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always arguing with spouse

Marriage Lie #1: “If It’s Work, It’s Wrong”
150 150 Lee H. Baucom, Ph.D.

Marriage Lie: "If you have to work on it, it’s wrong.”  How to view struggle in your marriage, for healing and hope.“I give up,” he said, throwing up his arms.  He was ready to leave the session.  But before he walked out, I asked, “Can you tell me what just happened? Why are you giving up?”

He told me, “Look, we have struggled during this marriage.  Not just now.  Other times.  I just believe that if you are struggling in a marriage… if things aren’t just moving forward… it isn’t meant to be.  It’s wrong.”  And he turned to leave.

I responded, “Well, that’s a big fat lie you are believing!”

He stopped, looked back at me, and said, “You have 10 minutes to prove me wrong.”

This wasn’t the only time I have encountered this lie.  And let me be fair:  he wasn’t meaning to lie to me.  But he was.  In reality, though, he was repeating a lie he believed.  There is nothing so dangerous as a lie that we believe, but is entirely false!

My client was ready to leave his marriage because he believed the lie.

In this episode of the Save The Marriage Podcast, I start a series on the Lies of Marriage.  These lies are things people believe (and act on, because they believe them) that are false, untrue… a lie.  But when they take on a life of their own, they unnecessarily destroy marriages.

In this first episode, I tackle the lie, “If you have to work on it, the marriage is wrong.”

Listen below.

RELATED RESOURCES
Who I am and Why I do What I do
The Truth About Conflict
Marriage Challenges
Save The Marriage System

How Fear Hijacks Your Marriage: Poly Vagal Theory
150 150 Lee H. Baucom, Ph.D.

Your ancestors, way, way back, survived because they were more fearful than their peers.  Because of their fear, they survived, while the less fearful fell to threats.  Over time, this means that we naturally inherited overly-developed fear responses.

It doesn’t take much to trigger fear and anxiety. Your heart races, your breathing quickens, your voice tightens, and your muscles flex, waiting for the fight or the flight.  Waiting to take on the threat or get away from the threat.

That’s an important skill on the savannah or in the jungle.  It even has some applicability for cities and in the woods.  But it is less helpful in your workplace.  And even less helpful in your love relationships.

We can quickly go from zero to 100, even when there really is no threat… just a trigger to your threat response.

How can you understand this?  How would a deeper understanding of this fight/flight response help?

Deb Dana and the Poly Vagal theory applied to marriages and counseling.First, you can recognize when the threat response is triggered.  Second, there are ways to more quickly de-threat your body, when you recognize it is not a necessary response.

In recent years, the Poly Vagal Theory has gained credibility and usefulness.  And that is the topic for this episode of the Save The Marriage Podcast.  I had the good fortune of interviewing Deb Dana, an expert on the theory (and a skilled clinician in applying it in therapy) for another program I created, but wanted to share it with you.

If you have experienced the fight/flight response with your spouse, finding yourself trapped in a quickly escalating and rapidly disintegrating communication pattern, pay attention.

If you feel the threat feelings when you know it shouldn’t feel threatening, you need to pay attention.

Listen below.

RELATED RESOURCES
Deb Dana’s Website
Thriveology Freedom from Fear Series
Fear in Marriage
Stuck Communication