8 Reasons You Can't Get Over Your Ex & Can't Move On

It's called euphoric recall, explains Patrick Wanis, Ph.D., a human behavior expert and author of Get Over Your Ex Now! and it refers to the recalling of past events or people in a positive light while forgetting or ignoring the negative aspects. "Although it is referred to as 'recall,' it is actually an immediate reliving and re-experiencing of the positive aspects, the pleasure of the past event or person," Wanis tells mbg. 

Wanis explains that this same phenomenon occurs in addiction and is directly related to the pleasure or reward centers of the brain. 

A main reason some people struggle to move on from their ex is idealization, counselor Sheryl Paul, M.A., tells mbg. You idealize your ex, convincing yourself they were your "perfect" partner that no one else will match up to. But the reality is that there are many people in the world each person can be compatible with. We really do have many types of soul mates, not all of which are meant to be in our lives forever.

According to Cherlyn Chong, a transformational coach who specializes in breakup recovery, if you find yourself thinking that your ex was the best you could get and you'll never find someone after them, you've adopted a fixed mindset as opposed to a growth mindset. "This is when you've taken the relationship to mean much more about you than anything else," Chong explains, and your self-esteem is essentially reliant on your ex. In this mindset, "if the relationship fails, it's because you weren't good enough, and therefore, you're not good enough for other relationships either."

If you have unresolved negative beliefs stemming from your past, whether those come from emotionally immature parents or other ex-partners, Chong says you may be stuck in the mindset that you deserve to suffer and are inadvertently prolonging your own healing process post-breakup. 

"Suffering might actually be so familiar to you that you might even be addicted to it, in the same way one becomes addicted to smoking," Chong tells mbg. And sometimes, suffering might be the only thing left from the relationship, and you're afraid that if you let it go, you won't have anything of the relationship left.

"If you still maintain contact with your ex and/or follow them on social media, it can be a constant reminder of what you lost," licensed clinical psychologist Roxy Zarrabi, Psy.D., tells mbg. "Simultaneously, [this could] increase hope [of] one day reconciling."

When you don't understand why you broke up, your mind will go into overdrive trying to analyze, piece together the events and evidence, and overall continue to ruminate over the breakup. Feeling like you understand what happened is part of getting closure, which is necessary to moving on.

That said, Paul adds that sometimes people can land on an explanation for the breakup and then become obsessed with it: "Because most people have a difficult time tolerating emotional pain, the ego steps in and turns to obsessing about why the breakup occurred, either blaming everything on your partner or yourself," she explains. "Neither of these negative mind maneuvers are productive toward the ultimate goal of a breakup, which is to grieve the loss to completion and learn whatever you can about yourself."

"When people experience a loss, there is a tendency to want to avoid or push those painful feelings away, but, ultimately, doing so will prolong the healing process," Zarrabi tells mbg.

On that note, drowning your feelings only lengthens the amount of time it takes to get over a breakup, says John Kahal, a mental health and addiction expert and founder of Capo by the Sea Rehab in San Juan Capistrano, California. "When dealing with a breakup, one of the most common ways people cope is by drowning their sorrows in alcohol or self-medicating in other ways," he tells mbg. "It can become a comfortable way to numb out and avoid feelings of sadness or loneliness while the pain of a split is fresh."

Emmy Crouter, LSW, a therapist at Emboldened Counseling in Denver, Colorado, notes that one's own history is a major part of the breakup process. 

"If you come from a childhood of abandonment, abuse, or even just feeling misunderstood, especially by one's parents or caretakers, you may be triggered by the loss of a relationship as it brings up old feelings regarding your most important attachment figures," Crouter tells mbg. "Sometimes the breakup [itself] is not what is bothering someone—it's the meaning behind the breakup and associated early memories that beg to be addressed."

Bringing awareness to why you might feel stuck in old feelings from a past relationship and unable to move on from your ex is already a considerable first step in moving forward. The next move, then, is to take action and regain autonomy over your own healing process.

In addition to addressing the specific reason you're stuck missing your ex, there are concrete methods that you can begin implementing in your routine such as setting boundaries on social media, beginning a daily meditation practice, or processing through your feelings via journaling. Counseling or therapy can also be really helpful, especially if you feel like being unable to move on from your ex is affecting the rest of your daily living.