Breakup Hurts: Relationship and breakup are like two tracks. These two paths never meet in the love life of any couple and they spend their entire life smilingly with their favorite partner. But not everyone is so lucky. Many couples have to separate from each other whether they want to or not. Breakup is not only emotionally painful, but the stress created due to it also brings many types of physical-mental problems. Then again, not every person overcomes a breakup in the same way. Male and female partners also have different patterns of forgetting their past and moving forward.
Who recovers from breakup faster, man or woman?
According to research, the interesting thing is that after a break-up, women experience more emotional and physical pain but they move on faster than men. Research related to this was published in the Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences Journal. Researchers at Binghamton University and University College London interviewed 5,705 participants from 96 countries and asked them to rate the emotional and physical pain of a breakup on a scale of 1 (none) to 10 (unbearable).
This research shows that women are more negatively affected emotionally and physically by heartbreak. Female participants rated their ’emotional pain’ after the breakup at 6.84, while for men this figure was 6.58. Additionally, women rated their ‘physical pain’ at an average of 4.21 and men rated it at 3.75.
But it also came to light that women recover quickly from this pain and come out stronger. While women channel their emotions creatively and understand themselves and the needs of the relationship better, men have a completely different way of dealing with the situation. The study says men may either ‘feel nothing’ or resort to alcohol, drug abuse or violence.
Research shows that men take longer to overcome and have to struggle more to get ahead than women. In fact, researchers observed that many male participants were suffering from PRG (post relationship grief) at the time of the study, even if they had separated more than a year earlier.
Researchers explain how biology plays a role in this condition. Craig Morris, lead author of the study, wrote, “A brief romantic encounter would have led an ancestral woman to nine months of pregnancy and then several years of breastfeeding, while men may have had ‘opportunity’ moments after that encounter. It is the ‘risk’ of high biological investment that has made women more selective about choosing a high-quality mate. The loss of a relationship with a man is more ‘painful’ for a woman.
Interestingly, for men, who have evolved to compete for the attention of women, losing a ‘high-quality’ mate may not initially cause ‘sadness’. However, when they realize their loss they start feeling pain. Craig explains, “A man will feel the loss deeply and for a very long time as it sinks in that he will have to ‘start competing’ again to replace what he has lost.”
Discussion about this post