Friday, April 20, 2012

Love and other addictions...


Do you suffer from Mr (or Ms) Big syndrome a la <i>Sex and the City's</I> Carrie Bradshaw?
I remember a time when Mr Big represented a ballad by a big haired bloke who wanted to be with an equally big-haired, double-denim clad lover.



Anthropologist and relationship scientist Helen Fisher who conducted a study last year, titled Reward, Addiction and Emotion Regulation Systems Associated With Rejection In Love, drew the hypothesis that romantic love is like an addiction.
"My guess is that our modern addictions - nicotine, drugs, sex, gambling - are simply hijacking this ancient brain pathway that evolved millions of years ago, that evolved for romantic love. The brain system evolved to focus your energy on an individual and start the mating process," she wrote in the Journal of Neurophysiology.
Along with her team of researchers at Rutgers University, Dr Fisher studied the brains of heartbroken participants and found that rejection by a great love ignites areas of grey matter in ways that are normally associated with addiction and craving.
"Nobody gets out of love alive," she added./.../


No comments:

Post a Comment