To ask how much would your happiness change if from tomorrow your DH/DP were no longer in your life?

[DoubleBass9]

If tomorrow your DH/DP were no longer in your life (no specific circumstances behind this), aside from the initial shock, would you be significantly happier or unhappier?

Does your DH/DP contribute to your level of happiness/unhappiness significantly or are they just a small factor?

It's our 10th anniversary today, that would be some gift I dunno actually to be honest, I'm pretty self sufficient and resilient so I think I'd be ok, the dc maybe not though.

I'd be less happy, we're very good together, but I'd get on with it.
I'm surprisingly content with my own company
Luckily my DH assures me I'll be financially ok but that assumes that his "disappearance" isn't a divorce with an OW with expensive tastes

I would be absolutely devastated. I adore him.

@mrsBtheparker I'm so sorry. I lost my husband some years ago and I completely recognise what you describe. If you haven't already, please do join widowed and young (if you're under 50) or way up (if you're over 50), they provide really good peer support. It made such a difference to me.

I’d be devastated; my life would be a lot worse without DH

Name changed for this as friends know my other name!

I am longing for that day, it can't come soon enough. He sucks all of the joy out of everything, he is miserable, cantankerous, argumentative and I can't wait until I have the house to myself and when I walk in, I come in to peace and quiet. I walk in to the tidy house I left with no mess. I can decorate in the style I want instead of giving in for an easy life.

The reason I stay is because he has many health issues and I am his carer. My life changed massively when that became the case but he doesn't recognise that because he is too 'woe is me' His health issues mean he may not be around for much longer and that day can't come soon enough. I want my old life back. It wasn't always this bad, it's just got worse in the last few years. Although we were married and did lots of things together, we were also fairly independent but I have lost that and am now responsible for him first.

I am happiest on my own.

Would he be just walking out or dying? I would love his £450,000 life insurance money... 😂

I think I would keep it together for the sake of the kids but I would be beyond devastated. He really is my better half.

I'd be lost.

I'm intelligent. Self-sufficient. Etc. etc. etc., but I'd still be lost.

@Ragwort

Hate to admit it but I'd be fine (as would he if I was the one who left/died) ... we've been married too long - 30 years + - our lives & interests are going in different directions but I get the feeling that neither of us can be bothered to do anything about it. I would just love to live alone, absolutely no interest I'm meeting anyone else, just want to live my own life (we do pretty much live independent lives, certainly no longer share a bedroom ).

We'd been married for 51 years and as is inevitable after all that time our lives and interests did to an extent go in different directions but I really think you would be surprised if it happened the sort of little things you would notice and/or miss, I am having to learn to say 'my' and 'me' rather than 'our' and 'us'.

Devastated. Me and the kids. In the long run of course we'd cope and manage but I would feel the loss of my other half very deeply.

I would also be lost.

My DH is nearly 30 years older than me so i always went into the relaitonship some 20 years ago knowing that all thing being equal I would be a widow fairly early and for a long time.

I have a plan for this when it happens. I will be selling up where we live and moving back to where I am from.

to everyone missing somebody, and to those who are not in the relationship they want to be in.

I cannot imagine a life without him. I am an independent woman. No debts. I earn my own money, can do anything that needs doing in the home/garden, I have a wide circle of friends independantly from our joint friends but he's been my best friend for more than 30 years.

Well I've been with DH for 30 years and we absolutely love each other and he is a part of my soul.

I would be shocked and devastated if he were to die or disappear tonight. And it would be a period of huge reaclimitisation and I would miss him and be lonely.

However, I would stand up straight, paint on a smile and get on with it. That is the woman I am, why he loves me and I would owe it to his memory.

I don't find him supportive, if I tell him or ask him anything I either get a lecture on what I must do or a loAd of fussing and flapping which makes anything more hassle. Life would be easier on my own but the house would be b empty.
Married 35 yrs

I'd be lost - practically, emotionally and financially

Have been with my DH 9 years and they have been the happiest of my life, he is far from perfect (neither am I) but definitely is the person I want to spend my life with. I would be really unhappy and lonely without him

Separated from my husband on Boxing Day last year. Virtually nothing has changed except I don't have to clear up after his disgusting habits.
We have split very amicably and the dc's see him when he pops in a few times a week. I'm much happier now and the dynamic in my house is so much better now.
Do I envy those who share that they'd be devastated? Maybe I do but I'm pretty self-sufficient so, not much.

It would break me, it's my worst fear - I honestly don't know how I would keep going. He's been my best friend and other half for almost as long as I can remember.

I am so sorry to everyone who's lost theirs

If he died, I'd be distraught but a lot richer. If he left me or cheated and I kicked him out, I'd bounce back a lot quicker emotionally but be a lot poorer. Either way, I would try and focus on how lovely and tidy the house was. The kids would have a lot of difficulty adjusting. He's a great father - a better father than partner in lots of ways. But we've been together over 20 years so he must have 'one or two little things going on', to quote Officer Rhodes.

for everyone who has lost their partner.

I would be devastated in so many ways.

I love him to bits. We have been together 40 years and we are very happy together. Still fancy each other, a lot. He is very easy on the eye and smart. Very smart. That makes for a great partnership.

Yes, he has annoying bits, as do I, but my god, we are good together. He also does all of the cooking and shopping, so I'd lose all this fat I've been hoarding.

We are at that point in life where this will be reality, for one of us, in the not too distant future. We will survive it ,and make a new life, when we need to. It will be so much less. So much poorer, and I don't mean in the money sense.

I'm really sad to read the posts where you are in a relationship that does not make you feel this way. You only get one life. Please don't sacrifice it for the sake of anyone, even your DC. If you are happy, they will be happy.

For those who lost their partners,

I would be devastated

I feel a bit sad about not feeling DH is my soulmate and I couldn't live without him, but also sort of relieved - this may sound weird, but I don't think I could take the thought of being with someone I needed so much.

Much love to those who have koved and lost

Devastated and I know for a fact that I wouldn't want another relationship.

My marriage is very similar to my parents and when my Dad passed away, my late DM had no interest in replacing him either.