The Absolute Worst Ways To Break Up With Someone
Reddit user StarGazingMouse asked: 'What is the Worst way to break up with someone?'
Ending a relationship is never easy.
True, some people who have an unfortunate amount of experience doing so have developed tactics and methods to ensure a lack of anger and/or tears.
This might include breaking up in a specific restaurant, having certain music playing while doing so, or timing things out just perfectly.
Of course, those with experience might also tell you certain breakup methods that are guaranteed to end in acrimony and vitriol.
"What is the Worst way to break up with someone?"
Seeing Other People...
"He started making out with another girl while we were at a party, all sitting on the same couch."
"That deflates the romance pretty quickly."- Extension-Gap69
"Start an open relationship without telling the other party."- Kenton2k·
Running To Mom
"I once had a guy's mom break up with me for him."
"We were both in our mid 20s."
"For the smart alecks, myself and ex-bf were both in our twenties and dating."
"His mom was the one who told me he was breaking up with me."
"I wasn't dating the mom."- AutumnFalls89
Mothers Day Mom GIF by 505 GamesGiphyAlways In Person...
"Text them and ask, 'can we talk?'"
"Type for twenty minutes."
"Finally send the message, 'I’m breaking up with you'."
''Sorry'.”
"True story, found out later he probably cheated on me."- lamemayhem
"She texted me breaking up with me after going on a family trip."- Kangaroo_Exact
"Calling the day after my birthday (long distance)."
"Said she didn't love me anymore, she was sleeping with someone else, and I should get tested (last visit to her was months before)."
"I tested positive for Chlamydia."
"She said she waited to tell me because she didn't want to ruin my birthday"
". How generous of her."
'Also I didn't have any noticeable symptoms from the Chlamydia - I went about 4-ish months before I found out."- renegadepony·
Donald Trump Vote GIF by Creative CourageGiphyDon't Bury The Lead
"Make them think the relationship is strong and then say some of their bad qualities and leave them."
"Then what you do is get with their ex or parent."- PhantomNuke12
If You're Going To Do It, DO IT!
"Ghost them."- Psychic_Wars_Warrior"My ex-fiance was supposed to escort me to my friend's wedding for which I was the MOH."
"We had a wedding date set, I had a 1/2 ct round diamond and a dress chosen."
"We rented a house off-campus at college and were seniors."
"That Friday before the wedding, he suddenly came down with the flu."
"He couldn't travel."
"I believed him and he acted loving and apologetic, etc."
"I went ahead and took the 3 hour trip."
'When I got back Sunday and walked in the house, everything, including furniture, was gone."
"My clothes and books were still there but everything else was GONE."
'I guess that meant he broke the engagement!"- WeatherKat3262I
The Goose Bird GIF by Bare Tree MediaGiphyDon't Try To Be Cute...
"'We're donion rings'."- Reddit
Now That's Cold...
"Show up to their family dinner as their relative's date."- PyukumukuGuts
Who Will You Be Trying To Impress
"I had a dream my partner broke up with me by making a PowerPoint presentation."- mcashleigh
Talking Season 3 GIF by The SimpsonsGiphyDon't Make Public What Isn't Common Knowledge
'A woman broke up with me by changing her Facebook status to single.'
"In her defense, we had a fight over the phone that morning, but I didn’t think it was quite such a big deal."
'The nice thing about finding out that way was at least I didn’t have to deal with the sort of person who breaks up with by changing their Facebook status anymore."- Funky-Spunkmeyer
While plenty of people are able to break up amicably, all breakups come with enough hurt, pain, and sadness as it is.
So there's no need to try and make it worse.
...A little surprising no one mentioned a Post-It.
Do you have any bad break up methods? Let us know in the comments below.
When love is on the rocks and there's no salvaging a relationship, it's better for a couple to call it splits.
Sometimes the reason for a breakup is obvious.
Other times, it's more complicated.
But the people involved going their separate ways is better than staying in an unhealthy relationship.
Curious to hear from ex-lovers who've been there, Redditor Lishasquarepant asked:
"What caused your last break-up?"
These Redditors found they and their significant other were no longer on the same page.
"Simply, we grew apart."
– catetheway
"Same, I feel like Michael Scott everytime I try to start another relationship. 'No question about it, I am ready to get hurt again.'"
– Gthew
Happier Apart
"Same. We loved each other like siblings, not spouses... Ugh! Lovely man though who now has a fab girlfriend. We are good friends and much happier apart."
– MoxieHasKnottyBits
No Regrets
"Same. And it f'king sucks, but that’s life. It’s been a year and I still hate every second that she’s not in my life, but at the same time I know she’s happier now than she would’ve been if we stayed together."
– throway35885328
Having no communication is the worst part.
Silent Partner
"He slowly got distant. I believe he lost interest and didn't dare be honest with me about that."
– GaiaNatur77
The Late Blame Game
"I had that happen as well, but then he pinned it on me being distant and not affectionate enough."
"My guy, if you pull your hand away every time I try to hold it, I'm gonna stop trying to hold it. And if I ask if something's up and you repeatedly tell me everything is fine, I'm going to believe you. Don't wait till I'm at my worst moment and then reveal you had issues with me for 3 months and break up with me for it being 'my fault.'"
– Billielolly
"Everything Is Fine"
"Oh man, the asking repeatedly and getting a 'nothing' reminds me of a story."
"My friend used to ask her ex this every time he was unusually quiet. He’d always say he was fine, then at one point, told her to stop asking because it was making him feel weird."
"So she did."
"Six months later he initiated a divorce because she didn’t care about his feelings anymore."
"Like…don’t ask for sh*t then get pissy when you get what you want."
– TheRealJackReynolds
And then there are those who were not invested in the relationship for a long time.
The Struggle Is Real
"He seemed to struggle with the concept of not f'king random people."
– spanglesandbambi
Leaving The Problem
"He moved to his country because he missed his family. So he only sent a WhatsApp message saying he was going to stay there. I would have preferred a call at least to break up a marriage."
– kattia12
New Life
"Something similar happened to my cousin. He married her in the US, they had a baby together.. a few years go by, he misses home, goes back to visit.. His family had an arranged marriage ready for him 🤦🏻♀️ He ended up with a new wife and new baby. Hasn’t came back."
– MysticalMom7
A Foreign Custom
"It just seems so surreal that a grown a** adult with a wife and baby would leave his family behind for an arranged marriage. I'll never fathom the mentality."
– ro0ibos2
Ouch
"I wasn't having sex near as often as she was."
– YourWordsMatter
Breaking up is hard to do.
But a good thing to remember is that love can be found again and the new relationship can be even better than the previous one.
And that's something that can't be recognized until you look back in retrospect.
We all have to kiss a few toads.
A breakup can really reveal a person's true colors.
Whoever in the relationship initiated the heartbreaking news that "this isn't working out anymore" or for any other reason the significant other didn't see coming can elicit irrational behavior.
Can they be blamed for going into a blind rage? Well, it depends.
Curious to hear just how someone whose had their heart broken reacted, Redditor No-Feeling865 asked:
"Whats the most f'ked up thing your ex did after a breakup?"
Some people just can't accept the fact that love has died and they resort to revenge.
Fake Pregnancy Alert
"Said she was pregnant and sent me a positive test. I searched positive pregnancy test results on Google Images… it was the first one to pop up."
– SpaceShipET
Public Announcement
"Had an ex make a MySpace page about how I’m a f'king loser. I already knew that, but I just thought it was rude."
– EssEyeOhFour
The Expensive Guilt Trip
"Take out a credit card in my name, go to Greece, and rack up $6K in charges in my name the stick me with it."
– soon_zoo55
Based on these cases, divorce seemed a logical next step.
Expensive Waste Of Time
"Cheated on me, refused to sign the divorce papers, so I had to pay an attorney thousands more to show up to court."
"Showed up to court, judge asked: kids? No. Shared property? No. Bank accounts? No significant money in them."
"Judge literally asked, 'why are you here?' I pointed at her, he sighed, signed the divorce and said 'next case'. Thousands of dollars for literally two minutes of court time."
– Shoddy_Emu_5211
No To Makeup Sex
"I left my wife when she threatened me with a 6' kitchen knife because she was stressed by our 11 year old son's homework. 4 weeks later when I collected the last of my things from our house she looked upstairs and seductively said 'do you want to come upstairs for a f'k?'"
"In the 18 years we had been together she has never said anything like this before."
"That was a definite 'No!'"
– Elegant-Ninja-8166
Actions spoke louder than words verifying these were not the kind of people you'd bring home to meet mom.
Truth Comes Out
"Immediately started dating the girl he swore he wasn’t cheating on me with."
– emshlaf
Animal Cruelty
"Hung my dog off a balcony. He is okay now."
– easygoinggirlie
Sometimes, there's a happy ending.
Blessing In Disguise
"I had an ex who cheated on me multiple times, and just generally manipulated me emotionally. Always lied to me and never actually came clean about the cheating, even when I had evidence, or when her best friend came to me because she thought I should know."
"We finally break up after 8 years, and I get back out there and start hooking up with someone else, ended up getting her pregnant, and it was her choice to keep it."
"My ex heard and called my Mom to tell her before I had decided to tell anyone in my family, totally blindsided me when I started getting calls and texts from my parents."
"Anyway, the other woman ended up being the most amazing mother, friend, and partner you could ask for. We've been married for 4 years this summer, and our son will be 5 in the spring!"
– Cristal_Lizard
The horrific behavior mentioned above just further cements the fact that some people were never meant to be in your life.
That's the thing about a person's true colors–you don't see them until in hindsight when the relationship becomes comfortable.
Love makes jilted people do crazy things, indeed. Like slashing an exe's car tire in a parking lot with surveillance cameras catching all the angry action.
Yeah, that may or may not have happened.
Some relationships are doomed from the start.
But this might not always be obvious to the couple in question.
Sometimes, a relationship could last for months, even years, before one defining moment makes it clear that there will not be a future.
These moments might be things people can laugh about a few years later, or things they make every effort to rid from their memories.
Redditor donutnolikey was curious to hear the moment other members of the Reddit community knew that their relationship was dead in the water, leading them to ask:
"What was your “OH HELL NAH” moment in a relationship that made you leave?"
People are not always who they appear to be.
"I dated a guy who’s ex left him randomly one morning, kissed her goodbye for work and came back and her sh*t was gone."
"Changed her number, and moved back home."
"He never talked to her again, I thought it was super sad and messed up for what she did."
"He use to wake up in the morning crying over her, I pathetically just comforted him."
"But one day I woke up to him emailing his ex girlfriends mother saying he was going to come down to Seattle and kill them all!"
"It wasn’t much later I found out he was served a restraining order from the family."
"Now I see why she left without saying goodbye."- Tay14073.
"We were making out at his house and he kept pressuring me to have sex."
"I was still a young, naive virgin so I refused."
"We started watching a movie instead."
"I went to the bathroom and he stole my car keys."
"Once I was back on the couch he started trying to take off my clothes."
"I was scared so I grabbed my purse to leave."
"That's when he jingles my keys."
"He said I could have them back once I slept with him. I just ran outside and called my dad."
"My dad showed up and threatened to beat his a** if my keys weren't returned."
"Got my keys and got the f*ck out."
"He continued to stalk me for the next 7 years."- UnicornQueefsGlitter.
happy in love GIF by LifetimeGiphyCouldn't wait to get married.... to someone else.
"She stole my car, drove it from Washington to Las Vegas, and married a guy she met on Xbox Live so he could get residence."- Reverend179.
Came back an entirely different person.
"She went on vacation to have a spiritual awakening by doing drugs in the jungle and came home accusing me of being a demon."- Modifiedpoutine.
"There was a lot of crap but this was the final straw."
"I locked the door before going to bed one night when he was out late with friends."
"He had lost his house key and never bothered to mention it, which was somehow my fault."
"He woke me up by banging on the window and when I let him in began screaming and throwing things at me."
"Telling me to pack up my sh*t and leave and locked me out of our bedroom."
"I slept on the couch."
"Next morning he acted completely normal, like nothing had happened."
"I was gone that day because I no longer felt safe."- swiftsafflina.
More than they could handle
"I woke up at 3am to my partner of 11 years muttering at me when he thought I was asleep."
"His tone was so dark and disturbing I felt that if I hadn't woken up to hear him I may not have woken up at all."
"He wasn't loud so maybe it was the way he was speaking that made me wake up like I did but my brain was immediately on high alert."
"I snapped awake and alert in an instant and just knew that I should just stay still and quiet and not let him know I was awake."
"What came out of him where all sorts of wild accusatory delusions spat at me with so much venom that 6 years later I still clearly remember the feeling of dread that washed over me."
"My whole body was weighed down with it."
"Our relationship wasn't a great one by any means but it was the first time I genuinely felt afraid of what he would do."
"I was afraid to speak up but also afraid that if I stayed quiet and let him keep on his rambling that it could progress into something worse and if it came to it I could never have fought him off."
"That's when it really clicked to me how seriously he needed professional intervention and that I was not only unable to help him but also that I needed to get out from under the same roof as him as soon as possible."
"Paranoid schizophrenia is a b*tch and the available mental health care in our area is a joke."- Wonkeynut.
Delayed validation.
"She crawled through my doggie door at 1:30 am, went through my phone, and then asked me why I was talking to another woman."
"Oh, I forgot to mention that I broke up with her a month earlier."
"We were not in a relationship when she pulled that stunt."- OLPopsAdelphia.
On My Way Cat GIFGiphyOver sharing?
"My ex would tell me about all the dreams he was having about killing me in vivid detail."- slightjudgment_.
Gaslighting, much?
"My ex would lie about sh*t and make me question my own reality."
"F*ck you bruh."- Suwaveh.
sally kohn gaslight GIF by The Opposite of HateGiphyLack of sympathy.
"Ex wife started an argument with me one morning when I was headed to the funeral of a childhood friend."
"I asked if she could not do this right now."
"Her response was “ohhhh, poor you.”
"That was the beginning of the end."- Slydermv.
To assume makes an a** out of you and me...
"Was with my ex for six years."
"We had a shared apartment and when I came home from work one evening he was standing in front of the door with packed suitcases."
"I asked what was going on and he said he could no longer be in a relationship with me because he wanted children at some point and he could not imagine a life without."
"I replied completely perplexed that I also want to have children someday and that he knew that."
"Surprise: he assumed in all seriousness that I could not breastfeed children with my A cup breasts and that our child would starve miserably because too little milk fits into my tatas."
"He didn't break up with me that night, I did."- Dangerous_Slice6032
At some point, you just have to cut the chord.
"My boyfriend at the time has given me forewarning that his mother will move in with us after marriage."
"He’s a mummy’s boy."
"I acknowledge this is not a dealbreaker for other people but I accepted this is mine and responsibly walked away."- Tiarakitty
Listen Mothers Day GIF by Cartoon HangoverGiphyA sad and dangerous secret.
"I lived in a pub at the time with my then wife."
"I ran it while she had another job."
"She'd come home from a bad day and scream at me in front of the customers."
"She used to go to house parties and stay out all night."
"I later found out shed stolen stock and was on coke."
"Then the final straw was when she punched me in the face 'in her sleep' giving me a black eye."
"The next night i wake up to her making weird angry sounds."
"Thinking she was having a nightmare i tried to comfort her."
"All I hear in the silence and darkness was 'you make my skin crawl'."
"'Touch me again and I'll give you another black eye'."
"She left the next day before I woke up, having cleared out the safe of all the cash."
"I couldn't pay the staff, or the brewery fees."
"The business folded a month or so afterwards and I ended up tending bar elsewhere."
"I never cheated, didn't lie to her, never ever raised a fist to her let alone hurt her."
"I was sure i had done something to cause it.. was I a bad husband?"
"Turned out she had raging bi polar disorder and some other issues she had kept a secret from me our entire relationship and was off her meds for years.'
"Genuine fear."- Haunted_Entity
Sometimes it takes another pair of eyes to see clearly
"Basically his cousin told me my ex used to physically intimidate his ex gf of 5 years."
"This was after he lied about his ex ever existing, and lied about being with her for 5 years, and lied about how they were not friends."
"What broke the camels back was when one morning while I was working from home he asked to go get coffee together."
"I drove us, because he never wanted to drive."
"As we were driving he kept asking me leading questions if I was happy and I told him: 'I am having a stressful morning, could we get back to this important conversation later in the day, when I can be emotionally prepared?'”.
"He began yelling, screaming and punching the center console of my car."
"He then opened the car door to attempt to jump out of the moving vehicle."
"I stopped the car and caught my breath."
"I drove us back home and began packing my things."
"I stayed the night at his cousins house and he revealed to me that this wasn’t the first time."
"I’ve never cried harder in my life because so much made sense."
"My ex practically spoke non stop about his ex and I was 19, he was 24."
"U didn’t have a concept of boundaries, manipulation, healthy relationships, etc."
"Once his cousin revealed that: everything clicked."
"Why he felt guilty about his ex, why he was paranoid about people hurting him, why he was unable to have stable moods."
"I left as quickly as I could and never looked back."- OhmeOhmy7202
How insensitive can you get?
"My (now ex) wife, I'll call her Beth, had an ex boyfriend reach out to her on social media."
"I found out later turned into phone calls."
"All of which she tried hiding from me.:
"Which is bad enough."
"My mom had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer (and I was the lucky one who got to tell her!) and decided she wanted to die in her home state."
"Couple weeks later, Beth tells me she thinks i should fly up to visit my mom for a long weekend, and told me she booked a ticket for me."
"The night before the flight, she says we need to talk."
"She tells me she has been talking to her ex, and she's going to fly out to visit him 'to find out if she has feelings for him', she'd be staying at his house while she's there, and she 'can't say it won't be in the same bed'."
"Yes, while I was still trying to process my emotions and feelings about my mom dying, and while I would be visiting my mom, my ex was going to go visit her ex boyfriend, and stay at his house during the visit."- Wick_E_Scratch
There are those who look for a sign, as to whether or not they should stay in their relationship.
And when their sign is as bizarre and unsettling as several of the above stories, it might make them all the more grateful to have gotten out when they did.
It can be hard when a relationship has run its course, when there's no more gas left in the tank but you keep pushing the proverbial car forward hoping to reach your destination.
Sometimes you need to leave the car at the side of the road and keep making your way on foot. It's okay to ditch a bad relationship, and it'll be better for all parties involved in the long run.
You just have to know what signs to look for, and thankfully, the internet can provide a litany of examples.
Reddit user, Nonchalant_Calypso, wanted to know when the magic ended when they asked:
"What was the moment you knew your relationship was over?"
Knowing You Have To Spend Any Amount Of Time With Them
"When she came up on caller id and my first thought was 'Ugh.'"
– LiterallyOuttoLunch
"I had a similar feeling in my first marriage. I'd come home, turn onto our street, see her car already in the driveway, and have the same feeling... 'ugh.'"
– HumpieDouglas
When The Drama Is Never-Ending
"When you dread her name coming up on caller ID because you knew it was an argument about nothing. Don’t settle for an angry life."
– sexychocolatethunder
When You Don't Smile Like You Used To
"I was at my best friend's wedding. When he saw his bride walking down the aisle, he had a grin so big it looked like it could have exploded right off of his face. He was so happy to be marrying this person. And when I thought about my, now-ex, gf I realized that I just didn't feel that way about her."
"I will say, when I married my wife, I was grinning like an idiot."
– kitskill
When Your Day Night Is Awful
"When I realized I dreaded Fridays, our standard date night, and saw it as something I needed to get past before I could start enjoying the weekend."
– Always_Trying01
When The Cheating Was Going To Happen Right In Front Of You
"My ex & I were not living together, but he had the key to my place. I told him that I was gonna go see my parents for the weekend, but then changed my mind last minute because I started feeling sick. I forgot to tell him & just went home after work & went to bed. I woke up around 10pm to get a glass of water & while I was in the kitchen I heard someone fumbling at the door with the lock. I freaked out because I lived on the 17th floor, so if it was a break in, I was f-cked. All of a sudden he walks in..... dragging a tipsy girl in behind him."
"I just stood there while he tried to make up some sort of excuse as to WHY he was there. The girl was pretty shocked too."
– UrszulaG
When They SUCK
"When I was going through a miscarriage and he couldn’t take me to the ER because he was in fantasy leagues and football was on."
– amadileirbeer
"Damn that goes way beyond just not loving you anymore and into worthless piece of sh-t territory."
– Osirus1156
When They SUCK. Hard.
"She poisoned my cat 🐈 Mr Noodle"
"RIP"
"Edit: Thanks everybody for the support, and if you're asking: yeah I got the police involved"
– GrumpaSpaceGoat
When You Fade From Their View
"You can see it in their eyes when they don't love you anymore."
"I'll never forget that feeling."
– escape_of_da_keets
"You absolutely can. It's like they are looking past you, yet right at you.. ugg. It's terrible .. Been there a few times."
– willevans1972
Cheating, Sure, But Completely Misreading The Situation
"The day my mom passed away (the coroner hadn't even come for her body yet) with zero consideration on how I felt and what I was going through my ex-fiancé thought it was great idea and a good time to tell me he has been cheating on me for the last 6 years, and how sorry he was for it."
"He wasn't sorry he did it, but he sorry because the other woman had lied to him about who she really was and he wanted me to comfort him because he felt betrayed by her...."
"When I promptly broke up with him, he asked "wait is this really goodbye?" how could you do this to me now?"
– OpenRepair4390
When They Look For The Right Moment In The Wrong Time
"Yeah. Long time girl friend broke it off between us after my Father died. Basically, she felt since I would feel less grief then over us, as I was already feeling so bad about Pop's passing. I later learned, this happens a lot."
– StatOne
After College Break Up
"We were in college and a year before graduation, I was offered a job in a city that wasn’t home for either of us. I was open to moving there or to his home city (I’m from a small town so that wasn’t really an option) but was NOT open to long distance. When I asked him if I should take the job meaning he would only search for jobs in the new city, or if I should reject the job and instead only look for jobs in his home city, he couldn’t give me a straight answer. I should’ve broken up with him on the spot, but it took 2 more months of unhappiness before he broke up with me "
– BasketSubstantial923
That'll Do It
"i cheated and he found out"
– potato-shawarma
We Tried Everything
"She told me she is gay. We explored polyamory because she wanted a relationship with a woman and I was open to it. We had a triad for a while, but when that ended, things changed. She met a girl about 3 months ago, I would say the first moment I saw them look at each other, I knew she found a love that wasn't what we had. Last night, she told me she can't be my wife anymore. She's my best friend and we have a long road ahead, house, kids, debt. But we'll be okay and work though anything together."
– tfkhungry27
Good Thing She Talked About It
"Was on a voicecall with some of my friends and they asked me to tell the full story of my relationship with the guy. How I met him, ect. I went on to infodump our story from the very start. How he accused me of cheating on him twice, (including once before we even got together), how he slapped me once, and a whole lot of red flags that I announced so casually at the time."
"Knew it was over when I got dead silence from all of my friends when I finished."
– onionofcheese
Too Close Of A Friend
"She told me she had made a new friend to hangout with while i was at college. I didn’t mind because it was nice to have some freedom (she was really clingy). I started hearing rumors from her friends that she hooked up with this guy but she had my head so messed up that I didn’t believe the allegations. Until 3 months later when the guy dm’ed me a photo of them naked in his car. That was the moment. I was actually glad to get out of the relationship and this was sort of the last straw."
– TrevorClark_37
Falling Out Of Love
"When my partner of 5 years told me they might be loving me less and less and that when I asked a few weeks prior what were some of their favourite memorable dates the last one they could think of was 3 years ago"
"really shattered my rose coloured glasses and I realised I couldn't do it anymore"
– -RiceCloud-
When Love Isn't Enough
"When my therapist asked why I was staying and my only answer was “I love him”. Sometimes love isn’t enough. Consideration, effort, help, as affection, these all matter and you deserve what you need ."
– icantwhistlewell
A Real Lack Of Communication
"when i stopped hoping he’d respond to my messages, and just automatically assumed he wouldn’t."
– beloveedpersephone
Not Even Happy About The Happiest Place On Earth
"When there was literally nothing to look forward to... We (she) was making plans to go to Disney world this year just the 2 of us. It was gonna be a family trip but things fell through so we were still gonna go. Instead of being excited for it like most would be. I was dreading it. I couldn't imagine having fun at Disney world with her. Yeah she had a lot of baggage from a lot of different places, it was rough."
– cbran021
Don't feel bad when it has to end. Think of it as a fresh start for you both and make the tough call.