Surviving a Relationship Breakup

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1 Surviving a Relationship Breakup Surviving a relationship break-up can be one of the most difficult things we ever do and on an emotional level can be one of the most painful processes in our lives. Losing a boyfriend/girlfriend or a husband/wife can feel like your heart is literally being torn out. Here are some suggestions of finding balance after a breakup: Don t Fight Your Feelings A breakup is often accompanied by a wide variety of powerful and negative feelings including sadness, anger, confusion, resentment, jealousy, fear and regret, to mention a few. If we try to ignore or suppress these feelings, we may only prolong the normal grieving process, and can sometimes get totally stuck in it. Healthy coping means both identifying these feelings and allowing ourselves to experience these feelings. There are several situations that may intensify your negative feelings, including: Not being the one who decided to break up. Not seeing the breakup coming. This being your first serious relationship. Your ex being your only real close friend. Continuing to run into your ex. The relationship made you feel whole or complete. Your ex starting to date someone right away. Thinking about your ex being sexual with his/her new partner. Believing that your ex is the only one in the world for you. Openly Discuss Your Feelings Talking about our feelings related to the break-up is an equally powerful tool to manage them. As we talk to supportive friends and family members, we can come to some new understandings and relieve some of our pain. As we talk to others, we usually discover that our feelings are normal and that others have survived these feelings. Try not to isolate yourself or withdraw from those people who can give you support. Write Out Your Thoughts and Feelings It can be very helpful to journal our thoughts and feelings related to the break-up. People are not always available when we need to get out our feelings and some feelings or thoughts may be too private to feel comfortable sharing with others. The act of writing our feelings out can be very freeing and can often give us a different perspective about them. Understand That Break-ups are Often an Inevitable Part of Dating Remember that many of our dating relationships will end up in a break-up. This is the very nature of dating. Until we find our best match, we are going to be moving in and out of relationships. Relationships usually end for some good reasons and they should end if we want to find our most suitable partner. Of course, no match will be perfect and we have to decide how

2 long to keep looking and what we can live with. Finding a complementary partner is more than about love and therefore, it is going to likely take many dating relationships to find. It s not you It s me It is natural after a break-up to blame ourselves, but try not to personalize the loss for too long. Much of the pain of a break-up comes from seeing the loss as our fault and regretting the choices we made while in the relationship. This process of self-blame can go on endlessly. Each person in a relationship is trying to get his/her own needs met and some couples are able to help fulfill each other s needs and others are not. One of the biggest issues is being able to communicate and negotiate these needs. In most situations we are all doing the best we can, given our personalities and life history. No one goes into a relationship with the goal of making it fail, or hurting the other person. Prioritize Basic Self-Care Self-care refers to ensuring that our basic needs are being met, despite the fact that we may be feeling upset and depressed due to the break-up. We may not feel like eating but do it anyways, and try to make some healthy choices in what we eat. It is important to give ourselves ample time to sleep, particularly since this may be difficult. Sleep deprivation will only compound our negative feelings. Keeping up or starting an exercise routine can also make us feel better both physically and psychologically. Remember, exercise causes the release of endorphins, which makes us feel better. Get Back Into a Routine Since going through a break-up can create a sense of chaos in many areas of our lives, continuing on with our routines will give us a better sense of stability. Although taking some expectations off ourselves temporarily can help, returning to routines shortly after the initial blow can help calm us down and give us a returning sense of control. This might include routines around wake-up and bedtimes, meals, school or work related activities, exercise, and time with others to mention a few. Indulge Yourself If there was ever a time to pamper ourselves, it is after a break-up. We need to do something that will actively make us feel better. Indulgence can take many forms, depending upon what we really enjoy, but could include: going to a special restaurant, going to a movie with a friend, having a hot bath, trying a massage, going on a short trip, buying something new, taking the weekend off, taking a yoga class or reading our favorite book. Give Yourself Some Slack Expect that we are not going to be functioning at full capacity for a time due to the distress we are experiencing. This might mean allowing ourselves a break from studying for awhile, or studying less than we usually would. It could also mean working less in a part-time job for

3 awhile or saying No to any new demands. This can help find a balance in grieving our loss and maintaining our regular routine. Don t Lose Faith in People or Relationships Since we may be feeling very hurt after a break-up, it is easy to assume that all men (or women) are bad or untrustworthy, but this just isn t true. By holding on to this belief, we will be denying ourselves all kinds of opportunities for a great relationship in the future. We can t overgeneralize from our limited relationship history and assume that it will never work out. Keep looking! The more people we meet, the greater the chance we will find our best match. Let Go Of the Hope You Will Get Back Together Unless there is some very strong evidence that we will reunite with our ex, try to let go of this possibility. Bringing closure to the relationship is impossible if we continue to hold onto the hope that the relationship will be resurrected. This means not waiting by the phone for a call, or try to or text him/her to try to have a little more connection, or beg to get back together, or make threats to get him/her back (i.e., you will commit suicide). These options will only perpetuate our emotional distress in the long term and make us feel worse about ourselves, which will further impact our already shaken self-esteem. Life is too short to wait for someone to come back after a break-up. Just Friends!??@# Does it really work??? It s not helpful to depend on our ex after a break-up, especially to help us overcome the pain of the break-up. It makes it a lot harder to get over someone if we are continuing to see him/her or trying to maintain a friendship. After a significant period (i.e. months) of no contact, a friendship might be possible, but it s a good idea to wait until we are feeling back to our normal selves again. Unhealthy Coping Strategies There are several ways of coping with a break-up that are considered unhelpful and will likely only compound our problems. These include such choices as drinking excessively, doing drugs, overeating, self-harm, excessive gambling, sleeping around or becoming a workaholic. We may be tempted to do whatever we can to avoid feelings of loneliness and pain, but it is important to find healthier ways to cope. Make a List of Your Ex s Annoying Qualities If we are feeling bad because we keep thinking about how much we miss our ex or how well suited we were to him/her, it can be helpful to make a list of all of his/her less endearing qualities. Particularly if we didn t initiate the break-up, it s easy to focus on everything about our ex that we will miss, which can only magnify our suffering. If we spend some time reflecting, we may come to see incompatibilities in the relationship that make it easier to let go and come to see that there is likely a better match out there for us.

4 Revenge is not Sweet The idea of retaliating against someone who made us fee hurt is very tempting, but making this choice may have unforeseen consequences. Depending on how angry we are, these consequences could lead to criminal charges if we did something illegal. As much as this might feel like a good idea in the height of passion, it only makes us feel more out of control. Examine What We Can Learn From the Relationship We can learn a lot from all the relationships we have been in, particularly ones that are painful. It s very helpful after a relationship ends to spend some time thinking about and writing down what we have learned so that we can have better relationships in the future. It s not an opportunity to beat ourselves up or blame ourselves for the relationship not lasting. Learning promotes growth, while self-blame (i.e., feeling we are a failure) only extends our suffering. Make A List of All the Benefits of Being Single Although being single again may be an unwelcome event, if we were not the one who chose to break-up, it is worth reminding ourselves there are some definite benefits to being single. Here are a few ideas to get you started: We are now much more able to put our own needs first. We will soon have the excitement of dating again, even though this may feel a little scary. We will have more control over our daily routines, not having to negotiate these with someone else. We can spend more time with friends and family, who may have been feeling neglected. We can do some traveling, that we might not have been able to do with our partner. We can choose jobs outside of the immediate area, because no one isn t affecting our choices. We can eat what we want, when we want to. We can go to bed and get up on our own schedule. We will be able to meet lots of new people, since we now have more time to do so. We will have much more individual freedom. We now have more time to study. We can be as messy as we want. Remember That You Can Survive On Your Own It is important after a break-up to remind ourselves that we were able to survive on our own before we entered the relationship and we will be able to survive on our own now that the relationship is over. Relationships cannot make us whole, even though they are a part of our life and our happiness. We all need to be able to stand on our own and meet our own needs, regardless of the status of any one of our relationships. Remember, the healthiest relationships are with two people who are able to meet their own needs.

5 Start Dating Again Although it is often hard to decide when the best time to date again is, it is somewhere in the middle. We do need to grieve the loss and discover what we can learn from the past relationship, but we also have to move on, which means beginning to date again. Keeping the dating more casual at first might be wise, rather than jumping right into a deep, meaningful, long-term relationship. Dating can help us see there are lots of other possible connections out there, if you open ourselves up to this possibility. More dating will mean more risks, but there is no alternative unless we are content living life without a partner. Some people can be content in relationships with just friends and family, but most people need more intimacy than this to feel completely fulfilled. Bottom line is that breaking up is one of the risks inherent in dating. Just remember that grieving is a day by day process and that it is ok to feel what you are feeling because it will get better. This too shall pass!!! ~Persian Sufi poet