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The 7 Biggest Mistakes People Make During a Breakup That Make Everything Worse

Being honest (but not too honest) goes a long way.

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Breaking up badly is easy. Most people have done it, been on the receiving end of it, or both. The fact that there’s still no consensus on how to do it well says something about how much everyone dreads the conversation.

Research consistently shows that how a relationship ends has a significant impact on recovery. A 2025 study found that among the most common immediate reactions to being broken up with, people were most likely to feel sadness, seek an explanation, and try to distract themselves. The need for an explanation—why it ended, what it meant—is one of the most psychologically significant parts of the breakup experience, and it’s also the part most people on the leaving side handle the worst.

The most avoidant breakup move isn’t ghosting—it’s deliberately making a partner miserable enough that they end it first. Psychologist David Wexler, writing in Psychology Today, calls this out for what it is: a way to avoid responsibility for a decision you’ve already made while still getting the outcome. It’s also cruel in a way........

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