Though the lockdowns due to coronavirus brought a lot of couples to live together, it has brought them apart in their relationships. Not every couple that went into self-quarantine as a due will be able to emerge out of it as one. The year 2020 has had a lot of stressful events, starting with the arrival of a pandemic. Not only did it bring fear among people, but it also forced them into a different lifestyle, starting with the lockdown. Lockdown has initiated close contact with our families and our partners, however, not everyone had a positive outcome. During the pandemic, the divorce rates spiked in the United States. They increased by 34 percent compared to the rates between March and June of the year 2019, according to a survey by Coach Lee. Many couples have had to spend every day with each other in their home and have to deal with all the other stressors that came along with the pandemic; such as uncompromised within the couple, lack of personal freedom, unemployment, and mental health issues.
With the arrival of the pandemic, to protect themselves, people had to be having to adapt to completely different lifestyles all of the sudden can be a maddening stressor for an individual. This is what we were forced to do in March 2020, to adapt to a completely different lifestyle than what we were used to. Our schedules have changed, our usual routines have changed, every aspect of our lives has changed. Adapting to these changes can be challenging as a couple. Partners might not share the same coping mechanisms or the same idea of how to deal with this stressful time. This can cause many different conflicts within the pair and reluctance to collaborate. In a way, this helps couples shine a tight on the relationship issues that maybe they didn’t notice before. It brings up the question; do I want to spend my life with someone like that? Do I like the way my partner thinks and acts during crucial times like things? Eventually, this brings up uncertainty in the relationship, which ultimately leads to their untimely break-up.
Being quarantined has also made many people realize that maybe they don’t like spending that much time with their partner. Pre-pandemic, people wouldn’t spend every single moment of their lives with their significant other, but rather would have time for themselves. With the lockdown, people were robbed of their freedom of having a normal life, but also freedom of a personal life. Though spending time with your significant other can be a nice and bonding moment, it can also take away your time to do other things. By constantly spending most of your time with your partner, without doing the thing you would usually enjoy doing alone, you will eventually lose interest in the relationship.
Another issue that came with the negative effect of the pandemic was unemployment. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the national unemployment rate in April 2020 peaked at 14.7 percent, while in April 2019 it was 3.6 percent. This increase in unemployment brought a lot of financial crisis to many people and families. Due to the life-threatening pandemic that is going around the world, people’s main priority is to survive through it as much as they can. One main need that provides survival is money. When you can’t provide this main survival need, it might bring up a serious conflict between partners. Couples that find themselves struggling with money eventually have to compartmentalize certain things in their lives. However, this can also bring up many other fights and unwillingness to coordinate their difficult situations as a couple. Most importantly, financial problems can cause psychological issues, such as depression and anxiety. With the added stressor of living in a dangerous time where lives are at risk, being concerned about money is not good for one’s mental health. This eventually becomes an issue for that person’s relationship as well. When a person experiences too much pressure in their life it becomes too much for them to handle, so much that they lose the ability to keep their relationship intact.
It’s obvious to say that the pandemic has changed people’s perspective of finding significant others. As stated before, people’s priority during these dangerous times is survival, therefore they need a partner that will provide that priority in the way they think it is most appropriate to them. People cannot have additional stress from conflicts with their partner while having the stress of trying to survive the pandemic. The ideal relationship now is someone who will collaborate with you in finding common grounds about handling their situation during a crisis event. People want a partner that will know what to do when an issue strikes, someone that will have a plan B that can assure stability. Though having a romance is crucial in the creation of a relationship, being able to provide the necessities is what keeps the relationship together.