Will my marriage survive having to quarantine during COVID-19? Written by a licensed therapist in Long Beach.

Many people who didn’t have relationship troubles are now having relationship troubles.
People who had relationship issues before COVID-19 are now at their wits end.

Statistics have always shown that it is hard to live and work with your spouse. I’m not talking about spouses who work for the same company at different locations, I’m talking about when you are working in the same office space as your spouse. So now that we are all stuck at home with our spouses, kids and roommates with no reprieve it has gotten a little more tense in the house.

Things to do:

(1) Try (the best you can) having time alone. As of today, people are still allowed to take walks in California… so take a walk, ALONE! Not because you are mad (although that is a good idea also), but to keep your sanity.

(2) Stay on a schedule. Don’t just linger around the house. Have a schedule where you work out at a certain time, you read at a certain time, you clean at a certain time, and so forth.

(3) Connect with friends virtually. We just had a virtual family game night where we played Trivial Pursuit. One family had the game and they were split up into different teams to assure no cheating and so there was someone to put the pieces on the board. This keeps you connected with other people and changes the dynamics in your house.

(4) Remember that everyone is stressed out right now. Give a little more leeway with things you would otherwise not tolerate. (Obviously abuse should never be tolerated.)

(5) Talk to a therapist to get ideas on how to help your marriage and how to tolerate your spouse while being in such close proximity all the time. You shouldn’t wait until you are out of quarantine to do this. Things can worsen day by day and being in close quarters just makes it get worse even faster. Call us for an online/facetime or phone session: 562.310.9741.