Woman Admits She's Staying In 'Cesspool' Marriage Because Of Her Age and Fear

Woman Admits She's Staying In 'Cesspool' Marriage Because Of Her Age and Fear
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Six years into their marriage, Michael presented his wife Karie with a postnuptial agreement that Karie signed. Now, she says, "I live in constant fear of Michael leaving me. And I am not getting any younger. I'm not pretty. I just want this postnup to be thrown away." Watch their story here.

Karie admits that she overlooked some possible red flags before marrying Michael, but says she still wants their marriage to work. "I still love him. At the end of the day, I want to still be married to him," she tells Dr. Phil in the video above.

"And that's not just because you think there's no alternative?" Dr. Phil asks.

After hesitating to respond, Karie explains, "I'm going to sound pathetic if I tell you that it's really because I'm old, at this point. The truth is the prospect of getting married at my age again, and the thought of having to do this all over again with someone else scares the heck out of me, and I don't want to do it again. So I'd rather just stay in the cesspool I'm in."

What does Dr. Phil think about the future of Karie and Michael's marriage? Is their postnup likely to be enforceable? Watch more on Friday's episode of Dr. Phil, "My Husband Convinced Me To Sign A Post-Nup, But I Want It Thrown Out!"

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8 Habits That Can Sink A Marriage
You’re Going Separate Ways (Literally)(01 of08)
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Your husband works a half hour north, and you travel a half hour south. Your home is precisely midway. Fair, right? Yep, but maritally inauspicious -- that’s what Irene Huang and her colleagues at the Chinese University of Hong Kong found when they studied American couples that commute every day.If, like many couples in the study, you and your partner commute in opposite directions, your marriage may be unhappier than you’d be if you were going in the same direction every day -- even if you don’t leave for work together. What happens in your subconscious, Huang and her colleagues wrote in the study, is that the commute takes on more general goal-related associations. Travel in the same direction, and you feel as if you’re sharing the same goals in life; travel in different directions, and you feel like you’re not. (credit:Thinkstock)
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We all know that creamy-buttery-lardy-cheesy stuff is bad for heart health. But Janice Kiecolt-Glaser and Ronald Glaser, researchers at Ohio State University, think that high-saturated-fat foods may also hurt your relationship. In an ongoing study, they’re asking married couples to eat meals in the lab -- one of the greasy-burger variety; the other, veggie-heavy. Once finished, the couples are encouraged to discuss vein-popping topics: money, in-laws, housework, and how to raise the kids. Based on their previous research, the researchers have a hunch that the participants’ blood samples will show that fatty foods enhance the body’s stress response to marital spats. Eat unhealthily and your argument may spiral out of control more easily -- and you may run a higher risk of cardiac disease, inflammation, and diabetes over time. Any way you look at a fatty diet, it’s bad for your heart. (Stay tuned; the study ends in 2014.) (credit:Thinkstock)
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You knew those stiff-faced yearbook photos would come back to haunt you one day. But this finding’s unexpected: Women with “low intensity” smiles in their childhood and college photos are five times likelier to get divorced as adults than those who smiled effusively, found a 2009 study at DePauw University. A bright, wide smile represents an underlying positive disposition and worldview -- undoubtedly helpful in marriage. Lifelong smilers may be the type to seek and sustain lasting relationships, and because smiling is contagious, their partners may be happier too. The good news about smiling: If you want, you can “fake it ‘til you make it.” As we know from the facial feedback theory of emotion, smiling deliberately can make you feel happier, because facial expressions influence emotions. (credit:Thinkstock)
You Don't Have The Marriage-Protector Mechanism(04 of08)
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Okay, you’d be lying if you said you don’t notice an attractive man when he smiles at you. We all do. And it’s perfectly fine for your married (or boyfriend-ed) self to admit it. But a funny thing happens when you’re truly, deeply committed: you’ll think that guy is less hot once it's clear he's an admirer. In a study led by John Lydon at McGill University, women (and men) who are deeply committed to their partners found an opposite-sex face significantly less alluring when told that the person had singled them out as a potential match. It’s a protective mechanism; they might not even be aware of it. Meanwhile, women who aren’t very committed to their partners are just as attracted to a handsome guy when he comes out as a potential suitor. So if you’re in the habit of finding Don Juans equally (or more) gorgeous when they do something flirty, there is an upside: Now you've identified your own early-warning mechanism and can work on building a deeper commitment with your partner. (credit:Thinkstock)
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Your boss did it. Lisa in accounting did it. Your best friend, Lynn, did it. Even your upstairs neighbor did it (and noisily). Everyone’s doing it: getting divorced. Not you, you say. But you’re in a high-risk group, judging by the “divorce cluster” data from a study led by Rose McDermott at Brown University. The people in your social network -- everyone you rub shoulders with habitually -- influence your attitude about relationships. People with divorced friends are 147 percent more likely to become divorced. Statistically speaking, the more your friends, co-workers, siblings, and acquaintances have done it, the more likely it is that you might one day say to your husband, "Let’s do it. Let’s get divorced, too." (credit:Thinkstock)
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