When should you start dating again after a break up?

This is a question that keeps coming, and one that has no specific answer.

Is a day after you break up too soon to start dating? Is the week after too soon also to start dating?

The best person to answer this is non other than you.

Sure, some people start dating right after their breakup, often much to the shock and disapproval of everybody else. A good example of this is found in high profile celebrities who after a break up start datting somebody else. It’s usually only a matter of hours before photographs and stories start to circulate in the press and the news media.

Of course, almost everybody who starts dating ‘too early’ will argue that enough time has passed, but most people are still healing emotionally especially if the previous relationship was a significant one.

Realise that if you haven’t ‘flushed’ out your ex out of your system, nobody else you date right now is going to hold your full attention. In a sense, you’re wasting their time.

Imagine if it was the other way around and somebody you started dating was actually hung up on an ex. You would probably feel like they’re using you – at some level – to distract themselves from thoughts of their ex. They are still healing emotionally, hence their focus is really not on you.

To decide whether it is too early or not to date again – and assuming this question concerns you in any way – then think about your reaction if your ex began dating somebody else right now.

Do you think it’s too early? If you do, then you have your answer.