"I'm not happy anymore," they finally say. You knew, but needed to hear it anyway. It's a test: go on. Do it. See if you can hurt me. They do and it stings. Still, you're an independent woman- you've taken bigger knocks than this.

What has been taken is not just financial, it is a feeling of taking life as it was known, friends, holidays, family set up, lifestyle - the list is endless. There are no winners, because each person feels diminished in some way.

You've just broken up with your boyfriend and the overwhelming advice and 'pick yourself up' tips from friends and family start flooding in. Those words might make you feel better, maybe for a moment or so, but the ugly truth is any real breakup, regardless of who initiated it, needs time and space.

Even though your unfortunate dumpee is always contactable, keep your head in the 1960s. Nobody wants to be in the supermarket or at a club when they receive the news that the chords of their parachute into lifelong companionship have been severed.

Is there ever a nice way to bid adieu to an affair of the heart? Is the blow any less crushing because you have communicated it via a gift-wrapped box of (live) white doves, after an afternoon of champagne or during a shuddering orgasm? Probably not.

With the cheese-fest that is Valentine's Day fast approaching, it's time to get your exit strategy in place. For whatever reason (you're recently heart-broken, perpetually single and cynical, or you just happen to have taste), here are the places where you're most likely to be left untroubled by lovebirds.

If you are separated or divorced, then 2013 will hold all sorts of anxieties and fears about what it may bring. It can feel like a long road of conflict and hostility and it can feel like an overwhelming amount of loss or emptiness. Although it may not seem like this right now, it is a fact that divorce is an end, but it is also very much a new beginning.

Coping with divorce is not only about the immediate emotional impact of loss, it can also be coping with knowing that the ex is with someone else or there is a family or friends gathering somewhere that you used to be a part of.

It is easy now in a way that it never was before, to find out about a partners' infidelity through social media. Unfortunately, it is not just the revelation that is so accessible, but much more.