Symptoms
A 2005 article by Frank Tallis suggested that being utterly romantically lovestruck be taken more seriously by professionals.
Being lovestruck only occurs when a person has deeply fallen in love, not when a huge crush emerges. However it may develop into pure, real romantic love. 'For love-struck victims, the world appears altered. Replacing the flatness of ordinary experience is a fullness'.
According to Tallis, some of the symptom clusters shared with being lovestruck include:
- mania or hypomania – abnormally elevated mood, inflated self esteem, extravagant gift giving
- depression – tearfulness
- Insomnia - loss of concentration and difficulty sleeping
- anorexia - lack of appetite
- stress - high blood pressure, pain in chest and heart, acute insomnia; sometimes brought on by a "crush"
- obsessive-compulsive disorder – preoccupation 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. Brain scan investigations of individuals who professed to be "truly, madly, deeply" in love showed activity in several structures in common with in the neuroanatomy of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), for example the anterior cingulate cortex and caudate nucleus.
Read more about this topic: Lovestruck
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