You and your spouse got married in Texas five years ago. It hasn’t been a perfect marriage, but you have been relatively happy. You’re willing to keep moving forward and striving to improve the relationship when needed.
Lately, though, you have been getting suspicious that your spouse is thinking about asking for a divorce. It’s a difficult topic to bring up. If they haven’t mentioned it, how do you ask if they want a divorce without sounding like you want one yourself? At the same time, not knowing what is going on has been causing you a lot of stress.
Where there’s smoke
There’s an old saying that “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” The general idea is that you see signs and indicators of a certain thing because that thing does exist. You’re not just making it up. It’s not all in your head.
As it pertains to divorce, some of the signs you may see that your spouse is thinking about ending the relationship include the following:
- You start keeping secrets from one another.
- You start spending more time with other people and not much time alone together.
- You may even begin avoiding or ignoring one another.
- The intimacy fades from your relationship.
- It feels like every little disagreement turns into an argument.
- Your communication breaks down in a general sense.
- When problems arise, your spouse is apathetic, acting as if it doesn’t matter if you resolve the issues or not.
Much of the time, what you want to look for is a change. For instance, arguing all of the time can be a red flag, but so can having your spouse become apathetic in the face of these arguments. If you used to get along and you start arguing, something is wrong. If you used to argue and your spouse stops caring, it’s probably because they figure the relationship is almost over anyway, so that’s also a sign that something is wrong.
What can you do?
If you do realize that the two of you are heading toward divorce, be sure you understand your legal options in Texas and what steps you must take.
