Couples Counseling and Chronic Illness
Nothing can affect the fabric of a relationship or marriage like a chronic illness. Many couples have to contend with the anxiety and constant pressure that this causes.
In addition to the daily struggles of an illness that needs hands-on care, there is the dynamic change. Couples, for the most part, enter into a relationship with some ideas preformed: they assume they will share duties, for example. They assume their partner will be there, in a full, healthy way, to support the other.
Illness can change the whole dynamic and outlook of a relationship. All of a sudden, one partner is thrust into a caretaker position, willingly or not. Resentments can grow, guilt over resentment can develop. And if the illness is serious enough, the entire future of the relationship can be shifted dramatically.
Couples counseling can help navigate those difficult times. A trained professional can reshift the focus of a couple to the “here and now” instead of the longing for “what should be.”
There is now current research being done where you would know the future health of your partner, as early as the dating stages:
What if the internet matchmaker eharmony.com required a blood test? Or if first dates ended with a thumb pricks instead of a kisses and classified ads included family medical histories? While none of these things have happened as far as I know, increasing emphasis has been placed on a new factor in determining compatibility of couples: genetics.
Earlier this semester the Center for Jewish Life (CJL) hosted a genetic screening. The Human Genetics Program at NYU Langone Medical Center contacted members of the CJL and worked to provide the University community with genetic carrier testing. Participants will soon find out if they are carriers for 16 different diseases.
The NYU Genetics Program website promises that screenings, which are done with a blood sample, will “identify changes in a person’s chromosomes” and “ensure that your children will not suffer from these diseases.” The information could impact who you date and how, if at all, you conceive a child.
Interestingly, your choice of a mate could include more than personality characteristics that suit you. In the meantime, couples counseling allows partners with health issues work out the difficult situation they currently find themselves in.
Related Posts
- Counseling for Couples and Chronic Illness
- Terminal Illness and Couples Counseling
- Can Counseling for Couples Cure a Mental Illness?
- Marriage Counseling to Aid Chronic Anxiety
- Mental Illness – When One Partner Refuses Help
