Surviving the Big Bad Break-Up

Breaking up is so much a part of life that you can hardly get sympathy from anyone when you are going through one. We have become desensitized to the pain of a break up, unless of course we ourselves happen to be in the middle of a really difficult one.
Is it just me or does everyone have that one big-bad-break-up?

Happily, it has been ages since my last break up, which was my big bad break up. I am currently in a five year long relationship, the longest and the healthiest one I have ever had. In many ways I believe I have achieved this due to the insights and lessons I learned from my big bad break up.
My big bad break up felt like I had slid down a razor slope into a pool of alcohol. That will never happen again. I sincerely believe that you can shape a possible break up by properly shaping your part in the relationship. I have it down to a fine art.

There are many horrid aspects that haunt you on a daily basis when you are freshly broken up. One of the daily pains I experienced was the routines my ex and I had developed and thus practiced. When we broke up, those routines had an abrupt end- the kind that thrust you back and holds you there, then a sharp thrust forward., like a car crash. The absence of our routines reminded me constantly that my ex was missing and that we were over. The weekend was hell, especially because we had spent the weekends without work or school interruption. On post-break up weekdays, I lived for school and work- it was the nights that were long. What made weekends even worse was that in the weeks after, I could hardly sleep, so the weekend lasted longer. Then again, so did the nights. The all time low was watching Saturday and Sunday morning teen aged sitcoms. No, I am not kidding. Saturday morning began with me, unable to get out of bed barely waking to California Dreams, then Saved By The Bell There was even a ditty about kids from the United States going to school in Europe. The European boarding school was actually not too bad except when the kids decided that they were singers.