Like you, millions of married women all over the world suffer from this eternal dilemma - how do you know when your marriage is over? The question is so important that women run to counselors, scan the internet, discuss it with friends and talk about it to anyone who would listen - all in search for some clues by which they can be sure that their marriages are indeed on the right track and nothing has happened to topple the applecart.

In case you too have reached a stumbling block in your marriage and do not feel quite sure whether your relationship with your spouse is what it should have been, you could be also groping for an answer to the question how do you know when your marriage is over. The first point that I would like you to clarify before I tell you how to know when your marriage is over is on what basis are you thinking on these lines? Is that 'sixth sense' telling you that there are things that are seriously going wrong with your marriage, or do you have some kind of proof which points towards an impending disaster?

As a married person you know the seriousness of this bond. If you do, then you also ought to know that there is no place for guess work or playing mind games with each other here. Therefore, even if your marriage is progressing towards a point of no return, you cannot simply base your judgments purely on instincts or gut feel. You need solid evidence.

Having said so far, how do you know when your marriage is over? If you are looking for facts to corroborate your gut feel, look for these tell-tall signs of a failing marriage:

• Total or partial breakdown of communication. There is hardly anytime that you spend together to talk, unless it has something to do about kids, family or home.

• You end up fighting over trivial issues. No body has any patience. Both of you irritate each other.

• There is no more room for making any compromises any more. Both of you, given half a chance, start to lament the decision to have got married in the first place. You live more in the past than in the present or in the future.

How do you know when your marriage is over? You really do not have to depend on your 'gut feel' alone. If you probe deeper, you would find enough signs and symptoms which tell you that your marriage has reached point of no return.