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Love and addiction
17 October 2007
Love has a profound effect on the brain and can lead people to have difficulty thinking rationally.
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Research has shown that love has a measurable chemical effect on the brain and in this sense can be seen as an addiction, reports CNN.
Helen Fisher, a professor of anthropology at Rutgers University, explored how the brain is affected when people fall in love and the impact this has when a relationship ends.
She found that there is some element of addiction associated with falling in love and that people must go through a period of withdrawal after a break-up.
She said: "When I first started looking at the properties of infatuation, they had some of the same elements of a cocaine high: sleeplessness, loss of sense of time, absolute focus on love to the detriment of all around you.
Since love has such a physical effect, a break-up can have a serious impact and can take years to get over.
Susan Peabody, a love-addiction teacher, said: "The fantasies feed the addiction. You carry around these fantasies of when the relationship was at its peak and it's on a loop in your brain.
"Until you fall in love with someone else, it stays with you and that can go on 20, 30 years."
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