WEBVTT - Can You Be Addicted to Love?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works. Hey, they

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<v Speaker 1>are brain stuff, luring, vogel bomb here, nicotine, chocolate, alcohol, opioids, work, gambling, sex, food,

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<v Speaker 1>You might as well face it. Life is basically a

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<v Speaker 1>gauntlet of substances and behaviors that humans can become obsessed

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<v Speaker 1>with and dependent on. But what about love? Not just sex,

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<v Speaker 1>but the deep interpersonal attachment we call love? Can it

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<v Speaker 1>be addictive? The notion of obsessive, all consuming, and even

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<v Speaker 1>addictive love goes back literally thousands of years. The ancient

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<v Speaker 1>Greek poets Sappho wrote about watching her lover marry someone else,

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<v Speaker 1>and she describes being seized with trembling, drenched in cold sweat,

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<v Speaker 1>and feeling nearly dead. She might as well be describing

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<v Speaker 1>opium withdrawals or singing a verse of addicted to love.

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<v Speaker 1>Romantic love does have a lot of external features in

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<v Speaker 1>common with drug addiction, initial feelings of bliss and euphoria,

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<v Speaker 1>and obsessive fixated behavior, often leading to poor, ventually life

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<v Speaker 1>ruining decisions. A paper from the New York Academy of

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<v Speaker 1>Sciences points out that common criteria for diagnosing drug dependence

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<v Speaker 1>include life interference, tolerance, withdrawal, and repeated attempts to quit

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<v Speaker 1>sound anything like your relationship with your X. If so,

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<v Speaker 1>you're certainly not alone, But is there any more measurable

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<v Speaker 1>basis for thinking love can be considered an addiction in

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<v Speaker 1>the brain. Actually, yes, let's talk brain imaging. One way

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<v Speaker 1>that addiction hijacks the human brain is by taking advantage

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<v Speaker 1>of mammalian reward and motivation systems like the mesolimbic dopamine system,

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<v Speaker 1>which includes the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accumbents.

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<v Speaker 1>And this is part of the nervous system that gives

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<v Speaker 1>us internal rewards when we do something with an evolutionary benefit,

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<v Speaker 1>like eating or having sex. Essentially, it's how the brain

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<v Speaker 1>tells itself, Hey, what you just did? Do that again

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<v Speaker 1>and again and again, whether it's eating a nutritious meal

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<v Speaker 1>or unfortunately, snorting cocaine. Back into thousand five, a study

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<v Speaker 1>in the Journal of Neurophysiology used f m R I

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<v Speaker 1>to look at the brains of test subjects who self

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<v Speaker 1>reported that they were intensely in love with someone else.

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<v Speaker 1>When these lovebirds were shown pictures of the people they adored,

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<v Speaker 1>there was activation in sections of that same mammalian reward

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<v Speaker 1>and motivation system, for example, the right ventral tech mental area.

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<v Speaker 1>But that's not all. A follow up study in two

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<v Speaker 1>looked at what happened to the brains of men and

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<v Speaker 1>women who had been rejected but reported that they were

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<v Speaker 1>still deeply in love. It wasn't pretty. When heartbroken lovers

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<v Speaker 1>were forced to look at pictures of their exes, there

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<v Speaker 1>was elevated activity in our old friends, the ventral tech

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<v Speaker 1>mental area, and the nucleus incumbents. Researchers pointed out that

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<v Speaker 1>the rejected lovers showed several neural correlates in common with

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<v Speaker 1>the brain activity of cocaine addicts craving their drug, So

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<v Speaker 1>at the level of brain chemistry, romantic love can be

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<v Speaker 1>kind of like substance addiction. But there are reasons why

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<v Speaker 1>you might not want to refer to your latest crush

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<v Speaker 1>as a full on addiction just yet. For example, the

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<v Speaker 1>Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not officially

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<v Speaker 1>recognize love addiction. And while cravings for love can be

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<v Speaker 1>devastating when they're unrequited or self destructive, they can also

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<v Speaker 1>be deeply fulfilling in a way that no drug habit

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<v Speaker 1>ever could be. Today's episode was written by Joe McCormick

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<v Speaker 1>and produced by Tristan McNeil. If you're listening to this

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<v Speaker 1>the day it comes out, Happy Valentine's Day. If you

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<v Speaker 1>don't celebrate, it's also National Ferris Wheel Day in the

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<v Speaker 1>United States. I hope you have an excellent day regardless,

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<v Speaker 1>and of course, for more on this and lots of

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<v Speaker 1>other brainy topics, visit our home planet, how stuff works

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<v Speaker 1>dot com.