Most people seem to know that divorce litigation can cost a lost of money for legal fees. If expert witnesses are involved, their fees are over and above that. One emotional cost of litigation is that it encourages the litigants to focus on the past, which diverts their time and energy from the present, and the present often just slips away. Litigation also invites litigants to avoid taking responsibility for their own lives. This also leads people to feel helpless.
Litigation tends to foster polarized thought processes.
Polarized thinking is recognized to be a cognitive dysfunction in other disciplines, yet the law, or litigation, promotes it. Viewing the world in black and white is not only inaccurate, it is one primary cause of conflict, and conflict destroys human relationships. Litigation seduces people into fantasizing that there are magic solutions to their problems. Litigation bolsters fortunate belief that happiness exists externally when in fact happiness exists within oneself. Litigation also cements ill will.