“The Ick” is a way to describe that feeling when you’re just not feeling it anymore.
I heard it first this summer during Love Island (a British TV show, 10/10 would recommend) when Liv caught “The Ick” for Sam. She said that, “Once you get the ick it doesn’t go away… Once you’ve caught it, it takes over your body,” and so she gave Sam the, “it’s not you, it’s me,” break-up speech. Liv had finally given a name to something that, at least according to Twitter, so many people had felt before. We’ve all most likely been there at some point in our lives, when someone we’ve been into suddenly just doesn’t do it for us, and we can’t see what we saw in them before. “The Ick” probably means many different things to different people, but for me it’s a pretty low-key situation.
I feel like I get “The Ick” all the time, mainly because I’m single and feel free to be into every hot guy I see. Then I realize that they’re an asshole, or at least just really not as great as I initially thought they were, and “The Ick” comes over me. Once it happens there’s usually no going back, and I can’t for the life of me see why I was even attracted to them in the first place. My friends all joke that my type is typically a douche, which I think is another reason why I get “The Ick” because it turns out nastiness isn’t actually that good of a turn-on. Who’d have thought?
“The Ick” doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s anything wrong with the other person, though. Sometimes the more you get to know someone, the more you realize that you’re just not compatible, and it starts to feel uncomfortable – enter “The Ick”. Sometimes, you simply see them at a weird angle and it changes the whole way you see them, or you see them when they’re having a bad day and their attitude is just so awful that even when they’re back to their normal self all you can see is their bad mood.
Overall, I’m pretty thankful for “The Ick”. It’s kinda true that a lot of the guys I’m usually attracted to turn out to be assholes, so at least “The Ick” is some form of self-preservation. Also, if someone gets it for you, it really doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you. These things happen and it’s normally for the best.
Media courtesy of Love Island and Giphy