How to Support a Friend After Break Up

24.05.2023

How to help a friend with a break up? We've all had our hearts broken. And for many, sometimes this becomes a real test, which is not so easy to go through alone. Let's figure out how to support a friend after a breakup.

Advice for friends who break up

If you understand that your friend or your girlfriend cannot cope on their own, you need to try to help them get out of such a difficult situation. How to help your friend through a break up?

• Show empathy. You should gain strength because love sickness can sometimes drag on for months. Always try to put yourself in your friend's shoes and understand how they might feel. Let him know that he is not alone and that you are always ready to provide support. You must be positive and give hope.

• Don't discount. You may think suffering for an ex-boyfriend who behaved horribly is very stupid. But this does not give you the right to devalue a friend's feelings and say there is no point in killing yourself for such a bad person. For you, this may not mean anything, but for her, now, this is the most essential thing in the world. So keep your opinion to yourself and show empathy and support.

• Tell them it's okay to show emotions. How to support a friend through a breakup? Talk to your loved one and explain that it is normal to experience strong emotions and show them. There is nothing shameful or wrong with crying, being upset, and being sad. On the contrary, when a person gives vent to emotions, it is much easier for him to cope with difficult situations.

• Listen. This is one of the main pieces of advice that can be given in such a situation. You should always be there and make it clear that you are ready to listen at any moment. It is important not to express your opinion if it has not been asked, but simply to listen. Sometimes you don’t even need to answer anything; you just need to give the person the opportunity to speak out and express everything that is inside.

• Always ask how you're doing. It is very important to know things to say to friends after a break up; these should be words of encouragement. Do not be afraid to be intrusive in such a situation. This is exactly the case when it is better if there are more of you than less in the life of a girlfriend or friend. Write messages, sometimes call and just chat about nothing, try to distract a person from his painful thoughts, which now do not leave his head for a moment.

• Distract a friend. If your friend doesn't mind, then go somewhere together. For example, take a walk through the city in good weather, go to his favorite cafe, or just go to the movies. The more often and more he is out of the house and in a pleasant company, the faster he will be able to get distracted and survive the difficult situation in which he finds himself.

• Don't rush things. Even if you are sure that a couple of months is enough to survive a breakup, this does not mean that everyone will agree with you. Everyone experiences grief in their own way; some need more time to deal with their feelings. Don't expect your girlfriend to be able to get back to normal quickly. Be prepared to wait.

• Protect your friend from the internet. What to do for your friend after a break up? After breaking up, many of us begin to sit for hours on the page of the former to find out what's new with them. It's better to avoid it because such behavior only stirs up the past and makes the friend think even more about how everything was fine before and how bad it is now. Suggest that he use social networks less and give up dating sites for a while because this will help him quickly get distracted and not feel anxious from the endless monitoring of the page of his former lover.

• Keep track of whether new bad habits have not appeared in the life of a friend that did not exist before. Helping a friend get over a breakup. When a person is going through a difficult time, he may not pay attention to his health. Therefore, make sure that this does not happen to your girlfriend. If you notice that she is not sleeping well, eating poorly, drinking alcohol, or even taking drugs, say that you are very concerned about her behavior. If you can't figure it out on your own, you might want to contact a professional. Just do it very carefully so as not to provoke a quarrel with a friend.

What is the most common reason people break up?

Due to the fact that they stopped seeing and hearing each other, or never really noticed or heard. When we meet, we often begin to project the desired image onto a partner while ignoring his actions, actions, and desires, which could signal that this person is not quite right for us. And then we can not understand why the picture does not converge.

It often turns out that the partners have not changed: they were the same before, had the same habits, reasoned the same way, and broadcast the same goals and values. It's just that everyone expected that the "inappropriate" traits of the partner would change over time.

Unfulfilled expectations lead to disappointment and loss of trust. Partners begin to realize that they differ in their views, goals, values, and preferences.

The other extreme is to project onto a partner what we most fear in a relationship. Fantasies, in this case, are based on the experience of the past, and again we do not see or hear a real person. After many unfulfilled expectations, couples often break up. This leaves scars on the hearts of both partners. If your friend is going through break up, then you need to be nearby and this is the most important thing.

What are the stages of experiencing a breakup?

There are seven stages of mourning that apply to living through a breakup: shock, denial, anger, guilt, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

At first, the news of the breakup leads to shock, gradually turning into denial. It seems that this is a dream: I will wake up now, and everything will be as before. Then we gradually realize what happened; different experiences begin to visit us: hatred turns into a feeling of guilt, prompting us to try to fix everything, start from scratch, and at some point, despair covers; I just want to cry. Sometimes a person can get "stuck" in some stage or cycle of stages. In a healthy version, having mourned the loss, a person accepts that those relationships are no more, lets go of a partner, completely switches to everyday affairs, and makes new acquaintances. The best breakup advice you can give to friends is to embrace each stage and live through it. 

If your friend is ready to date again, then sign up for GoDateNow to find a partner. Dating sites are great because you can chat with several people at the same time before going on a date. In the Girls online gallery section, you can choose a few girls that you like and make friends with them. To learn more about online dating features, read Our Dating Blog.