plant14 wrote:
-Enough social or personal stability to stay stable without having some sort of partner to hold onto
-Being able to go suddenly from having a person there to not having them there, a transition I find shocking
-Having friends
OP, these are the reasons WHY people take time away from dating to focus on themselves. Everyone
needs to have enough "social or personal stability" to make it without a partner. People need to have friends outside their dating relationships. It's extremely unhealthy--and DANGEROUS--to let your social life revolve entirely around one person: believe me, I know this from experience.
The one in the middle--being able to go from having a person there to not having them there--I think most people find that transition shocking. That's another reason why they take
time on their own.
If you don't have friends and a life outside your relationship and you can't make it on your own--if you
need someone else to be happy--you should not be dating. That's the point of this.