After the New Year's celebrations, some couples tend to go their separate ways, according to numerous divorce lawyers who have noticed a spike in divorces after the holidays.
In fact, some lawyers around the world call Jan. 2 "Divorce Day," reported the Hucknall Dispatch in England.
“We measure our statistics on the Internet, because these days people look for information. The numbers are through the roof right now. They start after New Year’s and climb steadily after January,” said Howard Iken, a divorce attorney in Florida, to ABC Action News.
Some lawyers and advocacy groups speculate that these divorce trends may be due to a stressful holiday season.
Andrew Newbury, head of family law at Slater & Gordon in the United Kingdom, told the Daily Mail that he has seen an increase of clients inquiring about divorce in January "with twice as many than any other period" and that there are a variety of possible explanations.
Along with the holiday stresses, Newbury told the Daily Mail that during Christmas some couples find out about affairs, which can be a catalyst for divorce, but "for others, they have been thinking about divorce for a few months or a year and they make it a New Year resolution to finally file for divorce to have a new start."
As many divorce lawyers claim January as their busiest time of year, OnePlusOne, a support charity in the U.K. that helps strengthen relationships, said its new survey may give more insight into the reasoning for the spike in divorce.
The charity found that six in 10 people admitted to relationship problems but a quarter of them never sought help, reported Hucknall Dispatch. And of the people who did seek help, about 23 percent talked to their friends, 16 percent spoke to family members and 7 percent looked on the Internet for ways to remedy their martial conflicts.
Only about 4 percent asked for professional help and 3 percent visited a support center of trained staff.
Penny Mansfield, director of OnePlusOne, said that couples typically do not decide to call it quits out of the blue but rather one partner, or the couple as a whole, has been considering it for months, reported Wells Journal.
Mansfield advises couples to seek help early on, rather than wait, to resolve problems and make a divorce less likely.
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