This Woman Got Breast Cancer From a Bad Marriage.
Here’s a story that illustrates the painful damage just one negative, limiting core belief can do to a person’s life. This woman “didn’t believe in divorce” and stayed married to a man with a mental disorder who wouldn’t work for 15 years. According to tons of published research studies and books by dozens of doctors, including one of my favorites, Dr. Dean Ornish, chronic stress is a leading contributor to illness. Did the chronic stress of a bad marriage make this woman sick? Maybe so. Here’s a Huffpost story by Beth Gainer, published 9-27-13.
How do you know when enough is enough?
Beth Gainer’s marriage was flawed from the get-go; her husband became a totally different person after saying “I do,” exhibiting signs of OCD, paranoia and mental distress.
“When I was married, I was quite naive. I was young and when I got married he was the man of my dreams,” Gainer told HuffPost Live host Nancy Redd on Wednesday. “Once we got married, he became mentally distraught and some cracks were showing in the marriage and he really made life miserable for me. He had OCD and extreme paranoia and I became kind of his caregiver. He stopped working and it put us under a lot of financial stress.”
Yet Gainer stayed with her husband until 15 years into the relationship, when he refused to support her after a breast cancer diagnosis.
“When we were almost at our 15 year anniversary, because I did not believe in divorce, I got breast cancer and it turned out that he decided not to help me. I went through chemo and radiation alone and I did everything. I took care of myself alone and I had to work one full-time job and one part-time job,” she said. “I realized that I only had myself and so I decided since I’m alone through cancer…I might as well be alone and I might as well enjoy life.”
The moral of the story: sometimes, it’s better to be alone than to wish that you were.
If you find yourself in an abusive relationship because of fears of abandonment or damaging childhood core beliefs from your family, culture or church, call me for an appointment and let’s clean the virus programs off your inner hard drive so you can have a happy, healthy, prosperous life.