The internet loves a specific number — “it takes half the relationship length to get over it” is a popular myth with no real evidence behind it. In practice, recovery time depends on far more than how long you were together: how the relationship ended, whether it was mutual, how much of your identity and daily life were wrapped up in it, and what support you have around you.
That said, most people do move through recognizable phases. Early on, there's often a period of acute disruption — disrupted sleep, appetite changes, a preoccupation with the ex that can feel almost involuntary. This is largely physiological; breakups activate some of the same neural reward-withdrawal pathways as other losses, which is why the early weeks can feel disproportionately intense compared to how “serious” the relationship might have looked from outside.
After that acute phase, most people move into something more like grief with better days mixed into worse ones — not a steady improvement, but a gradual widening of the gap between good days and bad ones. Full closure, where the relationship stops being a live wound and becomes simply a past chapter, tends to arrive less as a single moment and more as something you notice retroactively: a week where you realize you haven't thought about them much.
The most useful mindset isn't chasing a deadline. It's tracking direction — are the bad days getting further apart? — rather than demanding a specific finish line.