![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Ah, the information we lost when the Oprah era ended.
Thursday, 17 September 2015 09:15 amFinally, science! Well, TeenVogue quoting researchers, possibly 'researchers' because we've all heard the eye-rolling over the pop/junk science clickba—y'know, let's just roll with it.
It's official: you need to mope your way through that break-up.
Researchers initially agreed with your mother that you need to stop dwelling on it and just put it behind you, like it never happened, and cited your sister's exhaustive essay on why of course you're depressed because you keep bringing yourself down by talking about that jackass all the time. But in a study of 200 of the recently exed, the researchers found that when they encouraged their human guinea pigs to discuss the break-up (as opposed to sighing dramatically and changing the topic), the subjects "expressed decreasing signs of loneliness and obsessive thinking," and actually got over it faster than those who ate just ice cream at 2am and sobbed quietly so their roommate wouldn't overhear it.
To cover their asses, researchers turned to your aunt's exhaustive study of daytime television, pointing out the obvious fact that discussing things allows you to examine what went wrong, see mistakes you don't want to make again, and realize you were ignoring this asshole's assholitude all along. In particular, a trove of Sally Jessy Raphael tapes unveiled the notion that the newly lonely need to figure out who they are without that other person and the relationships, and to redefine themselves. Researchers promptly slapped the label "self-concept reorganization" on it and declared it a discovery.*
So find someone who's willing to listen to you whine, or be a friend to someone who needs to whine, because the sooner you get it over with, the sooner it'll be done.
* Eh, so I skimmed.
It's official: you need to mope your way through that break-up.
Researchers initially agreed with your mother that you need to stop dwelling on it and just put it behind you, like it never happened, and cited your sister's exhaustive essay on why of course you're depressed because you keep bringing yourself down by talking about that jackass all the time. But in a study of 200 of the recently exed, the researchers found that when they encouraged their human guinea pigs to discuss the break-up (as opposed to sighing dramatically and changing the topic), the subjects "expressed decreasing signs of loneliness and obsessive thinking," and actually got over it faster than those who ate just ice cream at 2am and sobbed quietly so their roommate wouldn't overhear it.
To cover their asses, researchers turned to your aunt's exhaustive study of daytime television, pointing out the obvious fact that discussing things allows you to examine what went wrong, see mistakes you don't want to make again, and realize you were ignoring this asshole's assholitude all along. In particular, a trove of Sally Jessy Raphael tapes unveiled the notion that the newly lonely need to figure out who they are without that other person and the relationships, and to redefine themselves. Researchers promptly slapped the label "self-concept reorganization" on it and declared it a discovery.*
So find someone who's willing to listen to you whine, or be a friend to someone who needs to whine, because the sooner you get it over with, the sooner it'll be done.
* Eh, so I skimmed.
