Yes it can take quite a long time to recover. recovery depend on how much you gave of yourself to him emotionally and physically.
unfortunately the more you give before marriage especially physically the harder it is to move on.The amount of time it takes also depends on how much time and effort you had spent processing and working through and digest what had happened in your heart and mind. If all you had done is just ignored the pain that will slow you down somewhat. From what I gathered, it appears that you had entered in to your current relationship quite soon after the break?? This has the disadvantage that you didnt have the time to process the pain left behind. Like all relatonship pains you will have to deal with it sooner or later. there is often no hiding. (so guys/gals try to give yourself a couple of months to recover before going into the next one bec you dont want to have to deal with the pain in the middle of a good relationship)
having said the above, the most damaging aspect of what had happened to you is the fact that it appears that your hurt comes from feeling betrayed. you felt betrayed bec he choose someone else and didnt keep his promise (???) to you.
Broken promises and breach of trust hurts the most. bec not only do you have to deal with the trust issue, his action of choosing someone else makes you unconsciously or consciously feel that you are not as attractive or as worth it as the other girl. yourself worth is accordingly damaged. That is why 2 timing or 3rd party intrusion or adultery are so damaging to the one cheated on!Now that you have discovered that you have this unresolved hurt, the first thing to do is to come to terms with it. you will need to deal with some of these issues if they apply to you
1)
YOU will have to persuade your heart to start seeing him in cold day light
that he is not as wonderful as you had made him out to be. Yes he was nice and may actually be a nice person but in your heart you have given him the status as if he can do no wrong. That will hinder you from seeing him as he is and releasing him
2)
consciously start letting go of memories, even memories that you had treasured yes they were sweet but you cannot really keep them without exploding. so when something comes to you mind, tell yourself, I let this part go... you will struggle, you may even cry and refused bec it seem like so much a part of you but you have to let the memories go.
3) put aside all the stuffs that he gave you, do it all at the same time, dont put one thing awya then next thing tomorrow etc. that will increase your pain.
box everything up, either return them or throw them away or keep them in some corner out of your sight. dont go to them anymore for the next many many months or even years. the day will come when you see the item and you will not have that pain
4)
forget and forgive your ex for the betrayal that you feel. This will be hard but you can do it. you will feel angry or even sad but whatever it is tell yourself he is not worth your time anymore and his promises were empty bec
by his action he had proved them to be empty promises. At this time dont start justifying for him about maybe he did this or that bec.... or you had done this or that to push him away... etc...
whatever it is dont try and justify his actions for him! you learn from your own actions if you had been selfish, you change. if you drove him away, you change but dont say yea I did this so I deserve it. change your ways and you will never need to feel as if you deserve it etc.
5) focus on what you have today, enjoy your current bf's attention. tell yourself that what you have now is real.
spend the time and energy to build up your existing relationship and inject energy and fun and make it memorable. Memorable doesnt mean SEX. It means having a complete understanding of the other person's heart and mind!. I agree with what M said
Originally posted by M:
Don't let the past rob you of the present, make the best of the moment and cherish it.
so focus on the present and take this time to heal yourself. you dont want to ignore this and put your future relationship in to trouble.
take care