Interesting essay on the addictive power of love. It got me thinking of my own life experiences and those of others I have known over the years - women particularly because it makes it easier to relate. Some girls can spin out over relationships where as others can stay very grounded.
Love addiction is not the same as cocaine addiction at the neurological level: important differences, like how long it takes for the desire for another "hit" to occur, do exist. Rather, the authors see this as an opportunity to reconsider our approach to addiction in general and to think about how we can help the heartsick when they just can't seem to get over their last relationship.
Lot of good advice on how the brain can help in the process of building and sustaining a happy partnership. Putting personal observations together with this essay, it seems that the tendency to spin out in the intense period of romantic love could be related to the target being unattainable in some way and often for good reason that we don't want to accept. What we cannot and must not have can get us to various degrees of longing and desperation - depending on the type of personality. It can get a person to act love-sick and mopey or love-crazy and manic or something in between those. In a stable situation - where both sides are in and for the right reasons, it would be unlikely that anyone acts like an addict anymore.
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