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How Polyamory Cured Our 7 Year Itch
by Michelle Montoro
I am writing this on the morning of our 10th wedding anniversary. We have been polyamorous for the past 3 years of our married life together. We hit that 7 year point, you know the point at which all things seem to fall apart in relationships. I think most people are familiar with the concept of the 7 year itch, a psychological idea which suggests that the happiness of couples begins a steep decline around 7 years of marriage.
This is an idea that has been around for over a century and has been extended beyond interpersonal relationships to any situation that requires a long term commitment, such as a job or a home. It is a phenomenon of the human experience that many of us simply get bored which leads to unhappiness approximately 7 years into any commitment.
It is also a phenomenon that is so far reaching that it has garnered enough interest from experts to prompt quantitative analyses of divorce rates over time. Samples taken from studies done by the National Center for Health Statistics have shown that over the last 100 years, the median duration of marriages before ending in divorce falls right around 7 years. At that 7 year mark, tensions either become too much to bear and couples end the union or they find a way to adapt to one another and make it work.
