What Are The 6 Rebound Relationship Stages?

The results of splitting up are hard to bear, this is even more true if it was a long and committed partnership. According to experts, most rebound relationships fail during the first few months. But is there any way that they can actually work? Can you find “the one” through such a relationship?

They can often aid to heal the freshly broken heart, help you to move on from your ex faster than those who try to heal alone. Those who participate in a rebound relationship often get over their exes faster and begin to feel more confident in their ability to get over the past. 

It also helps a person with strong over-dependence on their partner to continue their emotional attachment to someone when their ex is not there anymore. It helps you to overcome your anger at your ex and continue with your life. It can help to improve your mental health and self-confidence and provides comfort, intimate connections, and support during a breakup.

Rebound Relationship Stages

Rebounds give the person the opportunity to find out what kind of partner they are looking for, which is often impossible when you are alone and not in a relationship. A fling can be just what you need to protect yourself from the heartbreak that follows a breakup. It can help you heal faster because you feel more attractive and ready for love. 

But how early is too early to slide into a new partnership after separation? In order to gain this clearness, there are a few things to keep in mind. If you get into a partnership quickly after a breakup it will likely be a rebound that may not last too long. Many such partners think that if they find a new partner's company, their heartbreak will be alleviated. 

However, you may feel like you are over your breakup when in fact your rebound relationship is only masking your pain. Experts suggest that you wait up to 5 months after a breakup to get over the heartache before you get into a new partnership. It is also important to learn about the stages of a rebound relationship so that you can understand them better and avoid getting hurt. 

1. Picking the rebound partner

Every relationship ends for different reasons whether one partner cheated on the other, you never stopped arguing, things changed between you, or things just came to a natural end. However, the cause of the breakup largely indicates what kind of a rebound relationship you will have. 

If you had a difficult and tense breakup then you may be more likely to enter a rebound, perhaps to make your ex jealous of your new partner and spite him in the course of it. You may choose your rebound partner because he is the complete opposite to your ex that you just broke up with and thus, he won’t irritate you like your ex used to, you probably don’t even try to get to know him. 

If you are looking for a guy that is completely different from your ex, it is a sure sign that you are in the first stage of a rebound. You are trying to get over a breakup by ignoring the heartbreak associated and jumping straight into something new. You don’t even try to develop an emotional connection with this guy, you are just using him to ignore the heartbreak. 

• Choosing a rebound partner that will make your ex jealous:

Many people in a rebound relationship might start to turn their attention to another boyfriend or girlfriend to make their ex-partner jealous and strengthen their self-confidence. The partner is used as a way to show off to the ex to make them feel jealous. Others may get in a relationship with someone, just for physical reasons. 

• Choosing someone that you won’t form an emotional connection with:

Breakups and separation from a long-term relationship can break the belief in relationships and you can get the idea that all relationships end in failure. Thus, you may begin to jump into partnerships with the non-committed tag. You may become captivated and enter into relationships to have physical relations with a partner but form no emotional connection. 

You may not be real with your rebound partner that you recently came out of a previous relationship. If you weren't honest about your recent breakup, you are likely in a rebound relationship. If you haven't taken adequate time to get better, you may realize that you don't know very much about your new love interest and you haven’t tried to learn more about them either. 

You choose a guy that you know you won’t develop an emotional connection with, this is because the rebound relationship is just a way that you are trying to ignore the heartbreak associated with the breakup. 

2. The perfect phase

The second stage of such a relationship is the phase where things seem to be going perfectly well. You have begun to see someone new after going out with the same person for years. You imagine this new relationship succeeding and you think that this new guy is the one. You picked someone who was the complete opposite of your ex and he is perfect. 

Things are going so well because it is a new relationship that is the complete opposite of your last one so things seem to be better than they are. However, this is only a phase. The relationship is still new and things will likely still go wrong. You don’t know him well yet and you haven’t likely realized that you are only rebounding with him. 

3. The failure 

Even though you may have gone through a perfect stage, the rebound is likely not going to work out. The likelihood of such a relationship lasting a long time is little, and there are a lot of reasons why it rarely turns out successfully. Rebounds are rather problematic for two reasons. 

Firstly, because it numbs the pain of a breakup and secondly because you are now looking for all the feelings and needs that were fulfilled in the old relationship to be fulfilled by a new partner. This may be in the form of falling in love again immediately, totally idealizing the new person, and seeing something serious again where there is nothing. 

Because you are not ready for it yourself or because the other person wants something more casual you find yourself in another breakup. It can feel as if you are healing at first but then the pain comes in double and triple because, now, two people have left you. The small things that never used to annoy you are really bothering you now and you can see things ending soon. 

4. The end

If the person is seeing a partner from a place of love and honesty and does not still feel pain over the pain of the end of the past relationship, the rebound relationship with a new partner may work. If the previous relationship finished on positive terms, you have a better shot at a rebound working out. Also, if the person is the one who ended the previous partnership, the rebound will likely work.

But, if it is the one that was broken up with, it can hinder their self-confidence and make them emotionally unstable and take them longer to get over it.  As shown, rebounds have a role if they are handled in a healthy way. The greatest danger for rebounds is that it is often used to avoid the feelings that were bound in the last partnership.

You find yourself in a rebound relationship with a new guy and expect the person to compensate for the previous partner's shortcomings. You jump into a partnership with worries and fear that the partner will act in just the way as the previous partner. If you let this rebound relationship proceed too fast it becomes harmed. 

Regarding the type of separation, you can start a rebound relationship with a new guy as emotionally distraught, and you don't really think clearly. You are expressing vulnerability and this partnership will never succeed and you enter this partnership with too much history and fears. A long-term relationship leaves a lot of scars that you have to clear in order to start looking for something else.

5. The realization

If you have not faced your issues, it won’t take much time for your recent love interest to feel pressured by your problems and you are looking at yet one more ruined partnership. It’s important that you weaken your expectations for a new relationship. Pushing away feelings can harm you in many ways. 

Nevertheless, after a failed relationship, you should take the time to process it in peace. Allow yourself to grieve, let out the pain, go through it, and try not to distract yourself with new people straight away, and before you have acknowledged this pain. While it sounds like absolute hell and feels like it when you're in the middle of it, you will feel better afterward. And you will no longer act like everything is okay when nothing is actually okay.

If you still hope to gain your ex back, there is a possibility that it may happen, but a rebound won't help if you want them back. It is also important to remember to cut off your ex completely and avoid communication or connection with him for a while at least. There is no other way that a new relationship can succeed. 

6. Focusing on yourself again

Start to know yourself again. Spend time with yourself and only yourself and for a while only do what you like to do. You have just gone through a separation, so it is high time that you took care of yourself and found yourself again. Be good to yourself. Many people fall into destructive behavior when they experience a breakup, which frankly only makes things worse. 

It is much better to be kind to yourself. Treat yourself to a day in the spa or have a spa day at home with a few friends, eat well, treat yourself to junk food or sweets, go out into the fresh air and exercise. Give yourself time to think deeply and reflect on things. Don't be ashamed of your grief. Reflect on yourself and your behavior. Do you constantly fall in love after a breakup and tend to cling to others? 

Look for help in a person that you trust. You don't have to do it alone. If the low period does not become better and you feel permanently down, there are ways that you can receive help and that's perfectly fine. Go to your friends and family, but they can only help to a certain extent. Call a telephone counseling service or book an appointment with a therapist. 

FAQs

To Sum Up… 

Heartbreak is difficult, and it can often seem simpler to enter a rebound relationship rather than spending any time by yourself. However, it is important to face the reality of your feelings before you date anyone new. It is also important to gain an understanding of the stages of a rebound so that you know what you are in for when you date someone else. 

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