14 People On The First Time They Had Their Heart Broken (And How They Recovered)

1. “I had feelings for one of my close friends for like 2 years, and finally gathered the courage to tell her. She didn’t feel the same way. The only way I could move on was by not talking to her. It really sucked for a long time, but I can see now that it was completely necessary.” —Nick, 27

2. “It wasn’t a prefect system, but when my girlfriend of a year split, I got right back out there. I knew she was going out and having a good time, so I didn’t see the point of moping around. It was mostly a lot of first and second dates that didn’t go anywhere, but eventually I met a girl that made me forget all about my ex.” —Marshall, 24

3. “My relationship of four years just started falling apart at the seams. Neither of us were happy and the whole thing went up in flames one night when we both had had too much to drink. I threw myself into my work as a distraction. I wrote a book and all of the things that kept me from sleeping spilled onto the pages, pretty much acting as my therapy. One year later, I’m dating someone new and have a manuscript I’m trying to get published.” —Annie, 30

4. “I was head-over-heels for this guy, but he didn’t want a relationship because he still wasn’t over his ex. We did this really weird on-and-off hooking up for a while, but when he still wouldn’t commit to anything even slightly serious, I had to remove myself. I moved to a different city, but was still totally hung up on him. We would text every once in a while, and one day he thought it would be funny to send me a picture of his shit. Like, his ACTUAL poop. That pretty much killed any lingering feelings I had for him right there. 10/10. Highly recommend as method for getting over someone.” —Jill, 24

5. “My wife divorced me, and I tried everything to move on from her. I tried online dating, meaningless sex, hypnotherapy (I know), but ultimately the only thing that worked was time.” —Jeremy, 35

6. “About half way through college, my girlfriend broke things off because she met someone else. So I slept around. A lot. I was so angry and thought that I could ‘get back at her’ by sleeping with everyone she knew. Long story short, she didn’t really care (or show that she cared), and I had to rethink who I was really hurting in the process. Once I stopped trying to hurt her, I started to actually move on with my life.” —Neil, 22

7. “I’ve always been lucky that I was the one breaking hearts for a long time. It wasn’t until my fiancé broke off our engagement and moved to a different state that I ever really felt torn apart. That happened last year, and I wouldn’t say that I’ve recovered much at all. I miss him every day, but I try and miss him a little less each time. It doesn’t always work, but yesterday I only thought about him once, so I’m pretty proud of that.” —Gwen, 28

8. “My first boyfriend broke up with me a month before graduating high school, because he didn’t want to be attached when he went off to college. It broke me. He had been my first everything, and while I didn’t know how we would handle being apart during college, I thought we would at least attempt to make it work. I refused to go to school for that first week after he broke up with me. Eventually my parents forced me out of the house. I didn’t really start to get over him until I went off to school. The whole college experience was so overwhelming at first that I sort of forgot to be sad.” —MJ, 20

9. “It was fifth grade. I passed Samantha J a note asking if she liked me, she checked ‘No.’ After a lot of soul searching and many tears, I moved on when her best friend Caitlyn sat next to me at lunch and told me that she liked me. We were together for two whole days.” —Skyler, 21

10. “I went to therapy. My boyfriend left me for someone else, and I fell into a serious depression. It took quite a few sessions to realize that my depression was linked to some much more personal insecurities than my ex. I’m doing better than ever now, so really, breaking up with me was the best thing my ex ever did for me.” —Maria, 25

11. “I’m not gonna lie, my friends did a lot of the heavy lifting when my college boyfriend cheated on me. They’re an amazing support system, and there was always someone available to talk through everything with me. They kept me from doing anything too stupid, but supported me when I inevitably texted him. Without them, idk where I would be.” —Brittany, 21

12. “The break up was pretty standard. We were together for 10 months, then she didn’t think we were working out. I spiraled, did a lot of crying and drunk texting. Only truly got over her when I met someone else that I’m completely crazy for now.” —Lauren, 25

13. “The guy I dated all through college broke up with me A WEEK before graduation. My short term recovery? I broke stuff. Nothing too valuable, but ripping up old posters he liked and burning/deleting any photos that existed. I smashed his favorite coffee mug that he left at my apartment. Once I let out all of the anger, I cried every night for about two weeks. After that, I had this sort of dull pain that followed me around for a while. Over time, it faded until I was able to think about dating again without cringing.” —Katie, 23

14. “My boyfriend of three years broke up with me out of the blue, and I didn’t handle it well. I spent a good six months trying to get him back, but it was pretty pointless. I was refusing to acknowledge that we had been growing apart for months and a break up was inevitable. In the end, I had to accept that the person I had fallen in love with didn’t exist anymore. It sucks.” —Anna, 26