10 Surprising Things About Ending A Long-Term Relationship

“Suddenly not having someone to talk to in between everything else you do. I never realized that at every free moment I would pull out my phone and have messages to reply to from my SO which meant I was always busy. Suddenly, I had nothing to do in the gaps between. Took me months to retrain my brain not to immediately reach for my phone and open up messenger. Who the hell am I going to tell about all the mundane, inconsequential but amusing stories and anecdotes that happen throughout my day now?” — SendMeDistractions

“How much of my life was dedicated to the relationship. My schedule, my hobbies, my sleep hours, my feeding. Everything changed after our marriage ended. We were together since we were young so I think it was natural our lives were tied to some degree but not so much. I had to start over most of my life, like if I was starting a new character on a video-game.” — jayboogie15

“Dating is DIFFICULT. You have to relearn how to read people and how to communicate your wants and needs. Also, I never realized I’d have to make all new friends, since I lost most of them.” — immyowngrandma

“The expense. Being with someone for almost twenty years and sharing all costs, then suddenly trying to live on my own salary drove me into a lot of debt. Now under debt review and trying very hard to live within my means.” — alonewithpippin

“I had forgotten how couples biased the whole world is. People will invite you and your partner to go along on some event, out to dinner, whatever, but you alone? Nope. It’s socially isolating to be single in a time when you would, theoretically, want to be more social. I’m actually happy single, but I miss some of my married friends and doing shit with them. It’s like I have to remind them I’m alive.” — calcaneus

“The spontaneity factor. You can say yes to last minute things and go on adventures. When you are in a long term relationship, adventuring (without your partner) is very limited and you always have to make sure either they are ok with it/you don’t already have plans/they can watch the kid/dog/cat etc.” — ameriuk

“It gets harder to meet someone new. Sure, you’re smarter, wiser, more mature and probably have more money. But so does most of your peers including your dating potentials. It increases people’s standards because people have been burned before so they are more picky.” — yuri_yk

“How much quicker people expect sex nowadays. After I ended my long term relationship I dated a bit and every guy expected to have sex within the first couple of dates. That made me really dread navigating the dating scene.” — Ohmesone

“How differently my male friends started to treat me and act towards me. I went from having guy friends who were practically my brothers who I could always count on to suddenly constantly being hit on.” — RockClimber247

“How capable I am! My ex convinced me I needed him to take care of things around the house. Once he left, I made bookcases, used the chainsaw on the woodpile, took a long camping road trip alone, fixed the bathroom sink stopper, replaced the ‘guts’ in the toilet tank, saved more money than ever before, and so much more. I am not only capable of doing more around the house, but I can also do it all better and faster.” — AlreadyOlder