Getting over it

One minute you were planning your lives together, the next you're giving back their CDs. You've become an ex, but how do you deal with it?

Don't:

• Jump back into bed with them: You may have been the greatest sexual partners since Antony and Cleopatra, but the heartache will last longer than the act.
  
• Call and hang up: Call drunk late at night, send rash emails every other minute or indulge in any other stalker-like behaviour. Give it up.
  
• Rebound: They won't live up to your ex, your emotions will be haywire and it will all get too serious too soon. You'll also feel 10 times worse if it all goes pear shaped.
  
• Avoid going out in case you bump into them: You need to socialise, so get out before life passes you by.

Do:

• Take some time to yourself: Switch off the mobile, get some videos in, chill.
  
• Put some distance between you: Like the Atlantic Ocean. Pack your bags and go somewhere exotic, it's harder to be sad in the sunshine.
  
• Accept it is over: You can't move on if you still allow hopes that you will get back together and live happily ever after. You will get over it. You will.
  
• Lean on me: Talk to people, it helps get it all out in the open and will help you feel better.
  
• Look after yourself. We're talking super pampering here, eat well, sleep well and begin to feel well, whether you eat your favourite food every night or you let your mates take you to places they'd never usually go just to cheer you up, go do it.
  
• Write down all the ways your partner pissed you off: We guarantee they won't seem quite as perfect as your rose-tinted memory makes them.

Next

Get out there and do something, it may be cliched but changing your image, trying something new or just getting fit can help you focus on something other than your ex and help you to gain confidence and move on.

Then, one day, someone will mention your ex and you will realise you hadn't thought about them in a while. Result.