3 strategies to relieve grief after a relationship has ended

Dealing with a breakup and ending a relationship is really difficult. Whoever was forced to do so knows well. A new study has suggested 3 strategies that could help overcome this moment to varying degrees

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Dealing with a breakup and ending a relationship is really difficult. Whoever was forced to do so knows well. A new study has suggested 3 strategies that could help overcome this moment to varying degrees.

Sandra Langeslag, professor of psychology and director of the Neurocognition of Emotion and Motivation Lab at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, has conducted new research considering the different strategies potentially useful to overcome the breakdown of a romantic relationship.

1. Thinking negatively about your ex
2. Remind yourself positively about your ex
3. Focus on positive thoughts that weren't about your ex

Langeslag and his research team studied 24 people, aged 20 to 37, who had been in a long-term relationship, which ended after 2 years on average.

The psychologists divided the subjects into 4 groups, using different strategies. The members of the first group thought negatively about their exes. Those of the second group, on the other hand, remembered him positively. The third group focused on positive things that weren't about the exes. The fourth, control group was not asked to think of anything specific.

Next, the researchers showed the images of the exes to the participants, measuring the intensity of their emotions through electrodes and submitting them to a questionnaire.

The results

All three strategies had reduced emotional response to the photos compared to the control group, but only subjects who thought negatively about their ex reported feeling even less love for them. The same people also reported a worsening in mood from the start of the study.

The third group, through a distraction strategy aimed at avoiding thinking about lost love, reported an improvement in mood which however did not affect the feelings about the ex. In any case, these were short-term solutions.

"Love setting doesn't work like an on / off switch" "he said Langeslag.

To overcome the end of a love it takes time, and for this there is no need for scientific proof.

READ also:

• Farewells and separations: how to overcome abandonment (without trauma)
• 5 emotional wounds that prevent us from living peacefully
• Healing the 5 emotional wounds by acting with the heart

Francesca Mancuso