Breakups, for lack of a better term, fully suck. You spend your days weeping over your couples Spotify playlist, blowing mucus onto your keyboard, and eating your weight in Cherry Garcia, and the agony usually doesn’t end until your friends politely tell you that they’re tired of feeling like they’re stuck in a Carrie-centric episode of Sex and the City and you have to please, for the love of God, stop talking about your ex and get your shit together.
But what if there was a better way to get over a breakup, one that involved neither weight gain nor Spotify nor making your friends want to shove a mascara wand through your eyeball? Introducing Breakup Rx, a new breakup recovery app that wants to be your best friend, your therapist, and your sagacious, advice-dispensing bartender all rolled into one.
Created by Jane Reardon, a licensed therapist, and her BFF Jeanine Lobell, the founder of the cosmetics brand Stila, Breakup Rx was inspired by Reardon’s experience treating young men and women trying to navigate the end of a relationship.
“In the beginning, I was treating people in breakups more psychologically, and what I discovered was that they were too depressed to deal with that,” Reardon told the Daily Beast. “That’s why the focus of the app is really on empowerment and strengthening self, and liking yourself.”
While this might sound like something a ponytailed life coach might say while gently patting your hand before asking you to join him in a drum circle, Breakup Rx’s approach to dealing with breakups is actually pretty pragmatic and straightforward. The app presents a 30-day plan for relationship recovery, featuring tips, hints, and activities to help you get over your ex. There’s also a social component to Breakup Rx, connecting you with a support network of other spurned singles using the app.
Day 11, for instance, asks you to recount “every instance from the relationship that still upsets you,” such as “when your ex forgot your anniversary [and] didn’t make [you] a priority.” While in any other context, meticulously listing the issues you have with an ex might seem petty and unnecessary, bringing to mind the Festivus Airing of Grievances, in the context of a breakup, it might actually be the thing that helps you truly begin to put your relationship behind you.
H/T Daily Beast | Photo by Katie Tegtmyer/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
