Work stress was tearing their marriage apart — how this real corporate couple found balance and saved their love

Aditi and Karan (names changed) were what people would often call the "perfect couple"-- they were both ambitious and successful in their high-paying corporate jobs, went on business trips and fancy dinners, and a had a house of their own in Mumbai suburbs.

But behind their polished corporate façade was a marriage that was silently breaking apart.They loved each other and were committed in their marriage; there wasn't any doubt in it. But, between endless work emails and missed dinners together at home, something invisible had started chipping away at their bond — stress. Not the kind that comes and goes, but the kind that slowly takes over everything: Conversations, moods, and even affection.Like many corporate couples today, they didn’t realise how different their coping styles for stress were — until it almost cost them their marriage.The Breaking Point: When stress became the third person in their marriageAditi and Karan's love story was that of opposites attracting. Aditi worked in marketing and was naturally creative, emotional, expressive. While, Karan was a hardcore finance professional and so he was more analytical, structured, calm on the outside. This also made their communication styles and the way they responded to stress quite different.

After a bad day at work, Aditi wanted to express, vent, and feel heard. On the contrary, Karan needed some alone time and silence to process his thoughts and feelings, and recharge before talking to others. Naturally then, when coming home after a long day at work, Aditi and Karan had different ways of coping with stress with started growing them apart-- slowly but deeply.When Aditi came home wanting to share her frustrations, Karan would retreat into silence, scrolling through his phone or sitting quietly.

She mistook his silence for disinterest and felt unheard and hurt. He, on the other side, saw her venting as more pressure which he couldn’t handle after a long and stress day at work.While neither was wrong — but they both were hurting which eventually took a toll on their marriage, making them question if they chose the right partner.How misunderstandings lead to emotional riftTheir evenings soon turned into silence which was often misunderstood, leading to fights. Aditi would start a conversation, Karan would shut down.Karan would withdraw, Aditi would chase for connection.Their different ways to recharge and reconnect replaced their affection, and distance soon replaced dialogue between them.What they didn’t realise was that they were both reacting not out of anger, but out of their unique ways of managing stress — ways shaped by personality, upbringing, and emotional wiring.

Called “mismatched coping" in psychology, this happens when two partners handle pressure differently, and this leads to miscommunication and emotional disconnect between them over time.A 2020 study in PLOS ONE titled “Stress, Dyadic Coping, and Relationship Satisfaction” followed 240 couples for five years. It found that couples who supported each other during stress had stronger, happier relationships. Receiving emotional support mattered more than giving it, and working together during tough times improved satisfaction the most.The silent weekend that changed everythingAditi and Karan's married life soon became monotonous and silent. And the breaking point in their marriage unexpectedly came one Friday night when Aditi came home in tears after a heated office review. She tried to tell Karan about it, but he simply asked to talk or listen about it later.But, that “later” never came and the couple didn’t talk for two whole days. The silence between them was so loud that they felt they like strangers living under the same roof. By Sunday evening, Aditi packed a bag and went to stay at her mother’s for a few days. She wasn’t sure if she was leaving forever — but now, she needed space too.That silence and distance, though painful, was the start of their healing.Committing to make their marriage work through therapyWhen Aditi confessed her marriage problem to a close friend, she suggested they go for couples therapy as not speaking to each other wouldn't magically solve their marriage problem.

Hesitant at first, Aditi called her husband Karan on her friend's insistence and discussed the growing problem between them. Reluctant at first, Karan finally agreed to try marriage counselling.When the therapist spoke to both of them separately, she soon understood their differing personalities and made them look through each other's perspectives. After all, they were both tired and burnt-out after a long and stressful days which was making them react to stress in different ways.

It wasn't as if they didn't love each other, but somewhere between chasing their ambitions and working with their colleagues and teammates, they forgot that they were partners too for life.Neither was right or wrong. But together, without communicating and understanding each other, they created a loop of pain.Learning each other's language of stresshe first thing they learned was to pause before reacting. When Aditi wanted to talk and Karan wasn’t ready, he’d now say — “I want to listen, but I need 30 minutes to unwind first.

Can we talk after dinner?” And he would follow-up on his words. This made Aditi feel valued and heard, while Karan also got some time to unwind and find his balance before opening up to communicate with Aditi.Meanwhile, Aditi too learned to give space to Karan without taking it personally and assuming that distance meant disinterest. She began using that time to journal or go for a walk — releasing her emotions constructively instead of bottling them up.Another simple yet effective daily habit they incorporated was to have a de-stress ritual together— something that belonged only to them, outside work. They decided to spend 15 minutes each night together doing something light — be it watching videos, taking a short post-dinner walk, or sitting quietly with tea. It was all about being present together, sans the work stress or work talk.Within weeks, their emotional connection started coming back.

The silence that once felt suffocating became peaceful again. they now learnt to focus more on having a healthy work-life balance, while prioritising each other above all. They also learnt to be more empathetic and forgiving towards each other to make their marriage survive the stress of corporate jobs.However, what truly worked in their favour was their underlying love and honest intent to save their marriage from breaking apart. It is often said that relationships are tough, and modern marriages are tougher-- and rightly so. Being honest and open to grow together as a couple is one of the key traits for a marriage to workout, especially in difficult times.“We realized we weren’t broken," Aditi says now.“We just needed to learn each other’s rhythm,” Karan adds.Disclaimer: The couple’s names and identities have been changed to protect their privacy.