In the brain, certain neurotransmitters - phenethylamine, dopamine, norepinephrine and oxytocin - elicit the feeling of high from “love” or “falling in love” using twelve different regions of the brain. Scientific study on the topic of lovesickness has found that those in love experience a kind of high similar to that caused by illicit drugs such as cocaine. In 1915, Sigmund Freud asked rhetorically, 'Isn't what we mean by 'falling in love' a kind of sickness and craziness, an illusion, a blindness to what the loved person is really like'.3 Long before Freud, in 360 B.C.E, Plato stated, “Love is a serious mental disease,” and Socrates added that “Love is a madness”.4 Love sickness isn’t just a form of expression for those head-over-heels, but has been studied as an actual illness. According to the Hippocratic Medicine view, passionate love will almost always fade or turn into 'love melancholy’ - this is a form of depression or sadness.1 Passionate love is the love in the 'honeymoon phase', the beginning of new love, but it burns itself out after a year or two, compassionate love is what occurs after passionate love fades, it is a stronger bond of companionship.2medical citation needed In both cases, lovesickness can be experienced if love is lost or unrequited. Literature and poetry have often described love as a kind of madness, and the medical profession takes a similar approach. Many people believe lovesickness was created as an explanation for longings, but it can be associated with depression and various mental health problems.
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