Marriage has no guarantees. If that’s what you’re looking for, go live with a car battery. – Erma Bombeck Erma Bombeck’s opinion is shared by many people in today’s society.
Marriage has no guarantees. If that’s what you’re looking for, go live with a car battery. – Erma Bombeck Erma Bombeck’s opinion is shared by many people in today’s society.
Some of us have grown up to believe that marriage is nothing more than a signed contract which allows you to annoy another person for the rest of their lives. That, as a woman, it gives you permission to nag continuously and as a man you can finally let the pot belly hang loose.
Such ideas could completely put you off marriage and commitment. But I recently found out that according to modern research, being in a committed and functional relationship is actually good for your well-being. It appears that being single may, in fact, be hazardous to your health.
Opinions vary over the reasons why single people are more likely to get sick and die before their married counterparts. But research conducted over the past few years in various European and South American countries has shown that people in committed relationships fare better when it comes to their mental and physical health – and the benefits increase over time.
Researchers Dr John Gallacher and trainee David Gallacher, from Cardiff University, have said in the British Medical Journal that their studies indicate that married men have better physical health and married women have better mental well-being.
According to the research, men are physically healthier because of the positive influence their partners have on their lifestyles. Women are mentally well-adjusted most likely because of the supportive and stable nature of such a partnership.
Now if you are anything like me, this may have been a bit surprising. From what I can tell, people who have been together for too long tend to develop homicidal personalities. It is a bit hard to be supportive when all you want is for your partner to somehow be abducted by aliens.
Research has shown, however, that while couples may drive each other to distraction, they may not actually drive each other mad. Alas, single people are more likely to experience more mental health problems. Without other people you will probably slide into depression, or perhaps even find yourself getting a little addicted to cocaine.
As sad as it may sound, declaring yourself an "independent woman", or an "honorary bachelor" may actually increase your chances of winding up in a straightjacket. But wait, it gets better. You don’t have to become a vegan and fight with the treadmill every day to have a longer life.
A more enjoyable way to extend your life is to fall in love and get married. Studies have shown that happily married couples tend to live longer than their single counterparts. This is attributed to the fact that married people veer towards taking less health risks and in many cases also have solid financial stability, meaning less stress and fewer visits to the doctor.
Oh yes, it’s true: Married people earn more money. Marriage wage premiums can go a long way towards alleviating the financial strains that accumulate over the years. This, of course, doesn’t mean that all single people will die broke from stress-induced strokes in a psychiatric ward at the age of 40.
But because married people have someone to complain to after a hard day at work, or someone to blow their nose when they’re sick and lean on in stressful situations, they have a better chance of getting through daily life without wanting to slit their wrists.
As much as we might all want to see ourselves as perfectly self-sufficient individuals, no one really wants to be alone. It doesn’t matter what you tell yourself – you know it’s true. Like they say, no man is an island.
Of course not all relationships are happy, and perhaps in a strained and sadistic relationship your partner could literally be the death of you – but on the whole, it seems that getting yourself into a happy, dedicated relationship could mean a healthier and longer existence.
