Background: Romantic breakup can lead to a wide range of clinical outcomes. Various factors have been identified in different studies as causes of post-separation distress, among which negative emotions are one of the most important variables perpetuating distress following separation.

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the lived experience of negative emotions perpetuating distress resulting from romantic breakup.

Method: This study was based on qualitative interviews with individuals who had experienced romantic breakup and employed Bengtsson’s qualitative content analysis method. The study population comprised all individuals with experience of romantic breakup in the city of Qom. Using purposeful sampling with maximum variation and until saturation of the data, fifteen participants (10 women, 5 men) were examined via semi-structured interviews. The data analysis procedure included the four stages of decontextualisation, recontextualisation, categorisation and the compilation. The trustworthiness of the findings from the qualitative interviews was examined using the four criteria of credibility, confirmability, transferability and dependability according to Lincoln, & Guba. To achieve the criterion of dependability, the findings were evaluated by ten experts through calculation of the content validity index (CVI).

Findings: The research findings indicated that the negative emotions perpetuating romantic breakup distress comprise relational wounds and threat to personal identity. Relational wounds included dependency (feeling of dependence arising from affection, feeling of dependence arising from a physical relationship, longing for the sweetness of the relationship, distress about the temporality of the ended relationship, and feeling of emotional emptiness); anger (feeling of hatred and desire for revenge); humiliation (feeling of degradation, feeling of being betrayed, feeling of being a loser, feeling of rejection and feeling of guilt); and threat to personal identity included identity grief (longing for the lovable self and existential shame) and anxiety about the future (fear of failing again and fear of remaining alone).

Conclusion: The results of this study can serve as a basis for developing therapeutic interventions and locally adapted educational packages to reduce clinical symptoms resulting from romantic breakup.