Generally, a breakup is the ugliest incident that anyone encounters. Once upon a time, a person at the centre of your life starts feeling like a ghost, which means they are physically absent but emotionally in control of your life. A breakup sometimes breaks you within, and one expresses multiple diverse feelings at one point in time. Breaking all ties with near and dear ones brings up feelings of hurt, self-doubt, anger, an inferiority complex, and many more challenges to face in life.

Imagine a situation: dull lights in the room, most the time curtains blocking sunshine, sad songs rewind and play, teary eyes, black or white clothes, a poker face, and a feeling of unworthiness—a person with a breakup might have tried one or the other thing.

Though there aren’t any typical stages or road maps for breakup stages, Well, it depends on how invested one is in the relationship. For some people who are not emotionally attached, it may seem like just passing time with another person, while for others it may be a case of life and death. In this blog, we will understand together the most common potential stages of losing a romantic or special relationship.

Stage 1: Shock

It is the most common exclamation mark in life when you are the one who was rejected or if you were lovy-dovy and didn’t see it about to happen. In this situation, one keeps on analyzing what went wrong and the reasons why, starting from day one of being in a relationship. Your mind keeps on questioning why it happened, what was the mistake, was someone else feeling unloved, or did not meet his or her expectations. Most of the time, partners seek attention for the closure of the relationship. They look for genuine reasons and try to argue and defend their deeds. But the initial expression and question are: why? It was all so beautiful, and why suddenly this heartache?

Stage 2: Denial

At this stage, people completely refuse to accept that it’s happening. They keep on looking for information backwards because they are so attached and probably look forward to the whole future with the person, and suddenly that glass mansion is shattered. So in the initial stages, they do not accept that the person who once loved them immensely and promised to be with them forever has broken up with them. People keep on arguing that it was a silly reason to break up with them, which ultimately leads to denial. In this phase, people often convince partners with promises of not repeating themselves and keep on hoping that they might change their minds.

Stage 3: Bargaining

In this stage, people often go back to their partner with a list of repeating errors and try to change themselves to make things better between them. During this, they even forget who they are. Notions like what can be done differently, and if provided another chance, I would do everything to make him or her happy and not give them any reason to leave us. Until things settle down, one keeps on thinking ‘if only.” We beg their pardon and continuously nag them with our thoughts. During this stage, the person’s most vulnerable side emerges.

Stage 4: Anger

Once shock, denial, and bargaining are passed and reality hits hard that yes, it is a breakup, finally, the person expresses anger. They become short-tempered and get angry over silly things. The feeling of being rejected hurts them so badly that their pain comes out in the form of anger. They become angry for being so emotionally attached, giving time, money, and energy to nurture the relationship when others are not even valuing it. Sometimes in this stage, feelings of envy and competitiveness surface with others or with oneself. This often led to a series of other emotions like disappointment, grief, helplessness, etc.

Stage 5: Grief

After anger, the true mourning process begins when you ultimately start to realize true pain. At this stage, you start to accept the reality that the person with whom you shared special moments is no longer around you, and the same warmth from that person won’t be available anymore. Sometimes people may suffer from depression, emptiness, and empathy. This is the most difficult stage to pass by, but the more you feel the pain and hurt over some time, the wounds start healing. If this stage is passed, you will understand your priorities and needs and find yourself.

After these five crucial stages of breakup are successfully passed, you can dwell on yourself. You start loving yourself, taking care of your aesthetic values, and engaging yourself where you can be useful to others. Slowly and gradually, you start moving on from that pain and start accepting other people and being ready to be in a new, better relationship.

It’s not always necessary that, through the stages mentioned above, a person follows the same track. One might jump back into the trap or be really slow or super fast in healing the inner wounds. Some people might tend to become angry just after a breakup, or some even don’t go into shock. It all depends on the person, the nature of the breakup, and the tenure of the relationship. Irrespective of the order of stages, breaking up is tough and requires a lot of self-love and lots of support from loved ones. But eventually, you become ready to fall in love when things fall into place.