“Our relationship survived a gender transition… but not long-distance.”
Morgan Givens’ gender reassignment was survivable, and something that strengthened his relationship with his girlfriend. Her moving to Vermont was not.
Long-distance is tough. No matter how strong, solid, seemingly secure the relationship has been previously, when your relationship is stretched between cities or countries, it can very easily snap completely.
Fuelled by Skype, plane trips and longing phone calls across time zones, figures show around 40% of long-distance relationships will break-up. And the average time before this break-up is around 4.5 months.
And, it doesn’t get any better when you close that distance. A 2006 study found one third of long-distance relationships ended after closing the gap, and moving closer to one another. Things like a loss of autonomy, conflict, jealousy and a tough reality check were to blame. Apparently, distance can make the heart grow stronger, but the idealisation that comes with this dies when you are sitting by yourself night after night wondering if they are sitting by themselves or out with that workmate they keep talking about.
So, with these stats in mind we look to the true possibility of long-distance relationships actually working. The results are…. eye opening.
What are the chances?
You’re more likely to survive a plane crash than make a long-distance relationship work.
Top Comments
Nearly at 10 years and we did the first 2 and half long distance from Sydney to St Paul, Minnesota. Our longest separation was 5 months, but we emailed every day. Every day. He's the love of my life.
According to something called the McCrindle Blog, around 33% of marriages end in divorce, which is a figure that gets thrown around a lot so lets assume it's somewhat close to the actual figures.
So 33% of marriages break up compared to 40% of long term relationships, not exactly a huge difference.
(I'm making a few assumptions here, such as everyone that is married is not in a long distance relationship, plus I'm also ignoring the length of the relationships)