Sadly, it's officially 'National Breakup Season'
Tis the season for heartbreak, statistics say.
If taking down decorations and heading back to work aren't bad enough, there's something new to dread in January: heartbreak.
We didn't even know this was a thing, but according to the New York Post, the period from late December to Valentine's Day has come to be known as "National Breakup Season." And yes, we're in full swing.
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In 2010, a Yahoo dating survey analyzed the Facebook status updates of 10,000 users. The survey found a steady increase in breakups right after Thanksgiving, with a peak just before Christmas and a spike right before spring.
Dating site We Love Dates recently put together an interesting infographic that illustrated similar findings. The Heart Beat talked to a spokesperson from the site who offered an explanation of the phenomenon:
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"We decide what things we'd like to bring with us into the new year, and what things and people are better left in the past. It's the perfect time to establish a clean slate in regards to our love lives."
With a little over a month to go, is your love life in danger? In honor (or warning) of National Breakup Season, The Post put together a list of signs that you might be getting the relationship axe. Here are a few of the most noteworthy:- No phone calls: Tamsen Fadal, author of "Why Hasn't He Called?" explained this warning sign to The Post: "The sweet little phone calls you used to have daily have been whittled down to short, quick calls that have to do with details." If your significant other is cutting back on the communication, it could be a breakup red flag.
- The change-up: Does your partner want you to be someone else? Is the feeling mutual? When both parties are trying to change the other, it could mean a breakup is on the horizon.
- What's wrong? What are you thinking about? What's wrong? Fadal explains that when you start asking questions like this, it could be your instincts kicking in. "If you hear yourself asking those questions, you need to quickly turn them inward and answer them for yourself."
Send us your engagement ring photos for a chance to be featured in an MSN Living slideshow. Please tell us about yourself and your proposal story.
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Photo: Wavebreakmedia Ltd/Getty Images
More from The Heart Beat:
Divorces increase after the holidays
Singles resolve to find love in 2013
Revealed: The hardest marriage vow to keep
Here's a question. Who cares? If you break up, then it wasn't going to work in the first place and you're better off finding someone else anyhow. This isn't news. It's been well known for a very long time that winter, especially around the holidays, is when there is more depression, higher irritability, more divorces/breakups, more fighting, higher suicide rates, etc. Writing to say what has been said over and over for decades isn't good journalism. It's the kind of thing someone writes who can't find a real story. I'd rather see no story than see a waste of space like this. And MSN actually put this up as a poll? Ridiculous!
Simply put - as days get shorter, so due emotions. And if you can't handle that, then you're going to face many frustrations each winter. Learn to handle your emotions.
love: friendship, dating, sex & marriage
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