Photo: Ron Lach

What does a loveless marriage look like?

A loveless marriage is a relationship where one or both partners do not feel in love. Instead of being romantic lovers, they often feel more like roommates or siblings. Being in a loveless marriage often breeds isolation, resentment, and hopelessness.

drwyattfisher.com - Loveless Marriage - 4 Steps To Reverse It! - Dr. Wyatt Fisher

How do I stop DHT from attacking my hair?

Finasteride binds to 5-AR proteins to block DHT from binding with them. This helps keep DHT from binding to receptors on your hair follicles and...

Last updated Dec 14, 2020

What can stop your period?

Why your periods might stop pregnancy. stress. sudden weight loss. being overweight or obese. extreme over-exercising. taking the contraceptive...

Last updated Feb 25, 2019

Promotion

Virtually all relationships begin with both partners feeling in love. However, over time when needs go unmet and conflicts build, many couples fall out of love. Suddenly, you wake up and realize you're in a loveless marriage.

What is a loveless marriage?

Loveless Marriage - 4 Steps To Reverse It

1-Understanding the Love Bucket Model

All spouses have various needs in marriage, and we can either meet those needs or neglect them. I think of it as a love bucket. We all have a love bucket inside of us, and our spouse is like a faucet filling it up. When we are first dating, our partner excels at filling it up. Before long, our love bucket is full, and that makes us fall in love with them. However, through the years, whether intentionally or unintentionally, our spouse turns down the faucet and only drips water into our love bucket. Simultaneously, they begin doing behaviors we dislike, which creates a hole in the bottom of our bucket and water starts leaking out. With less water going in and more water going out, our bucket gets lower and lower until finally it’s dry, which makes us fall out of love with them. Therefore, one of the most important things I help partners discern in couples counseling is what the top things are that fill up their love bucket and the top things that drain it. If we can determine those items and implement it, love buckets can once again get filled, and couples can fall back in love and stay in love.

2-Fillers

The list of fillers below are common ones I’ve seen partners desire in marriage. Fillers are all the behaviors you desire to feel loved and satisfied. Fillers can be things your partner did in the beginning when you were dating, but they stopped through the years. They can be things they still do, and you want them to continue. Or they can be things they’ve never done, and you gave up on it. Bring that item back. The sky is the limit. What are the top three fillers you need to feel loved and satisfied in your marriage? What are the top three behaviors below that would make you feel like you're not in a loveless marriage?

Quality Time- This person feels loved and close when receiving your undivided attention.

How can I get my blood pressure to drop fast?

Relax! Losing excess weight. Quitting smoking. Reducing alcohol and caffeine intake. Prioritizing sleep. Avoiding stressful situations, if...

Last updated Oct 23, 2022

Can you eat onions with high blood pressure?

Onions contain antioxidants and compounds that fight inflammation, decrease triglycerides, and reduce cholesterol levels — all of which may lower...

Last updated Dec 5, 2021

Promotion

Affection- This person feels loved and close from non-sexual touch.

Emotional Intimacy- This person feels loved and close from sharing and hearing inner thoughts and feelings. Recreational- This person feels loved and close from physical activity together, such as hiking, biking, swimming, etc.

Sex- This person feels loved and close from sexual activity together.

Support My Interests- This person feels loved and close from questions about important things in their life. Physical Attraction- This person feels loved and close when you optimize your appearance. Thoughtful Gestures- This person feels loved and close when you provide acts of kindness. Write down the top three fillers you desire from your spouse then give them a number on how well they’ve filled up your love bucket on each item over the past seven days, with zero being the worst and ten being the best. For example, if one of your fillers is affection and you feel your partner did okay on meeting that need over the past week, you’d give them a five. If they were amazing providing affection, you’d give them a ten. If they provided no affection, you’d give them a zero. Keep in mind you’re only evaluating what was within their control. For example, if your partner was in bed with a bad cold part of the week, they wouldn’t have been able to provide affection, and it was out of their control, so you wouldn’t dock points for that.

Download KTG to enter your fillers!

3-Drainers

Fillers fill up our love bucket, and drainers drain it. A drainer is anything your spouse does that makes you feel negative toward them. Drainers create a hole in the bottom of your love bucket, allowing water to leak out. Therefore, if your partner is doing an amazing job filling your love bucket but simultaneously doing a lot of drainers, water won’t stay in your bucket. The drainers will cancel out the fillers. Consequently, it’s not effective to just track fillers. We must track both fillers and drainers to successfully fill one another’s love bucket.

Here's a list of common drainers and their explanations.

Parenting- This person dislikes their partner’s parenting style.

Defensive- This person dislikes how their partner does not take ownership for their part in conflicts.

Finances- This person dislikes how their partner handles money.

Harsh Anger- This person dislikes how their partner gets harsh with their anger. Passive- This person dislikes how their partner is passive in certain areas of life.

Controlling- This person dislikes how their partner doesn’t share power on decision-making.

Uneven Workload- This person dislikes how they work more overall than their partner.

What percentage of sexless marriages end in divorce?

Sexless marriage and divorce rates According to some data, the divorce rate is around 50%. Dec 30, 2021

Last updated Dec 24, 2020

What is the main cause of kidney infection?

Bacteria that enter the urinary tract through the urethra can multiply and travel to your kidneys. This is the most common cause of kidney...

Last updated Mar 20, 2020

Promotion

Sloppy- This person dislikes how their partner leaves their belongings all over the house. Write down the top three drainers your partner does that makes you feel negative toward them then give them a number on each one; however, the scoring is opposite. For the drainers, zero is the best and negative ten is the worst. Zero means your partner didn’t do the drainer behavior at all, so no water was drained out of your bucket. Negative ten means they did the drainer behavior a lot over the past seven days, so a lot of water was drained out of your bucket.

Download KTG to enter your drainers!

4- Love Bucket Goal

The goal on the love buckets is for you to eventually get eight to ten on each filler and zero to negative two on each drainer. When you do so consistently, you’ll become irresistible to your partner and your loveless marriage will turn into a loving one! Your current behaviors in your marriage are burned into your brain. Therefore, it will take time to develop new neuronal pathways, similar to a hiking trail. The dominant trail is well worn, and you follow it without thinking, which is your current marital behavior. However, creating a new trail takes time to wear down the grass before it become the new dominant path, which is your new marital behavior. Normally, when couples first create their list and receive numbers, they are doing drainer behaviors much more than filler behaviors. From my experience working with couples, if they are both putting forth sincere effort on filling up their partner’s love bucket, it typically takes six to twelve weeks before filler behaviors become frequent and drainer behaviors become infrequent.

Summary

Maximizing your partner’s fillers they desire while minimizing the drainers they dislike is the fastest way to have them fall back in love with you. It’s the path to filling up their love bucket and keeping it full. When both partners commit to doing this, it becomes the answer to reversing a loveless marriage.