‘Tis Better to Have Never Married at All than to Have Married and Lost
Even remarriage can't relieve all the stress of marital loss:
Over all, men and women who had experienced divorce or the death of a spouse reported about 20 percent more chronic health problems like heart disease, diabetes and cancer, compared with those who had been continuously married… people in second marriages had 12 percent more chronic health problems and 19 percent more mobility problems.
Divorce can be traumatic. However, I wonder if health problems might not be an underlying cause of some divorces rather than the other way around? Chronic ailments, anxiety, depression could add stress on a marriage, possibly increasing the probability of separation.
Is this another example of “stress causes stress”?