Marriage Crisis

A review of Laura Munson's Marriage Crisis:

I smiled as I read Laura's story, one of innocence and naivety of a woman who didn't have to go through a divorce. While I'm happy that she has salvaged her marriage, I think the true story is about the lengths we go through to deny that our marriages are broken. Denial is the first stage of grief and it's what protects us while we try to wrap our heads around the revelation we've just experienced.

I was once just like Laura - not wanting to let go of my marriage despite all the mounting evidence that it was over. But, unlike Laura, I chose to step out of denial and I chose to divorce my husband. But, I had my nails dug in deep into the land of denial. My now ex-husband came home from work on our 2nd anniversary and announced that he thought he was gay. Shocked and horrified, I told him that was not possible. Screwed up - yes. Gay - no. I threw myself into positive thinking and wrote affirmations and I actually thought it was starting to work. He seemed to waiver at times and talked about a future for us. That's all it took for me to be even more dedicated to being loving, supportive and accepting of him so that I could save our marriage. I rationalized his admission and downplayed it. I was willing to do whatever it took to save my marriage until the day I realized that I didn't actually have a marriage. It was then that I realized that I may be legally married but the relationship I had was merely a roommate situation. He did offer to stay married to me but that was not the marriage I wanted. Laura welcomed her husband back and they chose to build a new marriage together. For her, holding onto denial worked. But, for millions of women, it doesn't. My story shows what happens when denial doesn't work. And, when I realized it wasn't going to work, I decided to take action. I moved out, filed for divorced and embraced being young, divorced and fabulous.