Is Love Addictive?

Drugs, sex, gambling, work – lots of substances and activities can hijack our brains through the process of addiction. Is love one of them?

Nicotine, cocaine, alcohol, heroin, work, gambling, sex, food. Life is basically a gauntlet of substances and behaviors humans can become obsessed with and dependent on.

But what about love? Not just sex, but the deep interpersonal attachment we call love – can it be addictive?

The notion of obsessive, all-consuming, even addictive love goes back literally thousands of years. The ancient Greek poet Sappho wrote about watching her lover marry someone else, and she describes being seized with trembling, drenched in cold sweat and feeling nearly dead.

She might as well be describing opium withdrawals – or an Alanis Morissette song.

Romantic love does have a lot of external features in common with drug addiction: initial feelings of bliss and euphoria, obsessive, fixated behavior, often leading to poor, potentially life-ruining decisions.

A 2010 paper from the New York Academy of Sciences points out that common criteria for diagnosing drug dependence include “life interference, tolerance, withdrawal, and repeated attempts to quit.” Sound anything like your relationship with your ex? If so, you’re not alone. But is there any more measurable basis for thinking love can be considered an addiction in the brain?

Actually, yes! Let’s talk brain imaging: So one way addiction hijacks the human brain is by taking advantage of mammalian reward and motivation systems -- like the mesolimbic dopamine system, which includes the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the nucleus accumbens.

This is a part of the nervous system that gives us internal “rewards,” when we do something with an evolutionary benefit, like eating or sex. Essentially, it’s how the brain tells itself: “Hey, what you just did? Do that again. And again. And again.” Whether it’s eating a nutritious meal, or, unfortunately, snorting cocaine.

Back in 2005, a study in the Journal of Neurophysiology used fMRI to look at the brains of test subjects who self-reported that they were intensely “in love” with someone else. When these lovebirds were shown pictures of the people they adored, there was activation in sections of that same mammalian reward and motivation system – for example, the right ventral tegmental area.

But it gets worse: A follow-up study in 2010 looked at what happened to the brains of men and women who had been _rejected_ but reported that they were still deeply in love.

It wasn’t pretty. When heartbroken lovers were forced to look at pictures of their exes, there was elevated activity in our old friends the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accumbens. Researchers pointed out that the rejected lovers showed “several neural correlates” in common with the brain activity of cocaine addicts craving their drug.

So at the level of brain chemistry, romantic love can be kind of like substance addiction.

But there are reasons you might not want to refer to your latest crush as a full-on addiction just yet. For example: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders doesn’t officially recognize love addiction. And while cravings for love can be devastating when they’re unrequited or self-destructive, they can also be deeply fulfilling in a way that no drug habit could ever be.

SOURCES:

[tonypadd]

i miss my ex, 7 weeks so far without .. worst time of my life, 10x the pain of when my mum died (no hate please) i feel the way i feel i didn't chose to feel this way 

[hernandanilobarragan]

Love is the most potencial drug! makes you addicted and makes seeing people that doesnt exist.

[カラスKarasu]

everything is addictive, isn't it?

[AyubuKK]

Love is definitely a *VERY* addictive drug.

[SirArtanis]

spent 8 years with a girl, she broke up with me when I gave her everything. she proceeded to try  and claim i did nothing fro her when I gave her the confidence she needed to go to college .and i gave her everything up until that point in her life. as far as i am concerned, true love is garbage. it doesn't exist, and if any one is intelligent, they would spend their time studying and getting smarter as apposed to "finding their true love".

[Borednesss]

Still in love with the woman I last had a relationship with, and that was over five years ago haha. Did see a girl several months ago, but after a couple weeks of realizing I didn't get that same feeling from her, I decided it was just a waste of time

[MaoRuiqi]

The elemental issue of this video is: Just exactly what does the term love mean?" It's a term we all think we know but in fact we all have a highly individualized way of defining it. More precisely, attachment is not love, nor should the love of a person be equated to a pizza. If anything, we need to develop a new set of words to describe the cornucopia of emotions currently labeled as "love." Indeed, a certain buzz kill is to ask your date if he or she loves you.   

[gowiththeflow]

as i reached 22 i found out everybody is betraying is this i do the same to others to get what i

[rollyordaniel]

Love is so fucking damn u cant control it....

[Qermaq]

I have a BrainStuff addiction. And maybe a Lauren addiction too.

[ThundrPig]

Excellent video folks! I really like this style over the green screen. Keep it up!

[garysnape]

love and drug give the same result you will want more of same. like a person takings you want same high each time and life is not like that.

[anandaceramicart]

I think true love is exactly not that feeling of being addicted. Love is the brightest power. If it fails there is addiction, wars and bad habits. True Love is the force that finds the right balance and is wise. You talk about falling in love.

[julzlebi]

I'm a love addict and I'm going through withdrawals and intense cravings. I have exams soon and i can't read no matter how badly i want to. Is there a drug or something i can use to curb the cravings? Because I've been patient for months and these cravings won't let up. I'm tired.

[TheCosmicRabbit]

eek'' thats a scary thought eh'' making someone love you using something Addictive..

[Rishabhsharmakohai]

If someone thinks drugs are more addictive then they never fell in love i guess

[prinks]

Yes it is extremely addictive for me..

[Skeptic]

Anybody else thought they were watching BuzzFeed when they saw the little love story going on?

[JeffManning]

interesting video, but it seems like there is a terrible echo in this one. 

[theunlovable]

I'm addicted to a woman named keaira I have withdrawals like everyday I'm so lonely 😢