DES MOINES, Iowa — Social distancing and other mitigation efforts are aimed to keep people as far away from each other as possible to avoid contracting COVID-19.
Many have moved to working from home, which could be a blessing and a curse. Couples that normally see each other for a few hours are now spending their entire days with one another.
This could bring tension to the relationship like no other. Central Iowa therapist Alicia Hutt spoke with Local 5's Jack Miller over Zoom to discuss the unique situation that COVID-19 has put couples in.
Hutt said these are "uncharted territories" for all of us, and that means new stressors.
"I think a lot of people are just feeling more anxious and stressed because of the unknowns and the uncertainties," Hutt said. "And obviously some additional, maybe financial stressors, or trying to juggle working from home, parenting, maybe homeschooling their children."
All of these factors can leave people feeling overwhelmed, opening a door to more conflict in a relationship.
"Things that wouldn't normally maybe annoy us or irritate us are suddenly feeling like they're getting on our nerves," Hutt said.
When things start to feel rough and tense, Hutt said you should remember to think rationally instead of emotionally. If you need to have a big conversation with your partner, go in with some self-awareness.
"We're really engaged in our "feeling part" of our brain and not our "thinking part" of our brains, so it's not the best time to be trying to have those kinds of conversations. We're more apt to say things that we regret," Hutt said.
She continued, "And so that is a good time to just have that self awareness and that insight to be able to say, "I need to take a break, it's okay.""
"And it's encouraged for us to have some time to ourselves to kind of calm and come back to the conversation when we're both in a better place," Hutt explained.
But what about couples considering divorce or separation right now? Hutt said it depends.
"If this is maybe the first time that that's come up, then I'm definitely more apt to say you know things feel really out of control right now around us and there's so much that's uncertain and unknown. So, really not the best time to be making those big life changing kinds of decisions," Hutt said.
She said that now is a great time to seek out either your own therapy or couple's therapy to talk through troubles you may be having.
"Obviously, therapists are really trained and skilled to help people kind of talk through and work through those decisions," Hutt said.