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SB Day -- Love as a mental illness
Feb. 13th, 2006 12:08 pmSo, while being snowed in and stuck with the drywall guy all weekend (note, my spare room is still not freaking finished), I thought of the most awesome SB topic. I even wrote about it. But now I can't find what I wrote, so I'm reconstructing it. If I find my notes, I'll expand or rework this post later :)
This month, National Geographic's lead article is entitled Love: the Chemical Reaction and it's all about the chemical reactions that cause us to feel love. Check out the interactive article here. Studies show that people in various stages of infatuation and long term love having varying amounts of serotonin, dopamine and other chemicals. A couple of studies actually indicate that the chemical levels found in the blood during infatuation approximate those found in the mentally ill. [Not kidding. I'll post links and quotes when I find the original version of this post again.] Beyond that, the brain chemistry that works for long term relationships is emphatically not the same as that which researchers observe among the newly in love or the newly infatuated.
Love as a mental illness? That would explain a lot of the things that people do in real life for love. Sacrifice on the grandest scale. Theft. Murder. And it now means that there is an excuse for all of those romance heroines who, while competent professionals before falling in love, suddenly become too stupid to live. It explains the vast numbers of heroines who love their jobs and lives, but feel compelled to give it all up to live on a ranch out in BFE. And it makes me glad that most romance novels end (usually) while the happy couple are still in the throes of infatuation, still suffering from the mental illness version of brain-biochemistry. Because how many of those couples will ultimately develop the brain chemistry that really leads to a long term HEA? Probably not so many.
Not really a thing to bitch about, but an interesting sidebar, I think: Another part of the article is a brief dispute of the idea that romance is a Western phenomenon. We all knew that, right? Because clearly not just Europeans and people/cultures springing from the Western philosophy are capable of feeling and expressing love, or of thinking that it is an important part of life, right? One line of the article, stating that love/romance is panhuman seemed incredibly elementary to me. I found myself scratching my head, metaforically speaking. While I know that marriages based on love are a recent phenomenon, and that often marriages are made for much more practical reasons, I see a bifurcation between the two. The mere fact that marriages have historically been for family security, maintenance of wealth, class, etc., does not mean (to me, anyway) that love was ever missing...it just wasn't necessarily shown/felt by those who were bound to each other legally.
EDITTED TO ADD: Here's the detail stuff that I wanted to include.
A study by Donatella Marazziti (Univ. of Pisa) reveals that lovers' serotonin levels approximate the serotonin levels of people suffering from OCD. "Translation: Love and obsessive-compulsive disorder could have a similar chemical profile. Translation: Love and mental illness may be difficult to tell apart. Translation: Don't be a fool. Stay away."
The chemical rush of love and its gradual fade are likened to cocaine addiction in the NG article. The brain adapts to the dopamine surge and becomes desensitized, needed more and more of the chemical to feel the same rush of love. "If the chemically altered state induced by romantic love is akin to mental illness or a drug-induced euphoria, exposing yourself for too long could result in psychological damage."
This month, National Geographic's lead article is entitled Love: the Chemical Reaction and it's all about the chemical reactions that cause us to feel love. Check out the interactive article here. Studies show that people in various stages of infatuation and long term love having varying amounts of serotonin, dopamine and other chemicals. A couple of studies actually indicate that the chemical levels found in the blood during infatuation approximate those found in the mentally ill. [Not kidding. I'll post links and quotes when I find the original version of this post again.] Beyond that, the brain chemistry that works for long term relationships is emphatically not the same as that which researchers observe among the newly in love or the newly infatuated.
Love as a mental illness? That would explain a lot of the things that people do in real life for love. Sacrifice on the grandest scale. Theft. Murder. And it now means that there is an excuse for all of those romance heroines who, while competent professionals before falling in love, suddenly become too stupid to live. It explains the vast numbers of heroines who love their jobs and lives, but feel compelled to give it all up to live on a ranch out in BFE. And it makes me glad that most romance novels end (usually) while the happy couple are still in the throes of infatuation, still suffering from the mental illness version of brain-biochemistry. Because how many of those couples will ultimately develop the brain chemistry that really leads to a long term HEA? Probably not so many.
Not really a thing to bitch about, but an interesting sidebar, I think: Another part of the article is a brief dispute of the idea that romance is a Western phenomenon. We all knew that, right? Because clearly not just Europeans and people/cultures springing from the Western philosophy are capable of feeling and expressing love, or of thinking that it is an important part of life, right? One line of the article, stating that love/romance is panhuman seemed incredibly elementary to me. I found myself scratching my head, metaforically speaking. While I know that marriages based on love are a recent phenomenon, and that often marriages are made for much more practical reasons, I see a bifurcation between the two. The mere fact that marriages have historically been for family security, maintenance of wealth, class, etc., does not mean (to me, anyway) that love was ever missing...it just wasn't necessarily shown/felt by those who were bound to each other legally.
EDITTED TO ADD: Here's the detail stuff that I wanted to include.
A study by Donatella Marazziti (Univ. of Pisa) reveals that lovers' serotonin levels approximate the serotonin levels of people suffering from OCD. "Translation: Love and obsessive-compulsive disorder could have a similar chemical profile. Translation: Love and mental illness may be difficult to tell apart. Translation: Don't be a fool. Stay away."
The chemical rush of love and its gradual fade are likened to cocaine addiction in the NG article. The brain adapts to the dopamine surge and becomes desensitized, needed more and more of the chemical to feel the same rush of love. "If the chemically altered state induced by romantic love is akin to mental illness or a drug-induced euphoria, exposing yourself for too long could result in psychological damage."
