I am fortunate because my wife stuck by me when I became ill. This is remarkable because she had to endure a lot of anxiety each time I went to hospital. Perhaps the worst time was when my son had to go to hospital too because his asthma flared up when I was hospitalised. Yet she was always there for both of us.

But what might have happened if this wasn’t the case? Can illness cause the breakdown of a marriage? If so, what type of illness?

To find some answers, I did a bit of research. I typed “causes of separation” in to Google.  The first item listed on results page was from eHow.com, the ultimate authority on all matters of importance. I discovered only five issues trigger breakup:

  1. Money.
  2. Infidelity.
  3. Communication.
  4. Addictions.
  5. Sex.

This means only one type of illness is a major cause of separation and that is addiction. So if an ill dad is addicted – to alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex or whatever – then there is a good chance his marriage might breakdown. And one obvious way separation can occur is when he enters a residential rehabilitation program.

While I can only imagine the difficulty of such a situation, separation from the children of the relationship must compound the problem. To suddenly not be able to tell a bedtime story or kick a football together must be incredibly hard. Whether or not the marriage survives, the father child relationship will change forever.