Romance isn’t always rosy, sometimes it’s sickening – lovesickness, erotomania and death by heartbreak explained

By Dan Baumgardt, Senior Lecturer, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. All you need is love. It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

If cliches and pop songs are anything to go by, humans spend a substantial portion of waking and sleeping hours thinking and dreaming about the pursuit of love – in all its many forms.

But is love all pink hearts, roses and teddy bears – or is there a darker side? Can love, or the absence of love, generate a form of sickness? Can it even lead to lasting physical or mental illness? And is it possible to die of a broken heart?

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Romance isn’t always rosy, sometimes it’s sickening – lovesickness, erotomania and death by heartbreak explained

Pathological…Read complete article© The Conversation - Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Pathological…

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© The Conversation - Tuesday, February 13, 2024