Urgh, I dated way too soon (for me) - like a month after a 2.5 year relationship. The reason I broke up with the "big ex" wasn't because I didn't love them - in fact day to day things were brilliant, we laughed all the time and they were a wonderful person - it's just we both had shit going on and in the long-term the way we dealt with it just wasn't compatible.

So I dated someone new a couple of times, even slept with them. The guilt of still being in love with my ex overwhelmed me and I had an emotional conversation where I told the person I was dating that I wasn't ready for a relationship.

Fortunately they took it well, and they said they weren't ready for a relationship either. We're actually still friends, so that's worked out. But it's now 9 months since my big break up and haven't dipped my toe in the dating pool since.

I'm still definitely in love with the person my ex was.. just not the relationship we had. I'm just counting down the days until I feel ready to get back out there again.