All of the phrases we use to describe emotional pain from a breakup actually might have a scientific basis. A great and informative website, healthbolt.net, provides a list of everything you might think is purely mental regarding emotions like love, but is really not.

For example, when you describe your relationship trauma as your heart being “broken”, this is not so far from the truth. “Brain imaging studies have shown that romantic rejection hurts like physical pain. Helen Fisher of Rutgers University proved that the same circuits of grey matter are triggered whether you have broken up or broken a leg.”

Or, if your friends try and coax you to go out and meet new people after a bad breakup, it might truly be physically good for you. “It might just help. According to Louanne Brizendine, author of The Female Brain, the only surefire way out of the ‘brain pain’ of relationship loss is to trigger a dopamine and oxytocin high – through sex.”

So, rebound hook-ups can now be considered a form of medication? Fabulous. Read More »

After spending a portion of my day listening to a friend detail a particularly painful break-up she’s currently going through, giving her the best advice I could while recognizing her little painful moments all too well, I started thinking about the process of breaking up itself. Not the actual nuts and bolts of the deed, those always vary, but the way we react afterward.

No matter who we are, our pain tends to mirror each other during these times. We make the same decisions, fall into the same bad habits, give ourselves the same pep talks, and feel the general shittiness so strongly that most of us, by our mid-twenties, have experienced some kind of life really can’t go on moment.

When a girlfriend goes through a break-up, we give advice, comfort her, but most of all, completely understand what she’s feeling. We completely understand, and never really want to go there again (although most of us will, according to the numbers. Damn you statistics! I knew I got a B- in your class for a reason!). Read More »