A new study may explain why it can be hard to control your feelings after being dumped.
Might as well face it - you actually could be addicted to love.Researchers at Stony Brook University have discovered that similar parts of the brain are associated with both cocaine cravings and romantic rejection.
The study published in the July edition of the Journal of Neurophysiology sheds new light on why it can be hard to control your feelings and behaviors after being dumped - and why rejection sometimes leads to stalking, homicide, suicide and clinical depression.
"It shows that intense romantic love seems to function much like an addiction," Arthur Aron, professor of social and health psychology at Stony Brook University, said.
"Understanding the neural systems involved is extremely important both for advancing our basic knowledge of intense romantic love in general and of response to rejection in particular."
The researchers looked at the brain activity in 15 college-aged heterosexual men who had recently been ditched by their girlfriends.
They were all shown a picture of their former partner who they were still in love with and spent the majority of their waking hours thinking about.
The subjects were then asked to complete a math problem to distract them from their romantic thoughts, and subsequently looked at a picture of a neutral person they knew but did not have strong romantic feelings toward.
The results showed that some areas of the brain were stimulated much more when the men looked at the object of their unrequited love.
These areas were also triggered in cocaine addicts and are associated with physical pain and distress.
The good news is that as time passes, the level of brain activity decreased when the men looked at a photo of an old love
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