Reorient
Start free
How it worksThe scienceGuidesArticlesPricingFAQSign inStart 7 days free

No card. No PayPal.

The science

Built on research.
Honest about its limits.

When Reorient tells you what research found, it tells you who found it. Here’s what the timeline and tools are built on, where we’ve had to make our own estimates, and where the evidence is thinner than the headlines suggest.

What research says about breakup recovery

  1. 01

    People expected to feel worse after their breakup than they actually did.

    Eastwick, Finkel, Krishnamurti & Loewenstein (2008). Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

    The overestimate was in how intense it would feel, not in how long it would last.

  2. 02

    Breakup sadness eases in waves rather than neat stages.

    Sbarra & Emery (2005). Personal Relationships.

    Good and hard days alternate. A hard day isn’t a return to the start.

  3. 03

    More in-person contact with an ex predicted more distress two months later.

    O’Hara, Grinberg, Tackman, Mehl & Sbarra (2020). Clinical Psychological Science.

    It’s why Reorient helps you track contact, for your recovery rather than as a tactic.

  4. 04

    Checking an ex’s social media was linked to more distress and longing, and less personal growth.

    Marshall (2012). Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.

    A link rather than proof of cause, but a consistent one.

  5. 05

    In one study of separated adults, those who spoke about the separation more kindly towards themselves had fewer upsetting thoughts about it over the following months.

    Sbarra, Smith & Mehl (2012). Psychological Science.

    Observational, so it doesn’t prove an exercise causes it. It does shape how Reorient talks to you.

  6. 06

    Reflecting on a breakup a few times, as part of a study, went with a clearer sense of self.

    Larson & Sbarra (2015). Social Psychological and Personality Science.

    It’s why the journal has a shape instead of a blank page.

The research, put into practice

Free guide

Get the research, one email a month.

Start with our free guide to your first month after a breakup, then one plain-English email a month on what breakup research says and how to use it. No account, no app, no pressure.

  • Why it hurts this much, and why it usually eases
  • What to do when the pull to check or text them comes
  • Week by week: small, doable things to try

You’ll get the free guide, two short follow-ups over the next week, then one email a month with practical, research-based advice on getting through a breakup. Nothing else. Unsubscribe in one click.

We’ll ask you to confirm your email first. From Reorient, privacy policy.

What the research doesn’t say.

  • There’s no fixed number of weeks. People take different paths. One study that followed 87 women for 30 weeks after a breakup found some barely dipped, some recovered quickly, some more slowly and a few stayed low throughout (Verhallen et al., 2022). Yours is an estimate fitted to your situation, not a deadline.
  • The timeline’s numbers are our estimates. Research shows which things tend to make a breakup harder or easier, like a longer relationship or more contact with an ex. No study gives the length of each phase in days, or exactly how much each thing should stretch it. So those sizes are ours, kept modest, and the app tells you which parts are research and which are our estimate. Your daily check-ins then pull the timeline towards how you’re actually doing.
  • Reorient hasn’t been tested in its own trial. So we don’t claim it makes you recover faster. We say it’s built on what the research shows about recovery.
  • “Heartbreak is an addiction” is a metaphor. A small brain-scan study found overlap with craving circuits (Fisher et al., 2010). It helps explain the pull. It isn’t a diagnosis.

Last reviewed 1 October 2026. Reorient is a wellbeing tool, not therapy or a medical device. If you’re struggling, get help now.