Stress is perhaps one of the biggest factors to causing unhappiness in a marriage. Some people think that stress is created only from inside the marriage about things like child rearing, money, and sex. But what if you are miserable with every other aspect of your life? How does that affect your central relationship?

These days it is easy to feel stress in a way that has nothing to do with your home life. Work related stress is a very large issue for many people and it can have an overwhelming effect on your marriage. Marriage problems can come from one partner being miserable with their workplace environment or being stuck in a dead end job not making enough to support their family.

So it's clear that this issue is not being created by the other partner, but that doesn't mean it won't cause an internal marriage problem. Feeling stress due to outside issues can cause internal issues such as depression, frustration and sexual dysfunction, these in turn cause marital spats like money fights and sexual disagreements. The spouse who's feeling the stress may think those are the issues, not realizing they're bringing it in due to their dissatisfaction with the outside world.

It is important as a couple to work through these issues. Many couples do not need or can not afford marriage counseling, but they do need to sit down and try to get to the root of the problems together. Allowing personal issues to enter your marriage is truly inevitable, you are both individuals who will feel stress and experience life problems, and of course they will come into the marriage. The importance is to truly understand the underlying issues and solve them together. It may require your support, but you can do what it takes together to make things right.

Individual counseling may also be necessary if your spouse has become overly depressed. If you can't get your spouse to talk to your about their feelings than encourage them to reach out to someone else for assistance. Talking to someone about these issues can sometimes help a person see a light at the end of the tunnel and can help you resolve some of the marital issues that have been plaguing your relationship.