'I wear it on my middle finger': The rise of the defiant divorce ring

Alex Proie in Pennsylvania picked up her ring, made from the gold and diamonds in her five-year anniversary band, a couple of weeks ago and is still wrestling with a mix of feelings.

At 31 she separated from her husband of seven years after she came out as gay.

"My ex-husband was a huge part of my formative years as a young adult," she says.

"It's something I want to carry with me."

Her ring has seven small oval diamonds and a wave design which she says illustrate life's inevitable highs and lows.

She had to go back to working in sales after the divorce to boost her income and the new ring helps remind her how she managed to rebuild from the ground up.

"Divorce is really hard and when you start over you don't know what your life is going to look like, and you don't know if you're going to be able to make it financially to do stuff like this for yourself."

On Reddit threads where people are discussing what they have done with their wedding and engagement rings some say they continue to wear theirs, sometimes to ward off unwanted advances. Or stash it out of sight in a drawer.

Others shared they just chucked theirs, in the bin, the sea, or out of a car window.

But many say they do want to mark their new life with some spending gesture or other, it seems, from blow-out holidays, tattoos, a new pair of Jimmy Choos, returfing the lawn, or as one recent divorcee shared, refurbishing her bedroom.

"Now I'm having amazing sex with new lovers on the bed that was paid for by the ring," she posted.