Warning signs of family stress
Some warning signs of family stress are outlined below:
- Giving up on family goals, celebrations, and traditions.
- Developing individual interests and activities that exclude the family.
- Denying feelings of anger or resentment (except in private).
- Projecting blame onto others.
- Lack of shared time together.
- Too few gestures of appreciation and kindness.
- Little empathy for others’ problems or pain
- Withdrawing from concern about their neighbors, colleagues, communities
- Domineering communication styles
- Demanding agreement from everybody else before they will offer an opinion themselves.
- Gossiping or complaining about your spouse to friends or relatives.
- Recurring interpersonal abuse (physical violence, threats) within your own home against a spouse/parent(s).
- Enduring patterns of verbal abuse between you and your spouse /child.
- Not taking care of your physical health or emotional well-being, for example, by abusing alcohol and drugs to cope with stressors within the family
- Neglecting responsibilities at work so you can stay home and take care of everyone else’s needs.
