Do You Feel Shame About Being Single? By John Amodeo, PhD
(Link): Do You Feel Shame About Being Single? By John Amodeo, PhD
Excerpts:
If find yourself single, are you ok with that or distressed by it? Do you feel judged by others — or perhaps judge yourself for your current status?
Growing up in our society, it’s hard to avoid the message that being married is required for happiness. We may feel pressured to believe that if we’re not in a partnership, there’s something wrong with us — that it’s shameful to be single.
But is being single so horrible? Are married or partnered folks really happier than the single people among us?
In a fifteen year (Link): study of 24,000 people living in Germany, researchers found that marriage offered a boost to life satisfaction, but the increase was tiny — one-tenth of one point on a ten-point scale. And that difference was likely due to the initial effects of marriage.
The lead author of the study, Dr. Richard E. Lucas of Michigan State University, concluded that most people were no more satisfied with life after marriage than they were prior to marriage.
…I’ve often seen clients who are unhappy with their single life. I’ve often observed that some of that dissatisfaction comes from the loneliness of being single or the fear of being single forever (when one doesn’t want to be). But an often overlooked part of their dissatisfaction is due to the shame experienced around it — the shame that stems from social norms and self-inflicted shame.
….There may also be internalized shame from societal beliefs that we should be partnered.
If we choose to buy into these beliefs and norms — accepting them as truth — then we add a self-inflicted wound to whatever dissatisfaction we might feel around being single.
If we take a step back and notice these beliefs — bringing mindfulness to them — then rather than merge with these beliefs and be ruled by them, we can explore whether they are really true.
Read more (Link): Here
Related Posts:
(Link): Jesus Christ Removed the Stigma, Shame From Being Single and Childless – by David Instone Brewer
(Link): Decent Secular Relationship Advice: How to Pick Your Life Partner
(Link): Please Stop Shaming Me for Being Single by J. Vadnal
Christian Pundit 