HEADER DESIGN BY ANISA CLEAVER

Throwing myself onto my bed and sobbing like Scarlett O’Hara has always been my post-break-up routine. I genuinely believe that this level of theatrics is a measured and proportionate response when your heart has been dashed against the rocks. I’m a romantic and a Scorpio – what can I say?

I also believe that after said bed-throwing, all reminders; cinema tickets, polaroids, love notes and sex toys – everything that’s ever reminded you of an ex, should be chucked into a black bin bag, never to be seen again. So while you might not see me handing back a big bag of dildos at The Planet like Alice from The L Word, you will find me crying while trying to unscrew the wall dildo à la Suki from Drive Away Dolls. I am not sorry.

However, Gigi Engle, a COSRT-registered sex and relationships psychotherapist and sex expert for the LGTBQIA+ app Taimi, tells me that this approach might not be helpful in the long term. “While we might want to throw things out because they’re imbued with a lot of meaning, you might want to look back on things once the dust has settled. But this is totally subjective to you and how your relationship ended,” she explains.