be published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, add to a growing body of research on divorce and health, with significant implications since marital separation is often linked with poor overall health.



Although more investigation is needed for this, the initial findings suggest it does not take much to see significant benefits. “One short intervention - 20 minutes over three days - translated to these measurable effects. If larger studies replicate these findings in the future, this would be an evidence-based tool that could be widely used for people struggling with divorce,” Kyle stated.

This comes after research conducted by Iowa State University in 2015 revealed marriages are 6% more likely to end if the wife becomes seriously ill. In contrast, a husband's health does not impact the likelihood of divorce.

The researchers said that men, particularly older ones, often have not been socialised to be caregivers like women are.

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