6 Things You Should Never Do After a Breakup
Dealing with a breakup is scary and confusing. When we’re
heartbroken, we tend to make some not-so-great decisions: drinking
too much, hooking up with strangers, blaming ourselves or even
seeking revenge. The good news is that we can learn from these
mistakes! And even though breakups are never easy, they can be
more or less painful depending on how we handle them. We talked to
dating experts and collegiettes about some common post-breakup
mistakes to help you avoid them in the future.
Mistake #1:
Trying to stay in contact with your ex
Talking to your ex as usual
Mark Sharp, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist at The Aiki Relationship
Institute, warns that “even if there is potential for a friendship after a
breakup, there almost invariably needs to be a period of time” before
you two can be friends.
“I kept in too much contact with my ex, since our constant
communication was an addiction, and therefore, it took me longer to
let him go,” says Heather*, a junior at the University of California, Los
Angeles.
Although it’s tempting to keep texting your ex just to check in or for a
casual conversation, it will only make it harder for both of you to
move on. “There are still feelings of connection that lead at best to
confusion, and at worst, to significant hurt and conflict,” Dr. Sharp
says. You could be delaying the pain when you should actually try to
accept and deal with it directly. Bottom line: deal with your own grief
first before considering being friends with your ex.
That being said, perhaps you and your ex are part of the same friend
circle, you have class with him or her or you just run into him or her
a lot. In this case, “you can simply be polite and smile when you see
them,” says Carole Lieberman, M.D., psychiatrist and author of Bad
Girls: Why Men Love Them & How Good Girls Can Learn Their
Secrets . However, you should try to avoid your ex as much as
possible until you’re ready to move on.
Trying to get your ex back
Sometimes you’re so attached to a relationship that you want to keep
more than just the reassurance of staying in touch; you want your ex
back . According to Dr. Lieberman, “The most common mistake girls
make after a breakup is chasing after the guy to try to get them back,
from making promises to change into their dream girl to outright
crying and begging.” This type of desperate behavior could actually
backfire, convincing your ex that he or she was right to break up with
you in the first place.
Mind-set issues at play here “include an over-attachment to the
relationship, a belief that love is supposed to last a lifetime or a belief
that your ex ‘belongs’ to you,” says Kim Olver, a relationship coach
and author of Secrets of Happy Couples: Loving Yourself, Your
Partner, and Your Life . If this sounds familiar to you, it’s time for you
to move on.
If you do decide you want to win your ex back, the only way is in fact
“to show him that you have moved on to bigger and better things,”
Dr. Lieberman says. “Use the breakup as a wake-up call to change
things about yourself that you don't like” and go from there. If he or
she wants you back, good. If not, you’re better off without him or her