Yeah our societies standards definately do suck! Well judging by this forum anyway. Good for you on cutting the contact. Hope you can start to recover from all this now and move on. As the phone company says-
"The future's bright. The future's Orange."
I know its about a phone company, not life, but it sounds good God Damn it!
Anyway, I'd suggest you try just being single for a while, a least until you've sufficiently convinced yourself you've moved far enough past all this. That what I'm going to do anyway. Being single has many positive sides-
*You have a lot more time to work on the things you'd like to accomplish
*You don't have to worry about all the stresses that come with a relationship
*You have more time to have random debates on messages boards
*You have more time to watch TV! (Yay! This is my favourite one!)
I'm sure theres plenty more too if you look for them.
Anyway best of luck with everything Zach!