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Information about Love Sickness

Love sickness has historically been viewed as a mental illness brought on by the intense changes associated with falling in love. Ibn Sena, the 10th century physician considered to be "the father of modern medicine," viewed obsession as the principal symptom and cause of love sickness. This diagnosis has been out of favor since the collapse of the humoral model and advent of modern scientific psychiatry.

However the concept of being "madly" in love is not simply a poetic notion. For some, the ups and downs of love sickness may actually have diagnostic similarities with mental illness. People who find the feeling of love too intense may experience "love sickness," with feelings of anxiety and can have symptoms of mania, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), inflated self esteem and depression.

A study in The Psychologist, the official publication for the British Psychological Society, concluded that love sickness should be taken more seriously by professionals. According to the author of the study, Frank Tallis, "Many people are referred for help who cannot cope with the intensity of love, have been destabilised by falling in love, or suffer on account of their love being unrequited." [1]

Some of the symptom clusters shared with love sickness include:
  • mania – abnormally elevated mood, inflated self esteem, extravagant gift giving
  • depression – tearfulness, insomnia, loss of concentration
  • OCD – preoccupation, checking (e.g. text messages/emails, etc.), and hoarding valueless but superstitiously resonant items
  • psychologically created physical symptoms, such as upset stomach, change in appetite, insomnia, dizziness, and confusion.
More substantively, the estimated serotonin levels of people falling in love were observed to drop to levels found in patients with OCD (Marazitti et al., 1999). Further, in brain scan investigations, individuals who professed to be ‘truly, deeply and madly’ in love showed activity in several structures in common with in the neuroanatomy of OCD, for example the anterior cingulate cortex and caudate nucleus (Bartels & Zeki, 2000).

See also

References

  • Bartels, A. & Zeki, S. (2000). "The neural basis of romantic love." Neuroreport, 17, 3829–3834. PMID 11117499.
  • Marazziti, D., Akiskal, H.S., Rossi, A. & Cassano, G.B. (1999). "Alteration of the platelet serotonin transporter in romantic love." Psychological Medicine, 29, 741–745. PMID 10405096.

External links

MeSH D001523 Mental disorder or mental illness are terms used to refer a psychological or physiological pattern that occurs in an individual and is usually associated with distress or disability that is not expected as part of normal development or culture.
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Falling in Love is a 1984 romantic film starring Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep. It was written by Michael Cristofer and directed by Ulu Grosbard. Its plot is based on (or inspired by) the 1945 British film Brief Encounter.
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Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā
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"Obsess", "obsessed", and "obsessive" redirect here.


Obsession may refer to:

Psychology

  • Mental obsession

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Humorism, or humoralism, was a theory of the makeup and workings of the human body adopted by ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers. From Hippocrates onward, the humor theory was the most commonly-held view of the human body among European physicians until the
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Psychiatry is a branch of medicine which exists to study, prevent, and treat mental disorders in humans.[1][2][3] The art and science of the clinical application of psychiatry has been considered a bridge between the social world and those who are
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Anxiety is a physiological state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components (Seligman, Walker & Rosenhan, 2001). These components combine to create the feelings that we typically recognize as fear, apprehension, or worry.
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Bipolar disorder''. For the classical mythological figures named Mania, see Mania (mythology).
For other uses, see Manic (disambiguation).
Manic episode
Classification & external resources

ICD-10 F30
ICD-9 296.
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MeSH D009771 Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric anxiety disorder most commonly characterized by a subject's obsessive, distressing, intrusive thoughts and related compulsions (tasks or "rituals") which attempt to neutralize the obsessions.
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self-esteem reflects a person's overall self-appraisal of their own worth.

Self-esteems encompasses both beliefs (for example, "I am competent/incompetent") and emotions (for example: triumph/despair, pride/shame).
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Depression
Classification & external resources

ICD-10 F 32. , F 33.
ICD-9 296

OMIM 608516
DiseasesDB 3589
MedlinePlus 003213
eMedicine med/532  

Clinical depression (also called major-depressive disorder, or
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The British Psychological Society (BPS) is the representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. The BPS is a charity and, along with advantages, this also imposes certain constraints on what the society can and cannot do.
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Bipolar disorder''. For the classical mythological figures named Mania, see Mania (mythology).
For other uses, see Manic (disambiguation).
Manic episode
Classification & external resources

ICD-10 F30
ICD-9 296.
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MeSH D007319

Insomnia is a sleeping disorder characterized by the inability to fall asleep and/or the inability to remain asleep for a reasonable amount of time.
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Compulsive hoarding (or pathological hoarding) is extreme hoarding behaviour in humans. It involves the collection or failure to discard large numbers of objects even when their storage causes significant clutter and impairment to basic living activities such as moving
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Serotonin (pronounced IPA: /ˌsɛrəˈtoʊnən/) (5-hydroxytryptamine, or 5-HT) is a monoamine neurotransmitter synthesized in serotonergic neurons in the central nervous system (CNS) and
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Neuroanatomy is the branch of anatomy that studies the anatomical organization of the nervous system. In vertebrate animals, the routes that the myriad nerves take from the brain to the rest of the body (or "periphery"), and the internal structure of the brain in particular, are
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Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is the frontal part of the cingulate cortex, which resembles a "collar" form around the corpus callosum, the fibrous bundle that relays neural signals between the right and left cerebral hemispheres of the brain.
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The caudate nucleus is a nucleus located within the basal ganglia of the brains of many animal species. The caudate, originally thought to primarily be involved with control of voluntary movement, is now known to be an important part of the brain's learning and memory system.
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Love shyness is a phrase created by psychologist Brian G. Gilmartin to describe a specific type of severe chronic shyness. According to his definition, published in Shyness & Love: Causes, Consequences, and Treatments (1987), love-shy people
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misleading. Please see the discussion on the talk page.
Anxiety disorders
Classification & external resources

ICD-10 F40-F42
ICD-9 300

Anxiety disorder
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Love is an intense feeling of affection related to a sense of strong loyalty or profound oneness.[] The meaning of love varies relative to context.
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Limerence, as posited by psychologist Dorothy Tennov, is an attempt at a scientific study into the nature of romantic love. The meaning of the word, which was coined by Tennov in 1977, is an involuntary
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