5 problems couples face & how to overcome them

Every relationship has its issues. This is true whether you and your partner see each other everyday or if you only see each other few times in a year.

For the couples in long distance relationships, these are possible issues you'll face in your relationship/marriage and how you can overcome them.

1. Stalling in life

There is a possibility that in your lover’s absence, much won’t make sense to you. The nostalgia of being with them might be so strong that you feel as if the rest of your life is on hold until you can be together.

The problem with this is that you’ll only get sunk further into sadness if you keep thinking about them and concentrating on the hole their absence has created in your day-to-day activities.

It is better to get involved in other time-consuming, brain-tasking activities. You should also go out, have fun. Stay connected to family and friends instead of spending all day thinking about the one who isn’t around.

2. Getting too tired or lazy to talk well

The importance of good communication in a long-distance relationship can’t be under-appreciated.

Everyone agrees that being in this kind of relationship should help you get better at communicating but the truth is that distance can also provide an avenue for poor communication patterns to thrive.

Especially for partners that are both busy, it might not be long before the communication starts to suffer.

You could be reduced to talking only about how your day was, or keeping the conversation fairly shallow and brief.

To fix this, set aside some “skype date” time at least once a week that’s dedicated to more than talking about how your day was. It will also help if you cut down on the number of times you communicate daily. The few times you decide to talk will count more this way.

ALSO READ:4 lessons you'll learn from long-distance relationships

3. Being possessive

Being in a long-distance relationship does not necessarily mean you have to talk all the time, every time. It may make your partner feel smothered and overwhelmed. If you hold a bird too tight, it chokes to death.

The idea is to hold it just as reasonably tight enough so it won’t fly away.

The solution to this problem is to actively restrain yourself from doing too much or placing illogical pressures and communication demands on your partner. And if you’re the one uncomfortable with the way your partner makes excessive communication demands, xxplain how this makes you feel, and how you’d prefer to interact.

4. Growing apart

As you go on with your life in your partner’s absence and they go on with theirs where they are, you are both accumulating experiences and some of these experiences will change you.

An issue that might arise is growth in different directions.

No matter how much you love each other, there is a real chance that a slow drift during your time apart will cause you to grow away from each other in ways that frequent calls can possibly not keep track of.

One way to avoid this is by regularly visiting each other. That way, you get an idea of their new interests and how to stay connected even in those ventures.

5. Getting stuck in a rut

It gets to a stage where phone calls become boring and repetitive and even video calls feel too distant. In those moments, nothing but face-to-face conversations would do.

That’s your cue that it is time to visit each other. You could also try buying a book of discussion questions for couples. Some of these are designed to spark hours of fun and fascinating talk time.