By October, I realized that I was ready to be in a relationship again. We slowly began rebuilding our friendship. In August, I allowed him to take me on a date.

In July, my ex reached out to me, but I was not really trying to hear anything he had to say. Most importantly, I became very clear about who I was and the partner I wanted to be with in the future. I started doing the things I put on the back burner during the relationship. But after a few weeks of wallowing, I prayed and made a decision to focus on myself. Like, crying every night and not thinking that I would be able to survive without the relationship. In case you're considering it, here are just a few things that can happen when a couple takes a break. But as you can see from the others, couples really can bounce back after breaks.

Ross and Rachel may have given us false hope.Ī lot of these stories are in line with the idea that couples on breaks are really better broken up. Another study in Personal Relationshipsfound that relationships were lower-quality after couples spent time apart. One study in the Journal of Marriage and Familyfound that only a third of couples who got back together after breaking up stayed together. This is just a small sample, though, so it might help to look at data.

To find out which of these scenarios seems most common and which others might occur, I asked people what happened when they took breaks from relationships. While some couples realize down the road that their breaks should've been breakups, others recover from them and go on to enjoy happy, healthy relationships. As Chris Armstrong, a dating and relationships coach tells Bustle, breaks in relationships are usually about one of two things: someone needs to reflect internally on things like commitment or insecurity issues, or someone needs to reflect externally and figure out whether the relationship is right. But there's a third option that's rarely granted any thought: taking a break. When couples hit a roadblock, they usually weigh the pros and cons of staying together and breaking up.

To take a break